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Cleaning Up the Nation
Austin Bay:
If Air America were a conservative radio network its corrupt funding trail and cynical abuse of a poverty program would be front page news at the NY Times and full-time mega-scandal at
Rank Materialism
Freedom. I am now the proud new owner of a Gateway 6020GZ laptop, perfect for students and others with limited means. I can now go into a Starbucks or a Barnes & Noble and look like I'm doing some
Fallujah Fonda
Uh-oh. From the Telegraph comes this exciting news:
Jane Fonda is returning to anti-war activism and embarking on a cross-country tour to call for an end to US military operations in Iraq.
Acros
John Pilger: Partner in Terrorism
In an outrageous piece of terrorist propaganda appearing on the cover of today's New Statesman, John Pilger puts the blame for the 7/7 London attacks not on the terrorists, but rather on Tony Blair:
More Terrorism in Turkey?
I think there's a good chance that today's train 'accident' in Turkey was an act of terrorism. Recalling this story from April:
A SPANISH high-speed train packed with Easter holidaymakers was halted yesterday as it sped towards a huge bomb on the tracks thought to have been planted by Islamic terrorists.
Investigators said that if the 12kg (26lb) device had exploded it would have derailed the train, killing many more than the 191 who died in last month’s attack on four commuter trains in Madrid. Ángel Acebes, the Spanish Interior Minister, said that the bomb was similar to those used on March 11. Security forces believe that the same group of al-Qaeda sympathisers was responsible.
So we know someone, probably Al-Qaeda, has been interested in attacking high-speed trains. It would be so very easy- all that unobserved track. And we know that Turkey has been a target before. Or course, trains do derail accidentally, so we'll have to see what the investigation turns up. This train was on its 'maiden voyage', so an accident certainly cannot be ruled out.
Here's what CNN has on today's incident:
ANKARA, Turkey (CNN) -- At least 128 people have been killed and 57 injured after a high-speed train derailed in northwestern Turkey, according to a Turkish health ministry official.
The train -- traveling on its maiden voyage from Istanbul to Ankara -- derailed Thursday with 243 people on board.
One witness told the private NTV television station that body parts were strewn over the ground.
Oguz Dizer, a journalist who was traveling in the area, said he saw several bodies lying near the tracks.
"The scene is one of carnage," Dizer was quoted as saying. "There are people lying all over the place."
Ali Kemal Ergulec, vice president of Turkish railroad services, said Train 1106 was en route from Istanbul to Ankara when four cars derailed bar near Pamukova, a small town near the epicenter of a 1999 earthquake.
As vulnerable as aircraft are, they seem much safer to me than trains. Running on the surface as trains do, anyone can access their tracks. It would be impossible to completely secure the thousands of miles of track that exist in Europe, for instance. How would rail lines be secured in the American west?
Update: The number of deaths has been revised to 36, down from a high of 139, as reported by Reuters only a couple of hours earlier. That's odd. Arguing against terrorism is this:
Experts had warned the government against the project, saying that the tracks needed overhauling before high-speed trains could run on them.
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© 2002-2006
Brian O'Connell.





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