vituperation

Just so you know, Burn in Hell Osama hot sauce is some hot stuff. Real hot stuff.

My poor ass.

Interestingly, there appear to be no Scientology or Dianetics groups in Alabama.

We do, however, have one of these.

Heh.

So there’s a big brouhaha going on, if you’re unaware, about the video featuring Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, made by some fuckheads in Pakistan who are currently on trial for his execution. Two weeks ago, CBS aired about 30 seconds of the video, against the wishes of Pearl’s family, and caught hell for it. Dan Rather quickly issued a statement defending CBS’s position, and pointing out that CBS didn’t air any of the more graphic portions of the video out of respect for Pearl’s family [statement is here].

Meanwhile, the unedited version of the tape showed up on an Arabic web site, a pro-Palestinian propaganda site designed to aid in the recruit of new fighters. A mad scurrying began by the web sites of the darker side of the net to get a copy of this video, and as best I can tell, Ogrish (click link at your own risk) was the first to get it, and post it. Other sites soon followed.

Enter the FBI.

Apparently referring to the video as “obscene”, the FBI contacted the hoster of Ogrish, ProHosters, and insisted the video be removed from the site. ProHosters stood their ground, refusing to arbitrarily remove content from a customer’s site and refusing to give the FBI any information about the site’s webmaster without a subpoena. ProHosters then contacted Ogrish’s webmaster, and explained the situation. The webmaster decided to remove the video on May 23 rather than face prosecution.

The ACLU, a group with which I normally find myself at extreme odds, entered the fracas in Ogrish’s defense, citing the first amendment to the U.S. Constitution, and just today, Ogrish put the video back online.

As distasteful as this may sound, I’m glad the video’s up in an unedited format. I’ll even go a step further: I think CBS should’ve shown the video in its entirety, and I wouldn’t be opposed to having every news channel show the video at least once.

Why?

Because we forget.

We wear our t-shirts with pictures of the World Trade Centers on them, we have our “God Bless America” signs in our yards, and our flags on our houses, but we forget. We beat our chests and we make bumper stickers that say “never forget”, but we forget.

Do we forget what happened on September 11?

No.

We forget what - and who - we’re fighting, and that’s why we all need to watch the Daniel Pearl video in its unedited format. The media and several in Congress are already proclaiming the “War on Terror” is a failure, and civil liberties groups (read: ACLU) are whining about the treatment of captured fighters kept in Cuba. We hear almost daily about suicide bombers killing people in Israel, but out of good taste, we’re not shown the grisly tableaus these bombings create.

The Pearl video is a gruesome reminder of the reality of the fanatics who hate America. I’m not here to discuss why they hate us, because the reasons are myriad, though I suspect a good bit of that hatred comes from the official U.S. position on Israel/Palestine relations, coupled with those perennial favorites, money and religion. Regardless of the reasons, they hate us, and they want to kill us. Period.

Is the video shocking? Sure it is, if you’ve never seen something like it. But it’s a necessary shock, because it shows what a certain set of people are willing to do to achieve their goals. We call them “extremists” for a reason, you know.

These are people who had to cut Daniel Pearl’s throat twice, because the camera malfunctioned the first time. People who have no compunction about strapping on a few sticks of dynamite and climbing onto a bus full of citizens to detonate it. Who hijack jets full of people - everyday people, like you and like me - and fly them unblinkingly into buildings.

So yes, the video might be offensive, and it might be gruesome, but it’s something every person interested in eradicating (if that’s even possible) terrorism needs to watch. Watch it, and never forget.

Feel free to share your thoughts in the forums.