Arrest in London Bombing, Goodbye Cassini
Saturday, September 16, 2017
Vol. 6, No. 246
London Terror: British police say they made a “significant” arrest in the hunt for terrorists responsible for the failed bombing yesterday aboard a London Underground train. An 18-year-old man was detained in the port of Dover on the English Channel.
At least 29 people were burned by the flash when the detonator went off on a bucket bomb, failing to set off the main device. No one was killed.
The Islamic State claimed that a “detachment” of its disciples had carried out the attack.
London mayor Sadiq Khan said on Facebook, “As London has proven again and again, we will never be intimidated or defeated by terrorism.”
President Trump promptly annoyed people on both sides of the Atlantic with tweeted comments. He insulted the British police with, “These are sick and demented people who were in the sights of Scotland Yard. Must be proactive!”
And for those both at home and abroad he said, “The travel ban into the United States should be far larger, tougher and more specific-but stupidly, that would not be politically correct!”
Nation: Protests broke out almost immediately after a white former St. Louis police officer was acquitted of murder yesterday in the 2011 killing of a black motorist at end of a car chase. The then Off. Jason Stockley was heard saying, I’m “going to kill this motherfucker, don’t you know it,” then pumped five shots into Anthony Smith. A gun found in Smith’s car had only Stockley’s DNA on it, but a judge acquitted Stockley.
Poor Fellowship: Harvard’s Kennedy School withdrew its fellowship for Chelsea Manning, the transgender former soldier who leaked diplomatic secrets to WikiLeaks, after protests by two other speakers. CIA Director Mike Pompeo, who called Manning a “traitor,” cancelled a scheduled speech and former acting CIA director Michael Morell resigned his fellowship.
Harvard said it made a mistake offering Manning the fellowship to speak.
Trevor Timm, director of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, writes in the NY Times that the mistake is in cancelling Manning, whose leaks revealed valuable information about the nature of US foreign policy. He says, “They include the fact that the United States had killed far more people in Iraq than the government had admitted publicly, that United States soldiers turned a blind eye to torture by Iraqi soldiers and that the United States covered up the killing of civilians by American soldiers.”
Timm argues that, “Excessive government secrecy, the worship of ‘national security’ above all else and the CIA’s disrupting presence overseas are exactly the sorts of issues that the Kennedy School should be questioning and challenging.”
Deep Space: NASA’s Cassini spacecraft, which was launched long before the launch of the iPhone, ended its 20-year space odyssey yesterday, crashing into Saturn and burning to vapor.
Cassini sent back troves of information in its exploration of Saturn, but its most notable discovery was an ocean under the icy surface that may be heated by hydrothermal vents similar to those at the bottom of oceans on Earth.
Scientists spent whole careers with Cassini, which orbited Saturn for 13 years. Just before 5am, Earl Maize, the program manager, announced nearly in tears, “I am going to call this the end of mission.”
The Sports Page: The Cleveland Indians’ winning streak ended at 22 games last night with a 4-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals. Cleveland was held scoreless for six innings of the game.
The Obit Page: The gaunt-faced Harry Dean Stanton, who became a star among character actors in movies from “Pretty in Pink” in 1986, to “The Last Temptation of Christ” in 1988, and “The Green Mile” in 1999 has died at age 91. He sang a stirring version of the hymn “Just a Closer Walk With Thee” as a member of a chain gang in the classic 1967 “Cool Hand Luke.”
Stanton’s last big role was as Roman Grant, a self-proclaimed Mormon prophet with 14 wives, on HBO’s “Big Love.”
Surrender: Market studies show that the late-developing demographic group known as Millennials is finally giving up the city, buying houses in the suburbs, and driving SUVs. Now if the guys would just get rid of those hipster hats.
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