Nora Ephron has written a snarky piece for the Huff Post, which purports to reveal the dishonest nature of FBI terror investigations like the latest one at JFK and, presumably, Fort Dix a few weeks back. A hundred and fifty or more commenters applaud her post like the congregation at a gospel meeting.
I found the whole thing depressing. Actually I could barely read it. Why - after Bali, Madrid, London, Amsterdam, New York (twice), Casablanca, Istanbul, on and on - is someone so intelligent as Nora writing this trendy tripe? What does she expect law enforcement to do? Not to investigate these things? Nora implies it’s all entrapment… but is it? How does she know? Indeed, she doesn’t and couldn’t. She just assumes it to be so because it is a comfortable world view for her.
People like Nora in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 were supporting such actions themselves, but soon grew weary. It put too much strain on their self-images, so it became easier to make snotty comments about the FBI, as if J. Edgar Hoover was still in charge and the Palmer Raids never ended - only he’s dead and they have. Long ago. Times have changed. And how.
It is, however, an (endless) election season and the subtext of all this self-indulgent nonsense is that another Republican cannot be elected, even if it is not Bush. Rational thinking does not apply. We live in a strange world of signs and symbols, not that different in a way from that tribal society we are having so many problems with in Iraq. People are still stuck in their tribes - whether they are Harif or Howetat, Sunni, Shiite, or Zabarians. Zabarians, it seems, never trust the FBI. It’s just not done.
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34 Comments
1. Terrye:Roger:
It is magical thinking. I laugh at it and it all goes away. The bad terrorist can not hurt me if I just pretend he does not exist.
However….if there was a successful attack and a number of people were killed, these people would be the first people making demands and running their mouths.
Jun 5, 2007 - 2:33 am 2. Wellspring:I had a friend who was still in college when 9/11 happened — and her reaction comes back to me as I read your post.
Roger, I very much doubt that *everyone* supported these measures by the FBI, et al, post 9/11. There’s a whole group of people who found their worldview– especially as regards multiculturalism and third world politics, profoundly challenged by what happened.
Somehow, in our emails the subject of the morning’s terrorist attack came up. When I mentioned that the attack was probably Islamic fundamentalists, she reacted angrily, said that I was a racist, that I had no right to assume anything. She never spoke to me again– especially once the truth came out. For what it’s worth, she was a middle eastern studies major.
There’s a whole class of people out there for whom 9/11 was an aberration best forgotten as quickly is as decent. They didn’t know much about terrorism before 9/11– they ignored the attacks on us, perhaps, but mostly I think they saw it as an expression of class conflict that needed to be attacked at its root cause, income disparity.
These were the people who reserved judgement about who was responsible, even after it became obvious. They really wanted 9/11 to have been a right-wing terrorist like Timothy McVeigh. But as that didn’t work out, they sat in stunned silence for a while before gradually beginning to speak out again. And sure enough, what were they saying? The same old stuff, of course.
9/11 to them is a black hole in time. It’s a terrible tragedy seen as a natural catastrophe. The sooner we forget, or confine ourselves to mourning the dead and turning the other cheek, the better.
So I’m not shocked at the post you linked. There are millions of people out there who didn’t want to change, didn’t see the need for change, after 9/11. They wanted 9/11 to have been a domestic attack– that wouldn’t have challenged their world view– but in lieu of that they’ll settle for assuming that 9/11 was just an anomaly that couldn’t happen again. And if it does, they’ve already created the explanation, “Why, it’s Bush’s terrible policies! It’s all HIS fault.”
It’s not insane — Michael Totten’s “Builders vs Defenders” article made me much more ecumenical about the left. It’s *wrong*, but not insane.
Jun 5, 2007 - 5:19 am 3. jedrury:The Offices of the United States Attorney in NY and NJ are staffed by dedicated men and women - neither Reblican or Democrat - who thoroughly scrutinize these terrorist cases once the FBI brings them. They don’t bring junk cases. There are DOJ guidelines to be followed and the investigation is complete and well grounded in fact and law.
I am far more confident and assured in the prosecutorial judgement and discretion of the head US Attorney in NY and NJ on terrorist cases than in some Hollywood scriptwriter whose last sensible act was to divorce Car Bernstein.
Jun 5, 2007 - 6:23 am 4. Lem:1. In order to foil a movie plot, you must first find a movie plot. This is not easy.
2. Not just anyone can find and then foil a movie plot. You must have producers who trust you. The best producers will be motivated by a good plot you had once. Under such circumstances, your bruised ego (not getting good tables) will talk you into regaining former glory by informing potential bakers you got a plot (or an idea) if they could only get the same academy award winners for a remake. Otherwise it’s guest blogging.
3. The fact that you do not know if you have a plot (there is only an idea) should not in any way deter you. Necessity is the mother of invention: if you can find the right raw material — from say former friends and husbands — you can foil your very own movie plot.
Nora… you don’t have mail.
Jun 5, 2007 - 6:43 am 5. MikeD:Nora Ephron lives in NYC, writes screen plays and posts political commentary at the Huffington Post; a garbage pit for the liberal left. She is a pseudo celebrity like that great climate scientist Laurie David–money, some notoriety or recognition, no particular expertise or credentials but an opinion on everything and the self-righteous imperative to express that opinion.
The blogosphere offers the world an opportunity to express itself; a vehicle for free speech. That’s great when the offeror has something worthwhile to say. Too many of the self-important, like Nora Ephron and others among the glitterati, confuse the opportunity with justification and the erroneous impression that others have an interest in their shallow thoughts. After awhile you would think that they would learn. They never do.
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:00 am 6. Paul A'Barge:Nora Ephron used to write screen plays. Now she writes irrelevant crap for the HuffPo. I’d say that pretty much defines a downhill slide into irrelevancy.
Wait for the time that the FBI does not infiltrate one of these terrorist cells and does not stop the terror event in advance. You know this is coming, right? Then, these very same snarkers are going to wet their old-lady panties flaming the FBI for failure.
My point? You can’t win with these folks.
These are the kinds of people who would sacrifice your wives and children to win a political argument. They were put here as a lesson to the rest of us about how not to live life.
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:14 am 7. Stace:I saw this post, and had the same reaction you did, Roger. What makes this whole situation even worse is that Ephron is usually one of the most rational and least hateful of the HuffPo columnists (admittedly a very low standard to meet), and yet she’s still crazy enough to post something like this. There really is no hope for these people.
BTW, if you think Ephron is bad, you should catch some of novelist Jane Smiley’s HuffPo columns. She’s a pacifist and a nasty bigot who flirts with BDS conspiracy theories. She is waaay out there.
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:37 am 8. Jeffersonian:Well done, Nora, you go girl! Speak truth to power! Dissent is, as my namesake didn’t say, the highest form of patriotism! Down with Chimperialism and the predations of the fascisti in the FBI who pant at the idea of stripping our rights!
Oh, and did you hear about that other “plot” the FBI was on? They claim that they found 19 Muslims (brown people all, of course) with flight manuals who they laighably claim were planning on commandeering four US airliners with - get this! - box cutters and plowing them into skyscrapers, the Pentagon and the Capitol building. I mean, can you believe the gall, the ridiculousness of these people?
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:42 am 9. Doug Santo:It does seem that many on the left and a few on the right have drifted in their support for the current struggle not out of conviction or hard reasoning, but out of personal surrender. By that I mean it is simply easier to go along with the MSM talking head trends than to buck them. By being against the war, they feel the war is not their responsibility and they can divorce themselves from any further support. This is the comfortable course of action. Through personal surrender, those who turned against the struggle find strong company on nightly television and explanations about why their choice of surrender was the right one. It reminds of the case of Patty Hearst. I think a similar dynamic is in play.
I believe the struggle in Iraq is critical to the future in the middle east. The outcome of the struggle has direct implications for the US in the mid and long term.
We cannot be defeated in the field. The enemy is simply not capable of overcoming our superiorty in every aspect of the war. Our vulnerability is at home. The 24-hour media, largey against the US position, brings war to the American public. Many citizens are not able to cope with the images and reality of war. The only way for the US to lose is for the American public to decide to accept defeat. This unthinkable, to me, outcome seems to be approaching.
The funny thing is, the reason many are willing to accept US defeat in war, is so that they can be comfortable with their emotions while they watch TV at night.
Doug Santo
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:51 am 10. gk:Pasadena, CA
I can see in Nora’s writing she is like many who witnessed the tramua of 9-11 and simply want to look away rather than face the fact we are at war with an implacable enemy that seeks to destroy her and her city. Much better to think it is some ridiculous send up by overzealous FBI/Keystone cops than think about 100’s of houses full of people going up in flames.
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:57 am 11. PersonFromPorlock:Let me play Devil’s advocate here: given famous FBI episodes like Richard Jewell and Steven Hatfill, why should we assume that an FBI-inspired indictment means anything? It may, but by now don’t we have cause to wait for the trial to prove what that ‘anything’ is? The notion that Prosecutors wouldn’t lend themselves to a bad case is laughable after Nifong.
These guys probably did do something, maybe even what they’re accused of. But let’s keep in mind government’s history of exploiting events for the sake of good press before we buy the official version completely.
Jun 5, 2007 - 8:01 am 12. max:1. “it is simply easier to go along with the MSM talking head trends”
The msm is today’s equivalent of the sermon in the church on Sunday for many people, and since it preaches to millions of people 24 hours a day, 7 days a week its influence is far greater than any one minister’s ever was.
2. This post reminds me of my chattering class cousins in NYC first crusading about the NYC police department’s brutality and then when a ‘wilding’ occred in Central Park lambasting the police for not doing enough.
When I told them that I thought every policeman in NYC should quit since it appeared that they (the police) were ‘damned if they do, damned if they don’t', my cousins quickly changed the suject.
Which reminds the of the 1st rule of being a leftist - Never Admit Error.
Jun 5, 2007 - 8:26 am 13. LarryD:Read Dr Sanity’s piece on denial, and her articles on dealing with denial.
The Conspiracy Theories are part of it, as is BDS.
Jun 5, 2007 - 8:29 am 14. TedM:Remember when Herb Philbrick was lionized?
Jun 5, 2007 - 8:33 am 15. Snippet:I wonder how he would be treated today?
As a non-practicing, non-psychologist, with not training whatsoever, I’d like to analyze the motivation here:
1) IF Bush is the problem, and is just making this stuff up, then our long nightmare will be over in about 583 days.
2) If Bush is not the problem (or is only an incompetent fire-fighter, or - God Forbid - is actually doing as well as circumstances allow), well, then, we’ve got a huge serious, global, ugly fight on our hands that isn’t going to end any time soon, and which will force citizens to make very difficult choices.
Personally, I think “1)” is a more comfortable belief, and I think extremely intelligent people, as Ms. Ephron is, are as likely to use their intelligence to construct elaborate rationalizations for the comforting ideas they would like to be true as they are to do anything constructive with it.
The whole scene over there is actually quite pathetic - “Yeah, that’s it! The FBI is just LYING to us! The only real risk is that will get sent to Quantanamo by the Bushies! Thanks for throwing us that bone Nora! You’re the best!”
Jun 5, 2007 - 10:11 am 16. Roger:PersonfromPorlock, your criticism would be valid if I were arguing from FBI infallibility or anything close. Indeed, I am not - unless I am in an opium haze greater than Coleridge’s. Nice reference though.
Jun 5, 2007 - 12:29 pm 17. Cinabar:No sense commenting on Nora Ephron and her ilk. Only when their kids are incinerated by IslamoFascist terrorists will these people wise up, but then it will be too late.
On another topic, I enjoyed the reference to the Lawrence of Arabia screenplay, the movie of which is my all time favorite.
Robert Bold was one of the greatest screen writers and it was ironic that his screen play lost the Oscar to
Jun 5, 2007 - 12:30 pm 18. Cinabar:Ops. Typos. Robert Bolt…..not Bold.
Jun 5, 2007 - 1:25 pm 19. gabriel sutherland:I think you could probably attribute Nora’s opinion to a misunderstanding of the way the FBI manages an investigation on US soil. I didn’t really know much about FBI investigations, but after reading a number of books about counter-terrorism pre-9/11 I have to conclude that I would share the same opinion as Nora.
Start from the beginning. Does Nora understand the nature of FBI informants? Does Nora understand the nature of information an informant brings to the FBI and how the FBI parses that information?
You can find a dozen opinions such as Nora’s that look to paint a specific picture that terrorism is just not that big a deal as the US government is implying. They view these stories as token media drops. What they overlook is that this story was broken by the NY Daily News.
The NY-DN has maintained a close connection with the Joint Terrorism Task Force since it’s creation after the ‘93 WTC plot. It’s broken many stories of investigations conducted by the JTTF. Ergo, if the US government was looking for a media drop site to break this story, and to make the largest impact, it would have been tipped to the NY Times or the Washington Post. It wasn’t.
Furthermore, JTTF investigations are not just trying to stop terror acts in the United States. They are trying to uncover the networks that operate in the United States on behalf of foreign governments or external, assymetric threats like Al Qaida. Throughout an investigation they are introduced to new potential suspects to keep an eye on. This is exactly the way the FBI learned about UBLs plan to kill Abdallah Azzam(UBL’s Afghan mentor) and concentrate the financial resources of US Mosques to transition the Afghan Mujahideen into Al Qaida. Azzam didn’t agree with the concept. UBL dispatched the Blind Sheikh to implement the plan in the US. The FBI stumbled upon the blind sheikh almost by accident. But it was a key FBI informant that led them to start monitoring the Blind Sheikh and eventually thwarting the Day of Rage plot to destroy the Holland Tunnel.
Nora needs a conversation. Email her. Many people need to be made aware of how the FBI conducts investigations. Give them a chance to listen to reason.
Jun 5, 2007 - 1:42 pm 20. Bostonian:“Nora needs a conversation. ”
You apparently mean well, but people like her have demonstrated a complete lack of ability to listen. I’ve been banging my head against the wall with people like her since the first day of the war in Iraq.
Nothing, but nothing, will budge their world view.
Jun 5, 2007 - 2:32 pm 21. Dick Stanley:Nora’s just too smart, and way too progressive, for the boorish rest of us.
Jun 5, 2007 - 3:07 pm 22. Mike K:“The FBI stumbled upon the blind sheikh almost by accident. But it was a key FBI informant that led them to start monitoring the Blind Sheikh and eventually thwarting the Day of Rage plot to destroy the Holland Tunnel.”
There is a pretty good book about the “stumble”, which involved some NYPD people who were following up on the Mier Kahane assassination. It’s called The Cell. Anyway, the detectives who went to the assassin’s apartment discovered a treasure trove of documents about radical Islam. They were ignored but the roots of the first WTC bombing go back to that event and were ignored. Unfortunately, the FBI still is hampered by a poor IT system and bureaucratic rules. My daughter is an FBI agent so I hear the stories.
If you read about the 1930s, such as William Manchester’s “Alone,” volume two of his biography of Churchill, you will be reminded that the elites were sympathetic to Hitler and many did not want to disturb him or even to know what was going on. This is nothing new. Fortunately, we do have people who are awake but they have to struggle to get past the apathy and sneering ignorance.
Jun 5, 2007 - 3:14 pm 23. stu:Cinebar
Two of my all time favorites “A Man for All Seasons” and “Dr. Shivago”. Some of our “statesmen” might profit by seeing for former in order that we might avoid the anguish of the latter.
Jun 5, 2007 - 4:05 pm 24. woof2222:–Ergo, if the US government was looking for a media drop site to break this story, and to make the largest impact, it would have been tipped to the NY Times or the Washington Post. It wasn’t.
Have to disagree with your logic. The New York Times has repeatedly ignored stories about terrorism and terrorism investigation. It doesn’t fit their Bush hitler meme. This is true of a lot of media, many of whom probably consider Nora Ephrom a fantasy hero.
I lost it when the pope talked about reason and one of my friends said the real danger was Christians. We made a terrible mistake emptying out the mental hospitals in the ’70s.
Jun 5, 2007 - 4:25 pm 25. gabriel sutherland:Mike K: “The Cell” is just the kind of book that one should read to gain some insight into FBI counter-terror operations pre-9/11. “Two Seconds Under the World”, “1000 Years of Revenge”, and “Cover Up”, the latter two written by Peter Lance, are some other good suggestions.
There is a treasure trove of books that can bring one up to speed with the FBI modus operandi relative to organize crime.
I found a lot of the good writing about the deceased former FBI Agent John O’neill to also provide valuable insight. I do need to check out Louis Freeh’s book as well.
Jun 5, 2007 - 4:25 pm 26. ex-democrat:ephron is just another tiresome sheep in wolves’ clothing.
Jun 5, 2007 - 5:24 pm 27. dorkafork:They support fighting terrorism with intelligence work and law enforcement, unless of course law enforcement ends up fighting terrorism. Then it’s snark city.
Jun 5, 2007 - 7:54 pm 28. Mike K:FBI agents loved Louis Freeh and they all passed his book around to read. He is a hero to them. The story of Khobar Towers is all you need to know about the Clinton attitude on terrorism. He told Freeh that he would ask the Saudis to let FBI agents interview the bombers. Then he did nothing. Freeh finally asked George Bush I to ask and he did and FBI agents were allowed to interview them. Clinton had lied to Freeh and that was the end of their relationship.
Jun 5, 2007 - 9:35 pm 29. gabriel sutherland:Mike K: President Clinton didn’t make that request because he already knew the path led to Tehran. The Saudis also knew this. Neither the Saudis nor President Clinton wanted the FBI to investigate the Khobar Towers bombing to its nexus. They did not want to have to confront Tehran with the evidence.
Jun 6, 2007 - 7:01 am 30. Always right:Yes, but CAN we live with another Clinton redux or Clinton-wannabe admin in the near future? How many “events” are we going to read about years after (and hopefully nothing bad happens in-between)?
Jun 6, 2007 - 9:36 am 31. Occam's Beard:Nora’s just too smart, and way too progressive, for the boorish rest of us.
Absolutely.
Hollywood high school graduates - is there anything they don’t know?
Jun 6, 2007 - 11:25 am 32. Mike K:“Neither the Saudis nor President Clinton wanted the FBI to investigate the Khobar Towers bombing to its nexus. They did not want to have to confront Tehran with the evidence.”
So why did they give agents access after Bush asked them ? Nice try. Aren’t you tired of defending that old douchbag ?
Jun 6, 2007 - 2:07 pm 33. scaramouoche:I understand exactly where Nora is coming from. Back in the day (the day before 9/11, that is) I still viewed events through the Leftist lens. And what I saw was this: once the Nazis had been safely dispatched, the other great totalitarian threat–Communism–had been waaay overblown, resulting in such horrors as that sweaty demagogue Joe McCarthy and Hollywood witch hunts. It was only once I got a clue and began seeing things through a different lens that I could appreciate that A) the Communists did indeed pose a monumental threat and B) I was living in a fool’s paradise which consisted in equal parts of wishful thinking and self-contempt.
Nora is merely a somewhat more erudite Rosie O’Dious, a good liberal who thinks it’s mean (Islamophobic) to speak ill of any aspect of Islam since only a miniscule fringe of Muslims have any interest in blowing up to Kingdom Come, and, in any case, they’re reacting to all the bad stuff we’ve done to them though our “imperialism” and “invasions” and abridging the human rights of those poor “nebachs” in Gitmo.
So Nora is hardly a cipher to me because, not long ago but in a completely different life and time, I was Nora.
Jun 6, 2007 - 2:57 pm 34. rverdi:Having lived next to JFK airport as teenager, and being a soldier who has trained often at Fort Dix I have more then a passing intrest in these events. There are people whose worldview is so horrendous and hate filled that the idea that there are people or groups that are more of threat then Bush is too tough for them to handle. But that is okay, we live in a nation of 300 million and millions of people have the right to express their crackpot views. Freedom of expression is a powerfull force. Stupidity hate and lies wilt in time. Just believe in the american system and have paitence. Ephron’s post exposes a very real misunderstanding of the world. But don’t get depressed, we are american!
Jun 6, 2007 - 4:45 pm