100 years of investigations

July 26th 2008 - Despite what some of you might think, the US Federal Bureau of Investigations actually exists. It was not created in Holloywood and subsequently featured in about 9 million movies. Exactly 100 years ago today, President Theodore Roosevelt ordered the creation of the FBI as a gouvernmental organism in charge of National security. That mission has changed drastically during everyone of the past decade yet a constant remains that coloured people are suspicious (seriously, check 24).

Directly from my upcoming book (hint, hint publishers), here is my list of the 7 most noteworthy events in the FBIs tumultuous history.

1. Bordellos in Chicago (1908-1910) – The first responsibility of the Bureau at the turn of the century was to investigate the trafficking of European females in Urban America. Centering in Chicago and Boston, the FBI discovered and surveyed these illegal prostitution/slavery rings led by organised crime. This led to the passing of the “White Slave Traffic Act” of 1910, banning prostitution.

2. The hunt for Al Capone (1931) – The Italian-American “entrepreneur” famously imported and provided bootleg alcohol for Chicago citizens during the 1920s prohibition. Despite his illegal activities including extortion, racketeering and the organised murder of other gang members, the FBI were never able to gather sufficient proof of his wrongdoings. Stubbornly hell-bent on imprisoning him, the “untouchable” and incorruptible FBI agents of Elliott Ness gathered an elusive paper trail, leading to the arrest and conviction of Capone on charges of tax evasion in 1931.

3. The Lindbergh baby (1932) – Charles Lindbergh was the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean from New York to Paris in 1927. The universal attention this brought him led to the kidnapping of Charles Lindbergh Jr. from his crib in 1932; a ransom note was left. President Hoover immediately pledged the help of the FBI who met little luck in their original search. It is only through a cunning plan of paying the kidnapper with marked bills that they tracked down a man called Bruno Hauptmann 2 years later. His trial was covered by worldwide media and rapidly ended with his execution. To this day, suspicions persist as to the validity of Hauptmann’s involvement as he denied it to his death; yet the FBI maintains that they had extensive evidence (such as the ransom money under his bed).4. McCarthyism (1950s) – Pioneered by senator Joseph McCarthy and greatly supported by FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. This movement fostered an era of American paranoia and rampant anti-communism. All those suspected of soviet affiliations or communist tendencies were hastily rounded up and aggressively interrogated by the FBI. Needless to say, few of those investigated were spies yet their personal and professional lives were destroyed. It was a dark period for the FBI as the Freedom of Information act of 1975 exposed. Illegal phonetaps, opening private mail and organised theft were among the FBI actions condoned and used at the time that led to the arrest of important people such as Charlie Chaplin, Arthur Miller and Orson Welles. Freedom of opinion and ideology eventually overtook the discriminatory policies of the FBI and McCarthyism.

5. Siege of Waco, Texas (1993) – Cult leader David Koresh and his Davidian followers locked themselves in a ranch near Waco, Texas. Alleging the Davidians had illegal firearms, gouvernment officials raided the ranch; this prelude to the siege killed 4 officers and 6 cult members. The following 51-day siege was a media frenzy analysing the duel between Koresh inside and the FBI outside. Despite agile negotiations, the siege only ended when the FBI inadvertently set fire to the compound. 76 people burned alive in that ranch on live television.

6. The Unabomber (1978-1995) – Theodore Kaczynski, for a long time, was the model definition of a terrorist. Carefully sending 16 mail bombs over the course of 18 years, he terrified the American people. The FBI spent millions finding Kaczynski, going through the thousands of leads that were being phoned in daily due to the lack of a clear picture of him or of any real evidence. The culprit promised more deaths if his anarchist manifesto wasn’t published in 1995. Newspapers and officials agreed and the diffusion of this piece of evidence directly led to his identification and arrest.

7. Sept. 11th (2001) – With 3000 dead and another 7000 injured, the terrorist hijackings of 4 American chartered planes and their subsequent crash in the Pentagon and World Trade Center is the deadliest terrorist attack ever perpetrated on American soil. Although no agency was able to prevent such an occurrence, the FBI provided the names and pictures of the hijackers mere hours after the fact. The following investigation involved over 7000 agents who identified Osama Bin Laden and the terrorist group Al-Qaida as the culprits of the human tragedy. Theirs was a morose and difficult task as they identified who did it from overseas yet had to leave the rest to the CIA.

(Pictured: Al Capone - The emblem of the FBI - the Waco massacre)

End.

Hard day's celebration

July 17th 2008 – Sir Paul McCartney of the Beatles will be presenting his only show of 2008 in North America this Sunday. Performing in Quebec City, Canada, it will be the first and probably the last time any Beatle ever plays in the old city. Despite the overwhelming honour of having Mr. McCartney play for them during the celebration of their 400th anniversary, residents and elected officials of the French-Canadian sub-nation are boisterously complaining.

That’s right, although it is probably only representative of a few zealous nationalists, many Quebec citizens, mostly artists, have written a passionate (which means very, VERY long) public letter saying that the British performer will represent all that was wrong with the English conquest of New France in the 1760s. Furthermore, they say that having Paul on Quebec City’s historic Plains of Abraham will be a boot to the face of the historic battle that occurred there in 1759 (which the French lost in less than an hour due to drinking and sleeping in). Freedom of opinion is a grand tradition; it permits the sensible and critical-minded ones of us to express concern while providing the others a means to embarrass themselves and entertain us. This freedom does not apply to our elected officials.

Three members of the Quebec parliament (Pierre Curzi, Daniel Turp and Martin Lemay) have endorsed the open letter demanding Sir McCartney not to show up due to the pervasive nature of his Mother tongue. These men are deprived of any private life or personal opinion for the duration of their mandate. This is not only my opinion as a citizen and elected representative of my student community and city but also it is a political reality in the post-WW2 era. The Members of Parliament are elected to speak and embody the preoccupations of their electors, not to influence them. In this case, their electors are saying “HOLY S*** PAUL F****** MCCARTNEY IS COMING HERE!?!?” and not “it’s tragic how this artist is from The United Kingdom, the very same country who conquered us many centuries ago and has passively tried to assimilate our culture ever since. I protest this event and will now listen to some light French elevator music”. I am usually very polite but these politicians must take their head out of their behinds and poke it outside to see and hear the people once in a while. I seriously hope these buffoons will not be reelected when everyone sees their arrogance and disinterest in the people they supposedly represent.

I would usually try to expose and somewhat justify the argument of the nationalists but this time, it is so ridiculous that I can do nothing but berate it with ridicule. Firstly, the 400th anniversary celebrations of Quebec City seem to reflect a general current in Canadian History. It is what the Germans would call Schultzkultur (Identity of guilt) or what Canadian author Granatstein described as a telling of our faults, mistakes and wrongdoings as a national history (in his book “Who Killed Canadian History?”). Not only must they relive events of failure, war, death and destruction from centuries ago, but the nationalists insists that no fun may be had today because of this. In an interview, the former Beatle seemed as confused as I was about the argument, stating that if it was a valid concern: “ I would never go to Germany and Germans would never come to Britain”. This comment may help the Quebec politicians reassess their self-importance and their willingness to say anything to be in a newspaper.

As a result, I am sure that the 12 or so ultranationalists that believe going to McCartney’s concert (a free outdoor concert I might add) is equal to giving XVIIIth century French King Louis XIV a slap in the face will remain home, sit down in front of a Canadian flag and scold it with cringed faces. The other 700,000 people of the city will happily flock to this once in a lifetime event, promptly forgetting it has ANYTHING to do with history. Good for them; happy concert and happy 400th birthday of progress, happiness and successes to Quebec City.

(Pictured: Battle on the Plains of Abraham in 1759 where the evil British conquered the ill-prepared French - The invader)

End.

Wedding Edition

July 5th 2008 - Optimism is often reckless and in an effort of general laziness, a lack of news and the fact that I got married this weekend, this week’s blog will instead be a link to the site www.mentalfloss.com, as taken by cnn.com. Here is an interesting historical background of all things wedding. My favourite is the bouquet toss.

(Here is the link: http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/06/27/
wedding.traditions/index.html?iref=newssearch)

Have a nice week and sleep tight until the world ends next week.

(Pictured: Queen Victoria and Prince Albert's 1840 wedding - a bouquet)

End.

The Dark Continent

June 27th 2008 – The southern African country of Zimbabwe will hold ‘’elections’’ this Friday in an unprecedented exercise in democracy. The ballot will oppose incumbent president Robert Mugabe who has held power since the independence of the nation in 1987 and the leader of the opposition Morgan Tsvangirai. Or at least it should... Unfortunately, Mr. Tsvangirai has withdrawn from the race earlier this week for reasons that were universally hailed as reasonable. Therefore, Mugabe will run unopposed and almost guarantees himself another win at the age of 84.

Over a month ago, a first round of elections gave Tsvangirai the win by a clear majority yet the 3 weeks delay before the results were announced made the international community quite suspicious about the actual “dead-heat” of the results. It is at this point that international observers from other African nations, the United Nations and the European Union left Zimbabwe to escape a possible civil war. It was then announced that we would have a second round of elections since the original poll was almost too close to call.

Since then, a few weeks have passed where Tsvangirai and the opposition have been imprisoned twice, hundreds of thousands of their supporters have been displaced, intimidated and killed and 86 of the opposition representatives have been assassinated. Fearing further violence, especially for the electors going to the polls this Friday, Tsvangirai threw in the towel, putting an end to this masquerade that President Mugabe has called a democracy.

Mugabe has used a Putin-like subtlety in his legendary respect for democracy: he originally made it a capital offense for the opposition to hold public meetings, affirmed that his presidency is a gift from God, banned international media under threat of imprisonment and death, said he would go to war if he lost and now, as the international community decries these mock elections, he claims that the Zimbabwean people will have the last word and only they can decide how democracy will apply to them.

President Bush and the entire United Nations Security Council have condemned the actions of Mugabe and confirm that they will disregard the results of Friday’s elections. Now, considering the extreme poverty of the Zimbabwean people, the international community can’t morally do much more than that. Mugabe actually holds his people hostage, knowing full well that the United States will not impose economic sanctions or even decrease aid payments, punishing the poorest of the poor. It is quite clear that President Mugabe does not have much to lose by acting like an African Tyrant of which we’ve seen so many.

For example, Charles Taylor ruled with a royal fist over Liberia for 7 years where he instated torture, amputations and the basic enslavement of the Liberians for his own enrichment, all for the liberation and greater good of his people. He is now on trial in The Hague for crimes of war. Further east, General Mobutu of the former Zaire held an iron martial fist over his country and stole all international aid money during his 32 year reign, all for the liberation and greater good of his people. He ended up with a fortune of over 4 billion dollars and recently died in exile. Finally, still further east, General Idi Amin presided over Uganda for 8 years in the 1970s. Up to 500,000 people could have been assassinated during his regime including: all Asians whom he deported, political opponents, various ethnic Ugandans and many more. He again humbly claimed the liberation of his people and then titled himself “ His Excellency, President for Life, Field Doctor Al Hadji Doctor Idi Amin Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of all the Beasts of the Earth and Fishes of the Seas and Conqueror of the British Empire in Africa in General and Uganda in Particular”. Amin fled to Libya when his people had enough and died there at the ripe old age of 80.

On the one hand, President Mugabe of Zimbabwe will say that we cannot understand the needs of his people; on the other hand, all the other African tyrants claimed the same motives before they were violently overthrown by the very people they wanted to save. All in all, there is currently not much that can be done to help the ACTUAL people of Zimbabwe (the ones that are scared of not feeding their family tonight rather than pleasing the international community with democratic elections). I guess we are simply lucky that Mugabe is not yet as violently “patriotic” and “heroic” as his dictatorial predecessors.

(Pictured: Conference of evil: President Mobutu of Zaire and his sponsor Nixon - A concerned President Robert Mugabe)

End.

Poll results Jan-June 2008

June 17th 2008 – Here are the poll results for the first half of 2008:

Question: Which of the following countries is on the verge of returning to a system of monarchy/theocracy/dictatorship? Total number of votes: 357.

I must say I am quite surprised by the results since I specifically chose these countries at the beginning of the year, when tumultuous events were taking place in them.

In last place, Pakistan won 3% or 11 votes. Considering that in late December, President Pervez Musharraf suspended the constitution, declared martial law and his main opposition leader (Benazir Bhutto) was subsequently assassinated, this result is shocking. Pakistan could easily have remained in a military dictatorship indefinitely following these events although Musharraf has loosened his grip on power somewhat since then.

Next, Russia came in fourth with 8% or 28 votes. Again, this is confusing considering the drastic military, political and economic actions of Putin’s regime against Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine, the Baltic States and the European Union so far in 2008. Furthermore, the fact that Putin hand-picked his successor after the end of his 2 terms, and that he basically named himself prime minster after that, circumvents all semblance of a stable democracy in the former soviet capital.

In third place, Canada gained 14% or 51 votes. I had originally entered this country as a joke and thought that the few votes for it would be jokes as well. Unfortunately, I can’t ignore the 14% it ended up with. Without a doubt, Canada is the most stable political entity of these 5 countries with a 130 year history of continuous democracy. Its current conservative government has lowered taxes, raised the age of consent to 16 and reinforced federalism throughout the land. I fail to see the threat of Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s impending dictatorship.

In second place, just edging out Canada, we find Kenya with 15% or 53 of the votes. Considering the shambles that was the last election in which civil war was narrowly avoided, I fail to see why Kenya’s results are so close to Canada’s. As with most of the burgeoning African republics, a lengthy history of tribal monarchies and a trivial delimitation of territories during colonisation have made them prone to an eventual return towards a political tradition far from a stable democracy.

Finally, our grand number 1 is Japan with a staggering 60% or 214 votes. At the end of last year, President Shinzo Abe quit his position due to extreme exhaustion, a few ministers quit amidst corruption inquiries and another committed suicide due to allegations of money laundering. Furthermore, Japan suffers from excessive problems of overcrowding, poverty and suicide. Being a country that is over 98% homogeneously Japanese, the lack of immigrants also leaves us with a lack of ‘outsider’s insight’ into these societal problems. Therefore, perhaps this first place is well warranted for reasons beyond my understanding. That being said, Japan has comfortably established and maintained a stable democracy following the military imperialism of World War 2. The extreme right and left political elements are quite marginal and the constitutional monarchy in place does not seem to want a return to absolutism. I don’t believe we will soon see another Empire of the Rising Sun.

I wish my poll had a commentary section to understand the overwhelming lead that Japan gained or the lack of interest for Pakistan and Kenya in the first half of 2008. All in all, most Japanese news services are currently occupied with a massive earthquake that occurred this weekend as well as the rising costs of gas and of food. Much like the western world, Japan shows very little sign of wanting a monarchy/theocracy/dictatorship to replace the current liberal freedoms they enjoy.

It was a very informative survey that leaves me with many more questions than answer. A new poll will be up shortly.

(Pictured: The military flag of Japan and its tragic end in Nagasaki 1945, things they won't soon forget.)

End.