The Treason Virus 2

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The Treason Virus 2.0

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THE TIMES SQUARE BOMBER

Jay B Gaskill

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FROM BBC

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8660370.stm

“A US citizen of Pakistani origin is due to appear in court in New York later in connection with a failed car-bomb attack in Times Square on Saturday.

Faisal Shahzad was arrested at John F Kennedy airport on Monday night on board a plane about to leave for Dubai.

“Investigators say he has told them he was acting alone and has no connections with foreign militant groups.”

HERE IS MY PREDICTION:

PEEL THIS ONION

YOU WILL FIND A PATHOGEN AT THE VERY CORE

Remember Major Nidal Malik Hasan? Recall his shooting rampage at Fort Hood? Were you shocked and puzzled by the bizarre notion of an American citizen as a rogue Islamist terror nut? How about the secret connections to the radical internet mullah, Anwar al Awlaki, then operating out of Yemen?

Review my analysis at the time, still posed at – http://jaygaskill.com/TheTreasonVirus.htm .

Lest we forget, please allow me to review parts of that thread:

HEADLINE: RARE VIRUS ENDANGERS TROOPS.

Another, presumably unrelated headline (my own summary)

ROGUE ISLAMIST SHRINK SHOOTS FIFTY AMERICAN SOLDIERS ON AMERICAN BASE.

The first story (http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/nov/06/rare-virus-poses-new-threat-to-troops/ ) describes a biological pathogen.

The second story, the Fort Hood massacre, (http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-fort-hood-shootings7-2009nov07,0,1269467.story ) describes a moral pathogen.

It seems beyond reasonable dispute that the Fort Hood shooter/murderer (Army psychiatrist Nidal Malik Hasan) was a devout follower of Islam. As other suppressed details emerge, it will only get worse.

Dr. Hasan was an educated man. It is almost axiomatic that most mental health professionals don’t become berserk mass murderers, particularly while serving in sensitive positions in American military facilities.

About the Religion of Peace

There are pockets of enlightened, peaceful Islamic scholarship and teaching, most of which are taking place in safe havens in the tolerant West. All those sparks of tolerance acknowledged, there still is no Islamic Reformation.

After the death of Mohammed in the 7th century, there never again was a single Muslim Voice, no Muslim Pope, no Muslim Martin Luther, no one to lead the faith out of its pre-medieval fundamentalism. The religion remains multi-focal and widely distributed - much like software tied to a common operating system, in this case the Qu’ran.

Software and Viruses

The software metaphor is useful because, like all distributed belief systems, Islam is subject to anti-moral viruses.

An anti-moral virus is an actively malevolent set of ideas, capable of being carried by an ideology or other widespread belief system, much as living organisms carry infections.

I believe that the Islamist virus stems from a siege mentality, a deep sense of grievance and of being under attack from a decadent, profoundly immoral culture. We know that the virus is deadly because of its fruits. One cannot look at the carnage of 911 or the incident at Fort Hood without horror and revulsion. Surely, we think, this cannot be sanctioned by a truly moral deity, the ruler of the Universe, the Father of the Abrahamic faiths.

An anti-moral virus attaches itself to selected precepts from the Islamist tradition (precepts that post-reformation Muslims will say were taken out of context, but for now stand alone as co-equal injunctions from God’s Prophet). Among these precepts are the classification of Infidels as unclean, the religious approval for their forcible conversion to Islam (with a tradition of beheading the resistant-apostate) and the sanction for glorious, violent martyrdom in the cause.

Caution: This is a functional analysis, not a critical theological one.

My scholarly friends who are deeply familiar with Islam will quickly point out why a careful and enlightened reading of the Qu’ran does not support terrorism, the slaughter of innocents, and so on.

But Dr. Hasan was an intelligent, well educated man and there has, as yet, been no Islamic Reformation.

The anti-moral virus is active in the Muslim culture. I believe Major Hassan was infected.

Who ELSE is infected? Just HOW do you tell?

JIHAD-AS- THERAPY

We need a new DSM IV* category for rogue mental health professionals suffering with “HME Syndrome”, the Homicidal Martyrdom Escape Syndrome, or “HMES”.

* The vaunted DSM IV is the cookbook diagnostic manual used by mental health professionals to classify mental disorders. [Buy one if you’re curious -- http://allpsych.com/books/index.html#r .]

I am convinced that Major Hasan was psychologically trapped and that, having been “infected” with an anti-moral virus, he presented an extremely high risk of ‘going jihad”....

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THE TIMES SQUARE BOMBER IS MAJOR HASAN REDUX

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Who ELSE is infected? Just HOW do you tell?

Reuters:

“Faisal Shahzad, a naturalized U.S. citizen born in Pakistan, was arrested late on Monday at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York after being removed from a plane as it was about to take off for Dubai, officials said.

“Shahzad, 30, was due to appear in federal court later on Tuesday to face charges of ‘driving a car bomb into Times Square on the evening of May 1,’ officials said. Had the bomb detonated, many people could have died, experts said.

“’He's admitted to buying the truck, putting the devices together, putting them in the truck, leaving the truck there and leaving the scene,’ the law enforcement source told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“’He's claimed to have acted alone. He did admit to all the charges, so to speak,’ the source said...

“Shahzad, 30, had recently returned from a five-month trip to Pakistan, where he had a wife, according to law enforcement officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the investigation into the failed car bombing.

“Shahzad became a naturalized U.S. citizen last year shortly before traveling to Pakistan, a federal law enforcement official in Washington said, speaking on condition of anonymity amid the ongoing investigation.

“Investigators hadn't established an immediate connection to the Pakistani Taliban—which had claimed responsibility for the botched bombing in three videos—or any foreign terrorist groups, a law enforcement official told the AP.”

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Do take the time and mental energy over the next few weeks to peel this onion. At the core you will find the same virus that animated Major Hassan.

Here are four predictions to track:

[ONE]

In Shahzad’s case, we will soon discover actual connections, internet, cellphone and personal contacts, linking him to at least one radical Islamist cleric. These will be the infection points.

[TWO]

There will be the usual, ‘but he was such a nice young man’ chatter by the usual clueless suspects. Missing in these accounts will be a description of Shahzad’s compromised immune system.

[THREE]

The case will be handled as a routine criminal matter, framed by a lot of political posturing. This serve will mask the underlying problem.

[FOUR]

This sort of thing will happen to peaceful Americans again and again until we, as a culture and a awakened nation, are able to get our collective minds around what it means to live in a time when our the prevalent cultural and moral ambivalences are being actively tested and exploited by predatory moral certitude.

In 2003, I addressed the core issue in an essay, Secular Steel, still posted at http://jaygaskill.com/secular.htm .

I began that essay with this paragraph:

“Civilizations whose leaders and members are not rooted in the sterner part of the moral order cannot summon the will to defend themselves when challenged by a more cohesive, more fervently motivated adversary. There is a Darwinian logic at work here that favors the triumph of the religious society over the complacently hedonist culture, the “blood sweat and tears” rally over the “make flowers not war” withdrawal, and the committed, brave heart over the timid, ambivalent soul.”

Today, seven years later, I remain firmly persuaded that we Americans will prevail only when we recover, reaffirm and commit to our founding principles, as captured in that tolerant, but tough creed from the Declaration of Independence...

We proudly hold up these self-evident truths as a sacred gift we and all free peoples have been endowed with the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, and to this end we have made a place in the world where these rights will be defended with integrity, courage and blood.

JBG