American students among 20 hostages killed in Bangladesh cafe terror attack

Faraaz Hossain reportedly refused to leave behind his friends Abinta Kabir amd Tarishi Jain.



By now you've heard about the deadly terrorist attack at a cafe in Bangladesh's capital city of Dhaka on Friday. At least three American students have been identified among twenty hostages killed.

Bangladesh attack: Twenty hostages killed, army says

Bangladeshi forces stormed the Holey Artisan Bakery early Saturday to end an an hours-long hostage standoff by heavily armed militants, killing six of the attackers and rescuing 13 captives.

Twenty multi-national hostages were killed during the 10-hour siege, including nine Italians, seven Japanese, one Indian, three Bangladeshis and one U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi origin.

The American students were Tarishi Jain, a sophomore at the University of California, Berkeley, Abinta Kabir, a sophomore at Emory University, and Faraaz Hossain, a student at Emory's Goizueta Business School.

Virginia mayor rejects Syrian refugees, because it worked so well when we locked up Japanese Americans

"It seems to me to be better safe than sorry."



This is troubling on a dozen levels. In Virginia, the mayor of Roanoke joined the growing chorus of intolerance, calling for the suspension of help in relocating Syrian refugees to the area. To make matters worse, he cited the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II as historical precedent for his reasoning. Oh hell no.

Roanoke Mayor David Bowers: No Syrian refugees to Roanoke Valley until security assured

On Wednesday, Mayor David A. Bowers issued an unsolicited statement requesting area governments and nongovernmental agencies to suspend and delay any further Syrian refugee assistance "until normalcy is restored," warning of safety concerns in the wake of the apparent bombing of a Russian airliner, Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris and threats on Washington DC.

"I am convinced that it is presently imprudent to assist in the relocation of Syrian refugees to our part of Virginia," Bowers said his statement, which also vowed to "protect Roanokers from harm and danger from this present scourge upon the earth." Oh, but wait, it gets much worse.

French dad explains Paris terror attacks to young son

"They might have guns, but we have flowers."



If you haven't already seen this, here's a video that's been melting hearts around the world. How do you explain to a kid what happened in Paris? How do you explain that there are bad things in the world? And how do you explain that everything's going to be okay? Here's a dad who really seems to be doing it right.

In this video gone viral, a French dad movingly explains the Paris terror attacks to his young son. Standing outside the Bataclan theatre, where thousands have left floral tributes to the victims, dad comforts the boy and assures him not to be afraid of the "bad guys" with guns.

We see the kid come to the realization that perhaps love is the only protection he'll ever need. Just watch:

Sikh man's selfie doctored to look like Paris terrorist

Veerender Jubbal has never even been to Paris.



By now, you've seen and heard about the deadly terror attacks that killed at least 129 people in Paris last week. While there has been an international outpouring of support and compassion, the aftermath has also seen assholes act like bigger assholes, as assholes so often do. For instance, the asshole who doctored this photo of a Canadian Sikh man to make him look like one of the terrorists purportedly responsible for the attack.

Doctored photo wrongly accuses Sikh man of being Paris terrorist

Shortly after the attacks, someone doctored a photo of Veerender Jubbal, a Canadian Sikh man who months ago posted a selfie taken in front of a mirror. Mr. Jubbal, who wears a turban and beard in observance of his faith, was holding an iPad. The image was altered to show him holding a Quran and wearing a suicide vest.

What. The. Fuck.

When the doctored image began to spread -- and even got picked up and reported by one of Spain's biggest newspapers -- Jubbal posted the original photo as evidence that he had nothing to do with the attacks. He's never even been to Paris. He's just a regular guy with a turban who posted a selfie, which unfortunately is enough fodder for some Photoshopping asshole to turn him into a terrorist.

American Pathology: A Cartoon by Vishavjit Singh

#charlestonshooting #domesticterrorism


Artist's Statement:

The tragedy in Charleston, South Carolina is troubling enough, but in many ways what has been revealed and transpired since as a response is indicative of a deeper malady. As a cartoonist, there are so many threads to catch on here and beat on a culprit, be it the perpetrator, right wingers, supremacist groups, political forces............ But ultimately it is our collective pathology to acknowledge, recognize and ultimately heal.

Related links:

It’s Media Terrorism to Deny Charleston Was About Race - TIME (June 20, 2015)
White Terrorism Is as Old as America - New York Times (June 19, 2015)
Charleston, Dylann Roof and the racism of millennials - Washington Post (June 18, 2015)


Vishavjit Singh is the nation's first and only turbaned/bearded editorial cartoonist. He got his spark for cartooning following the upheaval filled days after 9/11. He brings turbanful characters to life on the 2-D pages of his computer aided by his right indexed finger on a touchpad. His works can be consumed at Sikhtoons.com.


FACEBOOK

Fox News guest apologizes for comments about internment

"I want to issue a sincere apology for my remarks... which I believe were unfortunately misinterpreted."



Hear that? It's squeaky, clunky sound of a backpedal. Over the weekend, Fox News guest Jonathan Hoenig apologized for comments he made citing the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II as an example of measures that led to the United States winning the war -- an argument he made on Cashin' In in support of the profiling of Muslim Americans today as a measure to combat terrorism.

Fox News Guest Apologizes for Internment Camp Comments

Hoenig's remarks on the matter are full of all kinds of bullshit, and sparked a fairly fiery response from a number of Asian American and Japanese American politicians and community organizations -- representing the community that, you know, actually had to endure the injustice of internment. Congressman Mike Honda called Hoenig's comments nothing less than "inexcuseabe" and "idiotic and insensitive."

On Saturday, Cashin' In took a moment for Hoenig to offer an on-air apology for his comments:

Fox News panelist argues internment camps were justified

Thus, "profiling would be at least a good start" in the war on terror.



Let's get this out of the way: pretty much everything that airs on Fox News is bullshit. But there's Fox News, and then there's Fox News realllly going for it. Like this recent discussion about the war on terror that included, among other arguments, justification for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

Fox's Cashin' In: 'The Enemy Is Islamic,' It's Time to Start Profiling Muslims

On Saturday's broadcast of Fox's Cashin' In, a four-person panel weighed in on whether we should start profiling Muslims in America. How this shit passes for legit journalism is incomprehensible, and predictably, all the discussants were in agreement on how to find the terrorists among us: "Profile, profile, profile."

Panelist Jonathan Hoenig took it even further, making the claim that rounding up Japanese Americans and putting them in internment camps actually worked out quite well for the United States:

Orange County man pleads guilty to terror charges

Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen plotted to train al Qaeda forces for an upcoming attack



An update on the case of this wannabe terrorist trainer guy in Southern California... This week in U.S. District Court, a man pleaded guilty to a federal terrorism charge, admitting that he intended to go to Pakistan to become an al Qaeda operative and provide militants with weapons training for an upcoming attack.

California man pleads guilty to terror charge

24-year-old Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization. According tot he U.S. Department of Justice, Nguyen admitted in a plea agreement that he went Syria about a year ago to join opposition forces against the Bashar Assad regime. He apparently offered to train al Qaeda forces, but his services were rejected.

Later, back in the United States, Nguyen met with a guy he thought was an al Qaeda recruiter to discuss going to Pakistan -- in a scheme that involved faking his own death -- to train terrorist fighters for a guerrilla attack on coalition forces. That guy turned out to be an FBI agent.

Orange County man planned to aid Al Qaeda terrorists

Asian behaving badly... terrorist trainer edition?

In Orange County, a security guard is accused of plotting to become an Al Qaeda operative and train terrorist fighters for an upcoming attack: O.C. man was to train Al Qaeda fighters for December attack, feds say.

According to federal prosecutors, 24-year-old Sinh Vinh Ngo Nguyen, who was arrested this month boarding a bus to Mexico, claimed he was going to Pakistan to train thirty Al Qaeda fighters for a planned attack. He also apparently admitted -- in a Facebook post -- to killing at least one person during a trip to Syria last year.

Nguyen's plan involved flying to Pakistan, faking his own death, applying for a new passport and becoming a jihad fighter. There, using his knowledge of firearms, he would train foot soldiers to execute an ambush against coalition forces.

Whether or not Nguyen actually possessed the skills and resources to pull all this off is another question entirely. He certainly didn't know what was up when he sought the aid of an Al Qaeda recruiter. The guy turned out to be an uncover FBI agent:

California woman survives Kenya mall attack

By now, you've heard of the terrorist siege in Nairobi, where Islamist militants stormed the Westgate Premier Shopping Mall, lobbing grenades and firing weapons. More than 60 people were killed, and at least 175 were injured in the attack, which ended after a four-day standoff. It was deadliest attack in Kenya since 1998.

One of the survivors was an American woman named Elaine Dang, whose bloodied condition was captured in the frightening Reuters photo above. A graduate of UC Berkeley, Dang is working in the Kenyan capital as online manager of the online restaurant guide Eat Out Nairobi. She was meeting with co-workers at the mall when gunfire broke out: Cal Grad Injured in Nairobi Mall Terrorist Attack.

Thankfully, Dang made it out okay, and posted a photo of her bandaged head on social media on Sunday:

The night Danny got carjacked by the Tsarnaev Brothers

By now, if you've read all the accounts of last week's harrowing events in Boston, from the carnage inflicted during the Marathon bombings to the perpetrators' dramatic death/capture, you might have heard about the carjacking and hostage that the Tsarnaev brothers took, just before what would be the beginning of the end for them. Turns out, that hostage was a 26-year-old Chinese guy named "Danny."

In this exclusive interview with the Boston Globe, Danny, who is only identified by his American nickname, gives his crazy, strange account of the carjacking that put him in the path of Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev that night, filling in some of the gaps in the timeline before the brothers' eventual shootout with police in Watertown: Carjack victim recounts his harrowing night.

Held captive at gunpoint, Danny was able to escape when the Tsarnaev's stopped for snacks:

Sunil Tripathi is still missing. And is not a bombing suspect.

Late last night, social media was ablaze with near-certain speculation that one of the suspects responsible for the Boston Marathon bombings was missing Brown student Sunil Tripathi, who has been missing since March. A massive Reddit thread fueled the fire, with internet sleuths posting side by side grainy photo comparisons of Tripathi and the suspect, giving way to even wilder speculation.

None of it turned out to be true: The Internet's shameful false ID.

Our hearts are heavy for you, Boston

Last night, after hours of watching the news and reading one too many tweets of people being awful to each other, I shut the television off, downed a stiff cocktail, and said prayer for the victims of yesterday's bomb attack at the Boston Marathon. The explosion killed three people and injured 176.

My deepest condolences to the loved ones of the dead, who were all watching the race near the finish line at the time of the blast: 8-year-old Martin Richard of Dorchester; 29-year-old Krystle Campbell of Arlington; and an unidentified Chinese national who was a graduate student at Boston University: BU student killed in blast identified as Chinese national.