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Why Worry About Security? |
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pettittm
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Posted: 09.04.2005, 23:33
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registered: Jul. 2002
Posts: 1530
Status: offline
last visit: 02.09.10
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I posted similar thread in other topic but at suggestion of Aenet, am starting new thread for this discussion.
Sometimes, Forum participants have posted to say they don't understand why USAKA authorities seem to be so concerned about security. They reason that USAKA - and the RMI - are a small community, relatively isolated from the rest of the world. Outsiders would be quickly recognized. Marshallese are not violent so there is no apparent threat of "home grown terrorism." Why would outside terrorists travel all the way to the RMI?
The recent tragic wounding of SSG Paul Lejjena has, of course, been extensively covered in Yokwe.net. Radio Australia picked up the story, as did Pacific Islands Report. If the Honolulu or Arkansas papers have reported, it has not yet been posted to their Web sites. As I write this, only one other news service has noted the story. That service is Al Jazeera, based in Qatar. The story may be viewed at
http://english....F47452F7.htm
Al Jazeera is a major news source, probably THE major news source, in the Middle East. Perhaps it is most famous to Americans as the news service that seems to be where those occasional filmed releases by our buddy Osama Bin Laden are forwarded to for broadcast. Al Jazeera routinely plays up anything the US Coalition does that is remotely controversial but plays down attrocities attributed to the terrorists and their supporters.
I strongly doubt many Marshallese or other Pacific Islanders use Al Jazeera as their news source, and I am sure Al Jazeera has no development plan to go after Pacific Islanders as an audience. Yet, here they are, the ONLY news service outside the Pacific to carry the story about Paul Lejjena. They also provide a map showing where the RMI is, information on the special relationship to the US, a nod to Aenet and this Web site, and a link to the Compact of Free Association (on the FSM's Web site). Al Jazeera did their homework.
If Pacific Islanders are not the intended audience, who is? Why did Al Jazeera decide to run a story NO ONE except Yokwe, PIR, and Radio Australia has paid any attention to? Who reads stories on Al Jazeera that might be interested in all this information about the RMI, its special relationship with the US, and the Marshallese young men and women who serve in the US Armed Forces?
Am I being paranoid?
I certainly hope so, but if I still lived on Majuro and worked at the US Embassy, I know this story would be of more than passing interest. I suspect you may see the folks on Kwaj get even more interested in maintaining security.
Sometimes a little paranoia is a good thing. For your security forces on Majuro - your airport security folks, MIMRA and the Australian Navy officers that advise them, your police that guard your President,the Nitijela and those who work in Government offices - I suggest a little paranoia and extra alertness in the weeks and months ahead would not be a bad idea at all.
No decision is a decision. . .No action is an action.
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