6 ms·

The 1975 LaGuardia Airport Bombing

47 points by monort 11y ago

theseatoms 11y ago
tldr; no
kw71 11y ago
It sure seems like the FBI has protected criminals in the past when they had the potential to give the Bureau information about other criminals. These suspicions were also raised in the Whitey Bulger case. I believe that this kind of behavior, from persons who are sworn to enforce the laws, is malfeasant and unacceptable.
- Wingman4l7 11y ago
  The prosecution of the many outweighs the justice for the few?
- readymade 11y ago
  Whiteness is the common thread
- iaw 11y ago
  I suspect that there were "good intentions" behind the FBI's behavior but things spiraled out of control and politically it was impossible to address it in any way other than making it disappear. Understanding how it could happen doesn't make it any better.
zeveb 11y ago
> OTPOR did nothing to end Communism in Yugoslavia, but did succeed in tarring the Croatian cause with fanaticism, terrorism and murder. I've always that that the Ustaše[1] did a pretty good job of tarring the Croatian cause. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e
Grishnakh 11y ago
They need to just shut down the LaGuardia airport and sell the land off for development. It's silly to have 3 airports that close together, creating the busiest airspace in the US, especially when LGA is such a small (and old and crappy) airport anyway. Shut it down, expand service at Newark and JFK, and then improve the mass-transit service to both of those so people don't need to spend a bunch of money on stupid cabs just to get in or out of NYC by air.
- joelrunyon 11y ago
  Upvotes for expanding the transit options to both. It's absolutely embarrassing NYC doesn't have better ways to get to any of the three airports.
  - apaprocki 11y ago
    It's funny to me because most people I know would prefer to get in a car and gamble with sitting in traffic rather than take the easy, almost always on time subway (e.g. E train) + AirTrain to JFK. From midtown it is always 45 minutes door to terminal, but people avoid it for some reason because... ? It isn't a sparkly white JFK train that terminates in Manhattan? Newark is served by train from Penn Station, already a massive hub, that gets you there in 15 minutes.
    - joelrunyon 11y ago
      Chicago has great service to both airports. ~30 minutes to both o'Hare and Midway. So much better than dealing with the headache of a cab.
    - Grishnakh 11y ago
      Why do they need to have a special train for each airport? What's so hard about putting them on the regular subway system so people don't need to pay a high fare and waste a lot of time in transfers and walking between stations with a ton of luggage? Have you even been to Penn Station? It's not a short walk from the trains to the subway. That's probably why a lot of people prefer cars.
golergka 11y ago
Why do people classify this as terrorism? "Terrorism" is usually understood as violence where intended targets are not those killed, but mainly those who watch the news and shiver in fear. And to drive point home, terrorists usually explicitly explain, why do they want people to be afraid of them, and what do they want. Nothing like this happened in this case; so — why "terrorism" label in the first place?
- readymade 11y ago
  Aside from the usual difficulties in defining a word so politically loaded, this is a problematic heuristic. The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing was claimed by at least three groups, before being traced back to Libya. Gaddafi, for his part, didn't acknowledge responsibility until 2003.
- readymade 11y ago
  Here's another "fun" example. Some of our early uses of the term were to describe the KKK, which was and remains a terrorist organization par excellence. Except that the clandestine nature of the group, and thus the need for its members to lead superficially normal lives within the community, does not lend itself to claiming responsibility for attacks in the sense we associate with jihadist organizations. A classic example is the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, which was perpetrated. The communities targeted by Klan members don't need to know exactly who was responsible for the violence to have its intended effect.
  - golergka 11y ago
    > The communities targeted by Klan members don't need to know exactly who was responsible for the violence to have its intended effect. Hm, you're right. So — the point is not to claim the responsibility, but to make sure that everyone knows what political message is there behind the violence. Which is still not something that applies in LaGuardia case.
petethomas 11y ago
You can hear the relevant CBS Evening News radio update at the beginning of this mp3, and again at the end (~1h:00m:41s in): http://cbsrmt.thelongtrek.com/pp/CBSRMT%20-%20751229%200404%20The%20Memory%20Killers_pp.mp3 http://cbsrmt.thelongtrek.com/pp/CBSRMT%20-%20751229%200404%... Edit:spelling

47 points by monort 11y ago

tldr; no

kw71 11y ago

It sure seems like the FBI has protected criminals in the past when they had the potential to give the Bureau information about other criminals. These suspicions were also raised in the Whitey Bulger case. I believe that this kind of behavior, from persons who are sworn to enforce the laws, is malfeasant and unacceptable.

Wingman4l7 11y ago
The prosecution of the many outweighs the justice for the few?
readymade 11y ago
Whiteness is the common thread
iaw 11y ago
I suspect that there were "good intentions" behind the FBI's behavior but things spiraled out of control and politically it was impossible to address it in any way other than making it disappear. Understanding how it could happen doesn't make it any better.

zeveb 11y ago

> OTPOR did nothing to end Communism in Yugoslavia, but did succeed in tarring the Croatian cause with fanaticism, terrorism and murder. I've always that that the Ustaše[1] did a pretty good job of tarring the Croatian cause. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usta%C5%A1e

Grishnakh 11y ago

They need to just shut down the LaGuardia airport and sell the land off for development. It's silly to have 3 airports that close together, creating the busiest airspace in the US, especially when LGA is such a small (and old and crappy) airport anyway. Shut it down, expand service at Newark and JFK, and then improve the mass-transit service to both of those so people don't need to spend a bunch of money on stupid cabs just to get in or out of NYC by air.

joelrunyon 11y ago
Upvotes for expanding the transit options to both. It's absolutely embarrassing NYC doesn't have better ways to get to any of the three airports.
- apaprocki 11y ago
  It's funny to me because most people I know would prefer to get in a car and gamble with sitting in traffic rather than take the easy, almost always on time subway (e.g. E train) + AirTrain to JFK. From midtown it is always 45 minutes door to terminal, but people avoid it for some reason because... ? It isn't a sparkly white JFK train that terminates in Manhattan? Newark is served by train from Penn Station, already a massive hub, that gets you there in 15 minutes.
  - joelrunyon 11y ago
    Chicago has great service to both airports. ~30 minutes to both o'Hare and Midway. So much better than dealing with the headache of a cab.
  - Grishnakh 11y ago
    Why do they need to have a special train for each airport? What's so hard about putting them on the regular subway system so people don't need to pay a high fare and waste a lot of time in transfers and walking between stations with a ton of luggage? Have you even been to Penn Station? It's not a short walk from the trains to the subway. That's probably why a lot of people prefer cars.

golergka 11y ago

Why do people classify this as terrorism? "Terrorism" is usually understood as violence where intended targets are not those killed, but mainly those who watch the news and shiver in fear. And to drive point home, terrorists usually explicitly explain, why do they want people to be afraid of them, and what do they want. Nothing like this happened in this case; so — why "terrorism" label in the first place?

readymade 11y ago
Aside from the usual difficulties in defining a word so politically loaded, this is a problematic heuristic. The Pan Am Flight 103 bombing was claimed by at least three groups, before being traced back to Libya. Gaddafi, for his part, didn't acknowledge responsibility until 2003.
readymade 11y ago
Here's another "fun" example. Some of our early uses of the term were to describe the KKK, which was and remains a terrorist organization par excellence. Except that the clandestine nature of the group, and thus the need for its members to lead superficially normal lives within the community, does not lend itself to claiming responsibility for attacks in the sense we associate with jihadist organizations. A classic example is the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing in 1963, which was perpetrated. The communities targeted by Klan members don't need to know exactly who was responsible for the violence to have its intended effect.
- golergka 11y ago
  > The communities targeted by Klan members don't need to know exactly who was responsible for the violence to have its intended effect. Hm, you're right. So — the point is not to claim the responsibility, but to make sure that everyone knows what political message is there behind the violence. Which is still not something that applies in LaGuardia case.

petethomas 11y ago

You can hear the relevant CBS Evening News radio update at the beginning of this mp3, and again at the end (~1h:00m:41s in): http://cbsrmt.thelongtrek.com/pp/CBSRMT%20-%20751229%200404%20The%20Memory%20Killers_pp.mp3 http://cbsrmt.thelongtrek.com/pp/CBSRMT%20-%20751229%200404%... Edit:spelling