Thr first amendment, or any other amendment does not trump our safety and the safety of those of us in the armed forces abroad.

Disagree.  Without the first amendment there’s nothing about America worth defending.

Though I support executing the sorts of traitors who would sell out our few, hard-won, and declining liberties for the sake of protection from an essentially non-existent threat. I’m probably more than 100,000 times more likely to be killed by an American than by an Islamic terrorist.

I don’t even understand this statement. What I do understand is that the first amendment of the constitution you’re trying to defend for your people starts with the phrase “Congress shall make no law…” which makes me believe that, in fact, the first amendment actually does trump whatever else. Because you can’t make a law that violates the first amendment, see. Congress shall make no law.

At any rate, if we’re going to be attributing corporations as identical to governments (which may certainly be valid) then we’d better be ensuring none of these subpoena-without-a-warrant-things happen anymore. Because, you know, laws and shit.

Cool story, bro!
Hey, I thought the Jews controlled the media….

There are two discrete casus belli: (1) the destruction of a country’s enemies for conquest or state protection, and (2) to establish an occupation force that will allow the conquering state, corporate and private actors to profit under protection from that force.

What I wondered about the declaration of the “War on Terror” and its manifestation in Iraq, in particular, was how many US elected leaders and members of the Bush administration were perfectly aware of the second reason and the inevitable results it would produce, despite their endless bloviating about casus #1.

Who follows these guys on Twitter anyway?  I wouldn’t because the last thing I need is to read about psycho murderers, but I’d also suspect that being a follower is a good way to sign up for the no-fly list (and never be told why).

One has only to reflect back to Jeraldo Rivera exercizing what he believed to be his “right” to give away troop and asset movements in iraq on CNN by drawing childish drawings in the sand many years ago, and appealing to his handlers that he had amendment rights that necessitated he do that.

Plonker.

We used to execute traitors. 

This isn’t about these guys being murderous and crazy, which they clearly are. This is about the apalling double standard Twitter applies when it comes to who to censor, and who not to censor. Somehow, it ends up being the people designated as enemies by Western governments (“our enemies”), while those in government who have done similar things are free to propagandize, hypocritically talking about reducing violence while constantly perpetrating it in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and many other places.

Additionally, one might want to consider where “implacable hatred” comes from. One might consider what that French agent was doing in Mali, and you might consider the history of French interventions in Africa, particularly Algeria, as well as elsewhere such as Vietnam (Indochina at the time).  Then one might gain an understanding of the unspeakable horrors that produce “implacable hatred”, and some of the reasons why these people act the way they do. This does not excuse their behavior – nothing does – but it provides a context in which one can then understand that there is *also* no excuse for the behavior of the French government.

Twitter is not subject to the First Amendment, but I hope they reconsider. This is speech that the West needs to hear, despite how vile and painful it is. This is what our policies have produced and continue to produce. These kinds of things are the results of “nation building” and “stability operations”.

Read what former ambassador Robert Fowler had to say about it. Based on observing AQ during his captivity, he said that (in Mali in particular) there is nobody to talk to, nobody to negotiate with, nothing to talk about. Any time spent talking to their western-trained media people will be used by them to dig-in, re-trench and recover.

I am normally more optimistic about such things, but he really set me back on my heels on this one.  If he is right, we face a foe with an implacable hatred. Let’s not give them any forum to spread that hatred.

Let’s try not tossing everyone of a particular nationality into the same bin. Insult my government all you want – they have it coming – but your proclivity for making racist generalizations about USians is banal and not any less bigoted when the millions of people you’re pigeonholing happen to have been born within the borders of a country whose government you revile. Nationalism and xenophobia have done enough damage to this world already.

You can be as political as you want and say as many dumb things as you want but start doing actaully graphic stuff and twitter can chose to step in. 

I came. I saw. I never left.

Incidentally, as a side note to any drone operators in the audience, I think I saw some Al-Qaeda in the office of one United States New Mexican State Representative Cathrynn Brown…

and it seems a double standard on twitter’s part…north korea still has its twitter account:  https://twitter.com/uriminzok
(as do many republicans who say way worse things.)