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Videogame Character Threatens National Security?
Watchful Babbler writes "Apparently, 'the lead item on the government's daily threat matrix one day last April' was clear and definite: a reclusive millionaire had formed a terrorist group with the intent of launching chemical weapons attacks on Western cities. The White House was notified and the Director of the FBI briefed as the government raced to find information. But then, according to USNews.com, a White House staffer decided to Google for information on suspected threat Don Emilio Fulci and found him -- in a video game - Sega's action title Headhunter. No word on exactly which sources and methods came up with this gem, but word in the E Ring is that Fulci had issued the cryptic warning, 'You have no chance to survive make your time'."
... or is terrorism winning?
It certainly feels like evey time we get a false positive we panic.
I don't see how so many of you conclude that the government doesn't know a real threat from a video game character. A threat can crop up in any one of a gazillion ways. Once made, they have to verify threats before they take them seriously. They did. They determined it was a video game character.
How else does it work? Magic? When a threat comes in, they use telepathic powers to determine that any given name is a real one and not a video game character? A quick google isn't to everyone's liking?
Dumbasses.
I'd be more afraid if the government weren't incompetent.
Could it be that you are all being had? Did anyone here bother to cross-examine the validity of this story or do any research? I guess when Slashdotters take things on faith they *must* be right because, well, that's just how the world works. Facts are facts because they fulfill our wildest fantasies.
*sigh*
Of a very knee-jerk reaction to security here in the US
Knee-jerk in what way? I don't remember Fulci being placed at the top of the Most Wanted List. Was there an APB put out for him? Did Bush get in front of the microphones and say we had a new, greater, enemy in the war on terror? No, some nutjob phoned in a "tip", and after it went through various channels someone discovered it was a hoax. It happens all the time, nothing to see here, move along.
God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
From the (extremely brief) article it sounds like the system put in place to evaluate threats worked. A potential threat was identified somehow, then dismissed once it was turned out to be a nonthreat. Its not like any action beyond evaluation was taken. Even if the "potential threat" in this case was a videogame character, I would prefer to have a human being make that call then let some automated search engine do the screening based on some rules. Whatever automated system they are using is probably only designed to identify potential threats, not evaluate them.
History shows that war on any common noun does not go well. Where are we with the war on drugs? How's that war on poverty going?
For a war to really get traction and be effect it needs to be against a Person or Place, not just a Thing.
He had weapons.
In the early nineties, sure. And then nearly all of it was destroyed, correct? By the U.N.? Did he a) have weapons in 2003 and b) directly threatened the United States, and did he c) have the technological capability to achieve that threat?
The world told him to show proof that he had disarmed. He didn't. The only safe assumption a Commander in Chief could make based on that evidence is that he still has the weapons. Anthrax just does not dissappear, after all.
So, if I ask Cuba to show me proof that it has no military capability to attack the US, and they don't comply, my only option is to invade the country?
Sometimes I wonder if people are listening to the same President Bush.
I heard he can talk even when Cheney drinks water.
Both Bush and Blair were very clear that we must act BEFORE Iraq can plan to use the weapons- BEFORE they became an immenent threat. Its too late to act if he already has a gun pointed at our head.
Owning a gun is not a crime. Pointing it at someone is. Or, does this only apply to oil-bearing nations?
Iraq has known terrorist connections- they have been on the State Dept list of Terror Sponsering States for 15 years. We should have acted against that threat a lot sooner than we did.
Here are the others on that list: Cuba, Iran, Libya, North Korea, Sudan, and Syria. How many of those countries were involved in the 9-11 attacks? Oh, that's right - none. Something tells me we need a new list.
Iraq was in violation of 17 Chapter VII UN resolutions as well as the cease-fire from the first Gulf War that required them to disarm. Iraq had shown that they are willing to use their WMDs.
Sounds like a UN problem to me. We acted unilaterally because? And they had used WMDs on foreigners when? I mean, besides the Iran war where the Reagan Administration trained them and sold them their first WMDs.
If I remember correctly, a nation is allowed to do whatever it wants inside it's own borders. Little thing those "big-time reporters" call sovereignty.
Iraq had just tried to illegally expand their borders...
Which threatened the US in what way?
Iraq is sitting on some of the richest natural resources in the world to finance almost anything that they would like.
Again, if you find the pieces needed to make a bomb inside my house - like alcohol, fertilizer, and household cleaners - it doesn't mean that I'm going to make a bomb. If you find plans to make one, and a hit list, and a preperation area, then you can arrest me for conspiring. You can't kill people if they have "the ability to conspire." It's too vague, and basically is a license to kill anyone the government doesn't like.
McVeigh was from New York- should we invade New York also? At least Saudi Arabia revoked bin Laden's citizenship. Unless maybe you have some special insider knowledge about the Saudi Royal family?
Well, if fifteen people from New York City area were involved, I'd want some action from the NYPD. The Saudis did not see a single bad word out of Bush's mouth. They revoked bin Laden's citizenship in 1994, not after 9-11. After 9-11, not a single person in Saudi Arabia was arrested and delivered to the US. Is it your belief that the only people from Saudi Arabia involved in the attacks were the original 15?
I am glad that the man in charge of protecting our national security DOES have the balls to act when necessary.
Iraq, besides the two Gulf wars, has killed zero US Citizens. Al Queda killed 3,000, and so far, in a year of occupation, no document has linked Al Queda and the old Iraqi government. Saudi Arabia didn't receive so much as a slap on the wrists.
Bush has the balls to look like he has balls, but that's about it.