The JackB

"When you're in jail, a good friend will be trying to bail you out. A best friend will be in the cell next to you saying, 'Damn, that was fun'." Groucho Marx

Archives for August 2006

JonBenet Ramsey Continued

by 3 Comments

Here is some additional information regarding the post below. This still leaves a few questions to be answered.

BOULDER, Colorado (CNN) — John Mark Karr, a 41-year-old schoolteacher, has been charged with murder in the 1996 killing of 6-year-old JonBenet Ramsey, authorities said at a news conference in Boulder, Colorado, on Thursday.

Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy wouldn’t comment on nature of investigation or the timing of the arrest.

“There is much more work to be done” on the case, Lacy said.

“Let us do our job thoroughly and carefully,” Lacy asked the media.

Karr had begun working as second-grade teacher in Bangkok international school system on Tuesday, Lacy said.

Karr said in Bangkok he was with the child beauty queen when she died in 1996 and called her death “an accident.”

“I was with JonBenet when she died,” he told reporters in Bangkok. “I loved JonBenet.”

Asked by a reporter if he was an innocent man, Karr replied, “No.”

And here is another section to review.

Abduction gone awry?

Suwat quoted Karr as saying that he tried to kidnap JonBenet for $118,000 ransom but that the plan went awry and he strangled her, according to an AP report.

Karr told questioners he drugged and then had sex with JonBenet before accidentally killing her, Thamrongrisakul told The Associated Press on Thursday.

Thamrongrisakul said he was not present for the questioning, which was conducted by U.S. law enforcement officials, according to the AP report, but was told of the interrogation.

Karr had been a suspect for a while, Hurst said, adding that her office and the Thai police worked closely for two months before a judge believed probable cause existed for an arrest.

Karr’s arrest was the culmination of an investigation that began after a University of Colorado professor, Michael Tracey, contacted authorities in Boulder.

Tracey, who produced a documentary about the JonBenet murder, had been in touch with Karr for at least two years, according to university spokesman Barrie Hartman.

Karr’s ex-wife, Lara Karr, told KGO-TV in California that she does not believe her former husband killed JonBenet because he was with her in Alabama at the time.”

A Lebanese Perspective

by Leave a Comment

The Lebanese Political Journal offers a post about where things stand now.

“No maybe political statements have been made from the 14 March camp, but Druze leader and regular Lebanese rhetorical firestarter Walid Jumblatt announced that he will hold a press conference on Thursday entitled, “We will not surrender to Assad and Nasrallah’s conditions.”

The tone in Lebanon has already changed. According to friends in Beirut, not even the Shia were happy with Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah’s post-ceasefire speech.

The Shia community is the most vulnerable right now. Hezbollah is using fierce rhetoric, most likely, to intimidate other Lebanese politicians and sects from criticizing them and to delay any talk of their disarmament. This rhetorical move is sending shivers down the spines of most Shia because now is precisely the time to talk about Hezbollah’s weapons. We were talking about them before in an effort to prevent something happening like what just occurred. Now, the urgency to talk is even greater.

Hezbollah’s rhetoric is frightening many Shia because they are without homes, food, electricity, medication, money, roads, utilities, and other necessities. They could take the fight against Israel. They can’t take much more. And they definitely can’t take arms against the people who most recently supported them when they were in need; the very people who currently in a much better state than those who lost their homes.

Many Shia claim that if Hezbollah doesn’t provide them with support very soon, they will no longer be able to support the organization. Many Shia were willing to support Hezbollah through thick and thin because Hezbollah took care of them. In Dahieh Jounoubieh (the southern suburbs of Beirut which is primiarly Shia and where Hezbollah’s headquarters are located), Hezbollah was referred to as chebab (guys) who took care of all sorts of mundane problems.

Now that they have truly suffered for Hezbollah, the Shia want something in return. Their houses are gone. Their furniture is gone. Their loved ones are gone. And they want to know if Hezbollah will help offset their losses. In his speech, Nasrallah claimed he would. But most likely that support will be too little, too late.”

We shall have to see what this all means.

Updated to include:

The war Hezbollah couldn’t lose – and might

(Thanks Snoopy)

So how could Hezbollah lose?

They still might. And not only because its gunners have yet to make good on Nasrallah’s probably ill-advised (and reminiscent of Israeli blunders) vow to send missiles crashing into Tel Aviv.

The answer lies in the nature of the cease-fire now under debate at the United Nations and across the Arab world. The answer lies, no less, in the one phenomenon that Israelis planners could not have foreseen, and which they are still at a loss to explain:

The world’s silence.

For all the name-calling and hand-wringing – much of it perfectly valid, others drearily, predictably one-sided – Israel has been for a solid month operating under no real international pressure.

The reason this time may have little to do with Israel, and everything to do with Iran.

The world is scared of Hezbollah. Because the whole world is scared of Iran. Especially large swaths of the Arab world.

If, for the first time, Hezbollah is forced by international pressure to pull back its fighters in favor of the Lebanese army and a multi-national force, even at the cost of a large prisoner exchange.


Arrest made in JonBenet Ramsey case

by 4 Comments

I truly hope that they have the right person. I hope that there is a special place in hell for those who hurt children. I can’t believe that it has already been ten years.

“(CNN) — Authorities have arrested a “possible suspect” in the decade-old JonBenet Ramsey murder investigation, law enforcement sources told CNN on Wednesday.

An investigator with the Boulder County, Colorado, District Attorney’s office traveled to Bangkok, Thailand, and is bringing a suspect back to the United States, CNN Denver affiliate KUSA reported.

The suspect was arrested Wednesday morning and has confessed to certain elements of the crime that are unknown to the general public, KUSA reported.

The man already was already held in Bangkok on unrelated sex charges, sources told The Associated Press.

Prosecutors have not confirmed the identity of the suspect, but expect to hold a press conference later today.

JonBenet’s beaten and strangled body was found in the basement of the family home in Boulder, Colorado, the day after Christmas in 1996. She was 6.”

Lebanese And Israeli Destruction- The Media

by Leave a Comment

Call me crazy, but virtually every non-Israeli media report I read about the aftermath of the war shows pictures of the destruction in Lebanon and almost nothing on Israel. It offers stories of what happened to the Lebanese. They are often tragic tales and they certainly shouldn’t be discounted.

Is it just me or does there seem to be a bit of imbalance here. Where are the pictures of the wanton destruction caused by Hezbollah missiles. Where are the stories about those who were indiscriminately slaughtered by the intentional attacks on a civilian population.

Again, I do not discount the loss for the Lebanese, but it is just unreasonable not to expect to see coverage of the Israeli side.

For more on this check out Soccer Dad’s post here.

Grandpa Is Still Gone

by 10 Comments

My sister and her kids left this evening. It was the first time that the children had been here since my grandfather died. They ran around the house searching for him. The older two understood that he is gone, but that didn’t stop them from conducting a little scavenger hunt of sorts.

I miss my grandfather. Three years ago I had four grandparents and now I have two. Life changes so very quickly. Sometimes I wake up and find that I have forgotten that he is gone.

When I walk through my parent’s house I find myself looking for him. Everywhere. Somewhere. Anywhere. The halls are empty and his chair is bare. His presence is absent and yet in some ways it is still there, lingering.

My father is an orphan. I suppose that one day I will be too. I look at him. I watch him and study how he handles this. It is a habit that was ingrained in me at birth. How can I not pay attention to him and how can I not notice how many things he does that my grandfather did.

There are expressions and gestures. There are reactions and actions and in all of them I see my father and echoes of my grandfather. If I see this much in my father it makes me wonder how much my children see in me, or how much they will see.

Grandpa and I were very similar. There are some things that I share with him that I don’t have in common with my father. It is ok, I don’t see a need to be a mirror image. I don’t expect my son or daughter to be a mirror image of me either.

I suppose that in some ways we cannot help but look at our parents/grandparents and study them in an effort to understand ourselves better.

The children asked about him. They knew that he was gone, but still they wanted to know where Grandpa was. I asked them where they thought he was and in a quiet voice the eldest said “he died.”

We talked about it a little. It is a conversation that I have had with my son many times. He understands that right now he is the end of the line. Grandpa died and that left the line with my father, myself and my son.

And then there were three.

In a short time my daughter’s memories of grandpa will fade. My two youngest nephews won’t remember him at all and the reality is that even the memories of the eldest will be vague. It pains me a little.

My grandfather meant so much to me. He is a part of me. Like I said earlier, there are certain things that he and I shared. There are secrets that I was given trust of and in turn secrets that I placed in his care.

The things that we knew about each other are deep and the truth is that it really bothers me to write about him in the past tense.

Here is the big secret. When I think about him I don’t always get that lump in my throat and part of me feels guilty about that. It feels a bit like a betrayal to his memory and at the same time I know that he wouldn’t want the fuss. He would be uncomfortable with it, so I can’t be too upset.

It is a part of life and in my experience it is ok to let some of that go. It is not really a betrayal. It is ok not to hold on to the pain and loss.

That doesn’t mean that I don’t feel it from time to time, I do. It just means that it is not always present.

I loved my grandfather. It is tough to realize that I don’t have him around anymore and it is hard to accept that the kids will never know him the way that I did.

But they will hear stories and in spending time with me they’ll be exposed to certain expressions and thoughts. So I suppose that in some way they will learn more about his legacy.

Grandpa died. It sounds so hollow and feels so empty.

I miss you…still.