Our Friday News Analysis | What the World Reads Now!

Luigi Mangione arrives in New York City on December 19. (Photo by XNY/STAR MAX/GC images)

By Gurwinder Bhogal

The Prism
Substack.com
23 December 2024

After the suspected killer of United Health Care CEO Brian Thompson was identified as Luigi Mangione, a bright young man from a wealthy family, thousands of pundits rushed to explain his motives. I, however, held back because, unlike them, I had met Luigi, and I knew that not everything was as it seemed.

For days after the revelation, my phone buzzed incessantly with journalists asking me for comment. It was hard to say anything coherent because my mind was a storm. I constantly replayed memories of my interactions with the suspect, trying to find meaning in even our most banal exchanges.

Since then, I’ve gained some detachment from the situation and now feel clear-headed enough to share my complete opinion. So here it is.

Luigi first reached out to me via email on April 6th. He mentioned that he had been a longtime fan of my work and had just purchased a $200 founding membership for this blog, which entitled him to a two-hour video call with me. A month later, on May 5th, we had our conversation.

From the start, he was warm and gregarious, praising my writing and showing his excitement about speaking with me. He mentioned he was on vacation in Japan, which led me to ask about his experience there. He replied that while he appreciated many aspects of Japanese culture, especially its sense of honor, he felt that Japan was filled with “NPCs” (people who don’t think for themselves). He then recounted a story he had first shared in an email: one morning, he saw a man having a seizure on the street, so he rushed to the nearest police station for help. They followed him back to the man but refused to cross any street if the traffic light was red—even when the road was clear—as the man lay seizing on the ground. Luigi expressed his frustration with what he called “a lack of free will” in Japan, implying a lack of agency.

I quickly realized that agency was a significant concern for Luigi. He mentioned that three of my articles—"The Intellectual Obesity Crisis," "Why You Are Probably an NPC," and "Why Everything Is Becoming a Game"—particularly resonated with him. All three describe threats to human autonomy.

Luigi explained why he believed Japan represented the future dystopia I had warned about in some of my writings. He discussed the hikikomori, Japanese men who spend their lives isolated in their bedrooms, numbing themselves with video games, pornography, and other superficial distractions. For Luigi, these individuals have surrendered control over their lives, becoming mindless enslaved people to stimuli, much like drivers who stop at red lights even when it makes no sense.

But it wasn’t just Japan. Luigi believed that people everywhere were becoming NPCs, increasingly living as a series of reflex reactions instead of consciously choosing their actions. Japan was merely the canary in the coal mine. The West was closely following behind, driven by tech companies intent on mesmerizing us into submissive consumers. Luigi feared that once we surrendered our agency, we would relinquish everything else.

Unlike many who label others as NPCs, Luigi demonstrated enough self-awareness to recognize that he, too, had spent much of his life on autopilot, admitting he sometimes squandered entire afternoons doomscrolling on social media. He expressed a desire to reclaim some agency he felt he had lost to online distractions, so we dedicated a significant portion of our conversation to discussing ways he could become more agentic.

I shared my favorite philosophy, Stoicism, with him and explained how it can teach one to ignore distractions and focus on living more deliberately. Luigi listened attentively and displayed great curiosity, gently interrupting me to ask about any terms he didn’t understand.

I also suggested to Luigi that he avoid automating the tasks he wanted to improve and instead try to make them enjoyable by turning them into games. This led us to discuss my essay on gamification, “Why Everything is Becoming a Game.”

Luigi had a lot to say about this essay, mainly because it discusses the story of the Unabomber, Ted Kaczynski, who shared Luigi’s belief that modern life undermines people’s agency. Kaczynski was a terrorist whose bombs killed and injured innocent people, and I made it clear that, while I agreed with some aspects of his manifesto, I found his actions reprehensible. Luigi agreed, saying, “he deserved to be taken seriously, but he also deserved to be in jail.”

Besides Kaczynski, Luigi’s intellectual tastes were relatively normal. Writers he spoke fondly of included Tim Urban, Sam Harris, Yuval Noah Harari, Jonathan Haidt, and Aldous Huxley. His political views were less conventional. When I asked him if he was voting in the presidential election, he scrunched his nose and said he wasn’t crazy about Trump or Biden but liked some of the things RFK Jr. was saying. I regard RFK Jr. as a crank who regularly pushes harmful pseudoscience, but I didn’t mention it so as not to derail the conversation.

We ended up discussing intergenerational trauma, and that was where we had our only significant disagreement. Luigi suggested that he believed trauma could be directly inherited and that it accumulated within families, much like generational wealth. He claimed to base this view partly on his experiences (I can’t elaborate). It sounded like he was describing a pseudoscientific misinterpretation of epigenetics, popularized by activist academics and books like The Body Keeps the Score.

The idea that trauma is transmitted epigenetically is not only unscientific but also undermines personal agency. If you believe your trauma is embedded in your DNA, you may be more likely to accept it passively rather than actively striving to overcome it. Therefore, I pointed out why he was incorrect as politely as possible to empower Luigi's agency.

After we exchanged pleasantries and concluded our chat, I sent Luigi an article that debunks epigenetic trauma. He replied shortly afterward, thanking me for the article and sharing his learning. He also mentioned that he had purchased a six-month subscription to the app Readwise Reader because he knew my job required extensive research and believed the app would be beneficial.

Now, I have Asperger’s, so I’m not great at picking up social cues. Also, I’ve enjoyed every subscriber I’ve had a video call with (and I’ve had quite a few), so I might not be very discerning in that area. However, Luigi struck me as a nice guy: polite, thoughtful, curious, and kind.

It wasn’t just that he bought me a subscription to an app he believed might help me. He also demonstrated the same desire to assist people he didn’t know, often expressing concerns about humanity and wishing to find ways to improve everyone’s lives. He viewed most people as NPCs who needed to be awakened, yet he never came off as arrogant, seeing himself as equally zombielike in many of his thoughts and behaviors. His perspective on society was somewhat pessimistic, but he balanced it with a sense of humor and focused on finding solutions instead of merely complaining. Although he seemed to hold some unscientific views, he was always open to other perspectives and willing to update his beliefs when corrected.

We interacted on social media several times afterward, and each time, he appeared just as polite and thoughtful as in our chat. As summer ended, I largely withdrew from social media to focus on my book, so I didn’t notice that Luigi had disappeared.

And then, a few months later, Brian Thompson was shot dead.

Many people celebrated the murder. Some were frustrated by the high costs of health insurance, while others were outraged because they or a loved one had been denied medical claims. They blamed Thompson, the CEO of the largest health insurance company in the U.S., for this situation.

Naturally, the slick young man identified as Thompson’s killer was soon venerated as a hero. Memes glorifying him spread across social media. Prayer candles featuring his likeness were sold. The jacket he’d worn saw a spike in sales. And hundreds of thousands of dollars were donated for his defense.

As for me, I was appalled. Vigilantism is always wrong. If you celebrate someone shooting a defenseless person in the street, then you advocate for a world where this is acceptable for anyone to do. You support a world where a stranger can decide that you’re also a bad person and shoot you down in the street. I promise your health insurance would cost significantly more in such a world.

The murder would’ve been shocking even if I didn’t know the murderer. But everything became surreal when the suspect was identified as the same Luigi Mangione with whom I had a deep discussion. My mind raced back to our chat, searching for clues that he could’ve done this.

The only thing that stood out was his mention that healthcare in the U.S. is expensive and that we Britons are lucky to have a National Health Service. However, even this statement did not indicate that Luigi was capable of what he was being accused of.

When someone is found guilty of murder, friends and family often react with comments like, “I can’t believe it; he seemed like such a nice guy.” I instinctively felt the same way about Luigi. However, as the shock wore off and my senses returned, I was no longer surprised. I’ve long understood that people capable of immense kindness can also be capable of tremendous cruelty, as the same frenzied impulsivity often drives both extremes. That’s why many of those celebrating the murder identify as “compassionate” leftists. It also explains why individuals who intended to do good often carry out history's greatest evils.

What puzzled me even more than the cruelty was the stupidity. Luigi had seemed too intelligent to commit such a foolish act. While smart people can often rationalize stupid actions and beliefs more effectively, Luigi’s claimed rationale, presented in a 262-word “manifesto,” fell far short of the intellectual standard I would have expected from him.

The data blogger Cremieux

Recueil dismantles the manifesto point by point; for instance, it states, “the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy,” neglecting to acknowledge that the US’s healthcare costs generally align with its income levels.

Its life expectancy is influenced more by obesity, violence, and drug addiction among Americans than by health insurance. Additionally, the manifesto contains fundamental factual inaccuracies, such as confusing market capitalization with revenue. The writer even concedes his lack of expertise: “Obviously, the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly, I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument.”

The justification for targeting Brian Thompson was not only foolish, but the action itself was also misguided. While it’s true that UnitedHealth Care has the highest denial rate for medical claims, the CEO does not determine the approval rate for a health insurance company’s payouts. That responsibility lies with the actuaries, who are themselves limited by various factors, like the need to manage costs, including for policyholders. However, it wouldn't have made a significant difference even if Thompson had total authority to set his company’s approval rates.

As economics blogger Noah Smith points out, health insurance companies don’t become wealthy by denying payouts for claims. UnitedHealth Care’s net profit margin is only 6.11%, roughly half the average profit margin for companies in the S&P 500. If UnitedHealth Group donated every dollar of its profit to expanding health care access for Americans, it would only cover about 9.3% more health care than it currently funds.

According to Harvard economist David Cutler, who has written extensively about the US healthcare system, the main reason healthcare costs in the US are high is administrative inefficiencies. Insurance companies and organizations that deal with them, such as hospitals, have become bureaucratically bloated to administer a wildly unstandardized healthcare system. This bloat now accounts for one-third of every dollar spent on healthcare in the US.

The ultimate point here is that Brian Thompson was not the problem. He was a regular, flawed guy trying to keep costs low for both his company and his policyholders while fulfilling his fiduciary duty to shareholders, on whose investments his company depended. He was a tiny cog in a vast and unfair system that is controlled not by a single person but by the collective actions of millions of individuals operating in their immediate interests. Ted Kaczynski referred to such decentralized issues as “self-propagating systems,” acknowledging that they were not the result of human coordination but rather a lack of it.

If Kaczynski’s bombs and 35,000-word manifesto couldn’t dismantle such a system, then a 3D-printed pistol and a poorly written 262-word manifesto certainly won’t. You can’t shoot your way out of a problem that ultimately isn’t anyone’s fault.

Still, people allocate agency strategically, praising allies and blaming enemies. Luigi’s supporters misattribute total agency to Thompson to scapegoat him for a societal problem he had little control over. Meanwhile, they deny all agency to Luigi, claiming he was pushed to do what he did by a corrupt system or simple back pain.

However, while they’re mistaken about Thompson, they might have a valid point regarding Luigi. If he were in extreme pain or suffering from mental illness, it would explain why a man who consistently showed thoughtfulness in his interactions with me committed such a monumentally thoughtless act, rationalized by an equally thoughtless note.

On the other hand, if Luigi was mentally or physically unwell, it’s unlikely he’d have been able to forge documents, acquire a 3D-printed ghost gun, plan and carry out a meticulous assassination, and then evade authorities for almost a week while traveling across states in one of the most surveilled regions on earth.

In my limited interactions with Luigi, I never got the impression that he had spinal or mental issues. But I did get the sense that he felt alienated. He often decried the lack of social connection in the modern world and, on several occasions, lamented that the people around him were “on a different wavelength” from him.

On June 10th, I received my last communication from Luigi. It was a seemingly innocent request; he wanted my help curating his social media feed. I had already given him tips on how to do that, so the question struck me as odd. I directed him to a relevant article I had written and offered to answer his questions about it. I never heard from him again.

In retrospect, I wonder if his request was an awkward cry for help. A New York Times journalist told me it was his last online communication. It’s hard not to wonder if things might have turned out differently had I answered his call.

I’m not sure if Luigi found the agency he was looking for. If he didn’t, I hope he receives the help he needs. But if he did, then the price of agency is culpability.

What is the Side of the Story that is Not Yet Decisive? Edited by Abraham A. van Kempen

EDITOR’S NOTE | INSANE

I know several bright, talented, and gifted individuals, often with high IQs but low EQs, who genuinely believe in their own hype. They rely on their innate intelligence, charm, and good looks to get what they want. Figuratively speaking, these are the types who tend to get something for nothing and firmly believe they can evade consequences – getting away with murder.

I’m referring to near-geniuses who seldom read their textbooks and rarely attend class, yet often graduate Magna Cum Laude, frequently from Ivy League universities. They express themselves cleverly, with calculating communication skills, and draw admirers—wannabes—who place them on pedestals. On campus, they are treated like royalty. In the real world, they hold esteemed positions in government, business, and global networks.

But everyone makes mistakes. No one is perfect. We all miscalculate.

The perpetrators of the My Lai Massacre, the bloodbaths in Ukraine and Russia, the slaughter in Germany, and the worldwide holocausts are individuals who fit my description of the high and mighty—those who believe they can obtain something for nothing and evade justice for their crimes, getting away with murder.

They’re stuck in their ruts, holding onto their illusions. So are their wannabes, who enable and support tyranny.

Insane!

PS: Graduates from top universities run the world. Why do some key players resort to war? It’s all about power and the belief that ‘Might is Right.’ Those who crave wealth and power while waving the banner of Holy Goodness are lost in their arrogance. In their self-importance—narcissism—they no longer rely on a moral compass.

Indeed, most individuals, including graduates from top universities, participate in socio-economic development. Unlike the power- and money-hungry leadership, their moral compass drives them to make the world a better place.

_________________________

EDITORIAL | A NEW YEAR’S WORD TO THE WISE

How does one get to know the other and one another? Remove your blinders! Expand your horizons! Open your world!

Entering the Modern Areopagus

By Abraham A. van Kempen
27 December 2024

How does one get to know the other and one another? Remove your blinders! Expand your horizons! Open your world! Build—don’t burn—one bridge at a time. While we can’t change the world, we can change ourselves. Let's strive to understand one another.

The Role of Critical Thinking

Critical thinking is an essential skill that encompasses analyzing, evaluating, and synthesizing information logically and thoughtfully. It inspires individuals to question assumptions, challenge ideas, and make informed decisions. This skill is especially vital in today's fast-paced, information-rich world, where one must differentiate credible sources from misinformation and tackle complex problems with innovative solutions.

Accurate knowledge fosters understanding, dispels prejudice, and ignites a desire for further learning. Words possess remarkable power; they can unite people, create divisions, build friendships, or incite hostility. Modern technology presents extraordinary opportunities for good, promoting harmony and reconciliation. However, its misuse can cause significant harm, misunderstanding, and prejudice.

When others are portrayed negatively, news spreaders often foster conflict that can quickly escalate into violence, war, or even genocide. Instead of promoting unity and understanding, the media frequently vilifies various groups—social, ethnic, and religious—stirring up fear and hatred.

After 75 years of estrangement, two brothers, arch enemies, made peace—they discovered the face of God in each other.

               ⁹ Esau said, “Oh, brother. I have plenty of everything—keep what is yours for yourself.”

               ^10-11 Jacob said, “Please. Accept these gifts to welcome me if you can find them in your heart.

                When I saw your face, it was as if God's face were smiling at me.

                 Accept the gifts I have brought for you. God has been good to me, and I have more than enough.”

                 Jacob urged the gifts on Esau, who accepted.

                __ Genesis 33:9-11 (The Message Translation)

                Read full chapter

Areopagus of the Modern Age

The media can educate billions about different parts of the world and diverse cultures. For good reason, it has been called "the first Areopagus of the modern age... for many, the main source of information, education, guidance, and inspiration.”

Images possess a distinctive power to create lasting impressions and shape perceptions. They educate people on how to view members of diverse groups and nations, subtly influencing their esteemed status as friends, foes, allies, or potential adversaries.

Indeed, the Building the Bridge Foundation (BTB) and various media sources have substantial potential to promote peace and build connections among people, breaking the destructive cycle of violence, retaliation, and ongoing conflict prevalent today.

We Propose, not Impose – The Readers Judge

Our readers want to review multiple narratives and divergent views to converge toward some sense of logic and understanding. Not one story reports the whole truth and nothing but the truth. We help our readers expand their blinders and broaden their horizons. BTB honors, respects, and dignifies their intelligence.

"I Think Therefore I am" (a Unique Creation in the Image of God!) … I Think NOT Therefore I'm WHAT? (A Robot in God's Image?)

The Building the Bridge Foundation asserts that human progress is possible only when respect for each person's inalienable dignity and rights is guaranteed.

• Every democratic system must protect and promote fundamental human rights in all areas.
• This pertains to rights associated with material survival and the human mind’s relentless quest for truth and freedom.
• The many forms of injustice and discrimination inflicted on the weak in too many parts of the world prove that the world is still far from that goal.

Today, the international community must urgently reaffirm its commitment to addressing the needs of all individuals.

Our Raison D'être – Our Reason for Being

If there is any question about our role in the world, it is whether we can leave it a better place. Can we do what is right? In response to the idea of 'a tooth for a tooth, an eye for an eye,' one might give a tooth or an eye if necessary and warranted. That is what bridge building is about.

IN THE HOLY LAND, JUST A COUPLE OF DEAD CATHOLICS

One year later, I thought we should not forget them. We should promise their memory and souls that we will not only not overlook them but also not give up our fight for their freedom and the freedom of their families. Say their names. Place this photo of them somewhere special. And make no mistake about what you and I are paying for. It’s on us.

Nahida Khalil Anton
Samar Kamal Anton

By Michael Moore
Substack.com
26 December 2024

There is much to feel today—love, family, community, kindness, etc. I hope you are all well and where you want to be—my best wishes to you and your year ahead.

I also didn’t want the day to end without remembering what happened last year at Christmas. Nahida Khalil Anton, a 70-year-old Palestinian Catholic mother of seven and grandmother of 20, and her 50-year-old daughter, Samar Kamal Anton, were executed by the Israeli Army while attending Mass at Holy Family Catholic Church in Gaza City. Nahida had gotten up to use the restroom across the courtyard on the church grounds.

The Israeli sniper on top of a nearby building tracked her through his high-powered scope as she made her way to the bathroom and pumped three bullets into her body, including one that tore a hole through her stomach as she fell to the ground. Nahida’s daughter, Samar, who worked for the nuns as their cook at the Mother Teresa convent attached to the church, ran to her mother’s lifeless body and began to drag her to safety.

As she did this, the sniper put his scope on her, aiming his powerful military assault rifle directly at her head, and murdered her instantly by blowing her head apart. An Israeli tank on the street fired three large shells into the church and convent, destroying much of it and then shooting and wounding at least another seven Catholics, including Samar’s brother Edward, who works with Doctors Without Borders. “They were shot in cold blood inside the premises of the parish,” witnesses, including priests, nuns, and parishioners, reported.

Pope Francis condemned the killings by the Israeli forces as an “act of terrorism.” Of course, the entire assault on the civilian population of Gaza has been one act of terrorism after another — ethnic cleansing, genocide, forced mass starvation, obliterating nearly every hospital, school, and apartment building. Murdering Catholics? Of course! Who do you think the regime is that rules — with the consent of the people — the State of Israel?

One year later, I thought we should not forget them. We should promise their memory and their souls that we will not only not overlook them but also not give up our fight for their freedom and the freedom of their families. Say their names. Place this photo of them somewhere special. And make no mistake about what you and I are paying for. It’s on us.

I know this is a day we’d instead focus on happier things.

Today's purpose is precisely this: to bring peace to Earth and Goodwill to those who are Oppressed and living under Occupation.

Thank you, everyone, for what you do to make this world a better place.

— Michael Moore

P.S. One year ago today, December 25, 2023, Netanyahu traveled to Gaza to commend his IDF troops for killing 250 people in 24 hours — including attacks on refugee camps — stating, “We do not stop.”

Bethlehem, Occupied West Bank, the Lutheran Church Nativity Scene where they placed the tiny statue of the Baby Jesus in a keffiyeh buried amid actual rubble from Gaza, Christmas 2023

One last request of the pro-Netanyahu crowd — the death toll of the innocents murdered in Gaza and the West Bank is now nearing 50,000 — the vast, vast majority of them babies, children, women, and the elderly — can you please just give me a number as to when your thirst for revenge/blood will be satiated?

Of the 1,200 slaughtered by Hamas fighters on 7 October 2023, how many more Palestinian civilians need to be executed?

I know there has to be a number. Would another 100,000 do? A million? Just give us a number so we’ll see when this can end.

And how many people can we Americans kill in Guatemala tonight so we can avenge the death of the woman on the NYC subway last week who died when that Guatemalan migrant set her body on fire? Would it not be righteous for us just to drop an atomic bomb on Guatemala and wipe ‘em all out? I want blood! I want the blood of Guatemalans dripping from my mouth!

Justice! Revenge! More murder! Yes!!!! Oh, it feels soooo good during the holidays!

THE MAGDEBURG MASSACRE: HOW THE GERMAN AUTHORITIES FAILED THE MURDERER’S VICTIMS

The perpetrator of the Christmas market car attack was not an Islamist, but he had raised a forest of red flags that went unaddressed.

Members of the public gather to lay flower tributes and hold an impromptu vigil at the Johanniskirche in memory of the victims of a terror attack the day before that left five people dead, including a small child, and over 200 injured on December 21, 2024, in Magdeburg, Germany. © Craig Stennett / Getty Images

By Tarik Cyril Amar, a historian from Germany who works at Koç University in Istanbul, specializing in Russia, Ukraine, Eastern Europe, the history of World War II, the cultural Cold War, and the politics of memory.

@tarikcyrilamartarikcyrilamar.substack.comtarikcyrilamar.com

24 December 2024
HomeWorld News

At 19:02 on December 20, a man named Taleb al-Abdulmohsen started a monstrous terror attack in the eastern German city of Magdeburg. Within minutes, he drove a powerful SUV through a tightly packed Christmas market, over about 400 meters and accelerating repeatedly. He did not “merely” ram his rented car into a crowd of families. He did it, in effect, repeatedly, displaying a revolting, persistent determination to cause as much death and injury as possible.

His innocent victims had no chance to escape.

Fortunately, he did neither. After his mass murder spree, his sturdy vehicle was wrecked from multiple impacts with much more fragile human bodies, serving as another indicator of the brutal violence of the attack. He had to stop and was quickly arrested. It is both remarkable and a testament to the discipline and self-control of the German police officer who pursued and stopped al-Abdulmohsen under conditions of extreme stress that he was not shot on sight.

As of December 22, five of al-Abdulmohsen’s victims, including a child, had died, more than 200 were injured, and over 40 were classified as “severely” or “very severely” injured, according to local authorities. The killer’s actions are evident, as are their immediate consequences. Everything else remains unresolved and largely unsettled.

For one thing, mainly due to, it was easy to jump to conclusions and assume that the Magdeburg mass murder was a case of radical Islamist terrorism. However, it quickly became apparent that this perpetrator had very different obsessions.

Al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old psychiatrist and psychotherapist – of all things – has a long history of exhibiting extreme hostility toward Islam. And not, please note, just Islamism, a modern political ideology, but Islam, an ancient religion, as such. A native of Saudi Arabia, al-Abdulmohsen abandoned his faith as a young man. Since 2006, he has lived in Germany. He initially arrived for medical training and later received official asylum based on his claim that his radical renunciation of Islam meant his life would be in danger in Saudi Arabia.

Read more
Reporter who interviewed market-attack suspect recalls ‘twisted mind’

Aside from his proud and public anti-Islam activism, al-Abdulmohsen’s statements, mainly through X and in several interviews, reveal a confused—if we’re being honest—view of the world. His unstable mind shows paranoia about the German state—the same one that granted him asylum—because he believes it is engaged in 'Islamicizing' Europe, somehow in cahoots with what al-Abdulmohsen describes as a 'Leftist Islamist alliance.' He also admires the far-right AfD (Alternative for Germany) party. Additionally, he has opinions about individuals: he seems to like Elon Musk and has a strong disdain for Angela Merkel for being too kind to Syrian refugees, for instance.

It should be clear that, in this case, one should not blame the objects of al-Abdulmohsen’s admiration for what the ravings of a delusional mind are. A German expert has plausibly suggested that al-Abdulmohsen "radicalized himself" by creating his ideology. The fact that Musk—falling for far-fetched fantasies about the irrelevant notion of "Taqiyya”—has been irresponsible enough to deny that this was not an Islamist attack is a different, serious matter. It seems the all-knowing tech billionaire cannot fathom that there exists a type of madness and terrorism he hasn’t heard about. Hi Elon, if you’re reading this, calling al-Abdulmohsen a concealed "Islamist" makes as much sense as labeling you a closet Stalinist.

The AfD held a rally in Magdeburg, calling for the deportation of migrants. Yet, in reality, the case of al-Abdulmohsen certainly does not provide ammunition for those Germans or others who love to blame everything and anything on migrants and migration. As perverse as this outcome is, this mass murderer – at first glance – might have seemed like an example of successful integration: well-educated, with a quintessentially middle-class/upper-middle-class job, and recognized asylum status. He expressed, as reported by the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, sympathy for "Greater Israel,” which refers to Israeli expansionism in all its staggering criminality and brutality. Alas, that degree of uncritical veneration for Israel is mainstream in Germany. Al-Abdulmohsen would precisely not have been deported.

Furthermore, al-Abdulmohsen referred to himself as "the most aggressive critic of Islam in history," a claim that strangely seems to enhance his appeal among many Westerners. As a lapsed Roman Catholic who still has some sympathy for the Church, I have never entirely understood why outright disdain for religion is regarded as a contemporary civic virtue; Voltairianism feels distinctly 18th-century.

Nevertheless, al-Abdulmohsen was often and favorably interviewed by mainstream media outlets like the BBC and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung due to his activism, which resonated strongly with the concerns of Centrists and liberals in the West. One difficult question his situation brings up is why it is so simple to appease many “woke” Westerners with unrestrained, even dismissive, criticisms of religion, particularly Islam.

As a perpetrator, al-Abdulmohsen does not resemble Anis Amri, the Islamist murderer in the Berlin Christmas attack eight years ago. Still, instead, a young man who went on a killing spree in a mall in Munich, also in 2016 Ali David Sonboly, was an Iranian-German who committed suicide after murdering nine innocents, seven of whom were Muslims and four of Turkish origin.

He was a loner, mentally deranged and frustrated, and fascinated by other mass shooter attacks. Politically, he hated migrants and felt attracted to racist far-right ideology to the point of boasting of sharing a birthday with Adolf Hitler. Sonboly seems to have seen himself as a successor to Norwegian far-right mass murderer Anders Breivik. In terms of religion, he made a point of refusing to be called “Ali” because it could make people think he was a Muslim. Indeed, like al-Abdulmohsen, Sonboly had grown up with Islam but then turned against it.

Read more
Musk accuses ‘Legacy Media’ of lying.

The details of Sonboly’s case are crucial now because they expose a simple, sad, and politically charged fact: In principle, German authorities had experience with a significant case that foreshadowed key aspects of the Magdeburg massacre and its perpetrator, al-Abdulmohsen. Moreover, as is becoming evident now—when it is too late—there were also many signs that al-Abdulmohsen had long not only possessed but also publicly displayed an extremely dark side.

This is not, in other words, a story about a bolt from the blue. This perpetrator could and should have been neutralized before he struck. The arch-conservative British Telegraph got it right on this issue: This was “a security failure.” Here’s why we must acknowledge that bitter truth: We now learn that al-Abdulmohsen has a long history of violent threats. More than ten years ago, in 2013, a German court fined him for "disturbing the public peace by threatening crimes.”

The crimes he discussed should have raised a forest of red flags that must never be lowered again. Due to a fairly mundane dispute with a professional association over the recognition of qualifications, al-Abdulmohsen threatened to take action that "would attract international attention." And no, he certainly didn’t mean a media campaign or a case at the European Court of Human Rights. How do we know? He referenced a significant terror attack that had recently occurred in Boston, US. Just ask yourself: regardless of whether the threat is acted upon (immediately, that is) or not, what kind of personality reacts in such a way to a case of relatively ordinary frustration?

Exactly. It doesn’t take a profiler.

Only one year later, in 2014, he made similar but less specific threats, resulting essentially in a talking-to. In 2015, he spoke about acquiring a gun and seeking revenge on the judges who had sentenced him two years earlier. Yet, in 2016, he was granted asylum.

Saudi Arabia issued repeated official warnings to the German security services about al-Abdulmohsen. These warnings seemingly had no effect and did not provoke a sufficient response. Why? Who knows? Perhaps the Saudi communications were dismissed as political persecution, with no German official considering the possibility that they might also be rooted in truth: even the persecuted can be real terrorists. If that's the case, did anyone compare what the Saudis reported with al-Abdulmohsen's activities, which were very public in Germany?

As late as one year ago, al-Abdulmohsen posted a threat to “make Germany pay the price” on X, where he had a large account with nearly 50,000 followers. That incident was investigated, but somehow, the investigators failed to find a “specific threat.” Then, just over half a year before the attack, the future mass murderer responded directly to an X post from the German minister of the interior, Nancy Faeser.

On that occasion, al-Abdulmohsen declared it was “very probable” he would die this year “to establish justice.” In August, four months before he struck at Magdeburg, he posted: “I assure you that if Germany wants a war, we will fight it. If Germany wants to kill us, we will slaughter them, die, or go to prison with pride.”

Finally, just over a week before his rampage at the Christmas market, the killer spoke on an American podcast. that Germany was after Saudi refugees and “actively destroying their lives.”

Read more
Germany was warned about Christmas market attack suspect – media.

Remember that the above is a deliberately incomplete summary of the extensive warning signs that have emerged concerning al-Abdulmohsen. More revelations will likely surface. One way or another, it is already a fact that Germany will need to understand why al-Abdulmohsen chose to become a killer, as that will be part of his trial. Germany will also have to confront the urgent question of how he could have possibly succeeded in realizing his murderous fantasy.

At this point, observers in Germany, such as those at the country’s most crucial center-right paper, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, note two "fatal patterns”:

               Despite his conspicuous behavior and previous conviction, al-Abdulmohsen did not fit the authorities’ preconceived—and overly narrow—ideas of what a truly dangerous extremist should look like. Furthermore, his case was treated with insufficient urgency.

That kind of explanation, disturbing as it may be, remains the least unsettling option available. Some commentators have begun speculating about a possible dual role al-Abdulmohsen may have played on social media:

               Was he somehow, at some point, possibly linked to security services? For instance, could he have been an agent provocateur or an informant? If so, for whom? One could argue there’s no evidence to support this perspective.

However, first, what do you expect, given the genuinely unbelievable way this terrorist, who was not only being groomed but also couldn’t stop discussing it, managed to slip through? And second, leaving no easily interpretable evidence is, after all, what security services excel at. A conspiracy theory? Yes, for now. But we also live in a world filled with very real conspiracies.

In any case, it’s campaigning season in Germany. So far, the AfD stands out with its demagogic and entirely misleading rhetoric. However, Germany’s top politicians are generally treading carefully—not from genuine piety, rest assured. It’s just that no one—except the raucous AfD—wants to be the first accused of exploiting this horror for political purposes. Still, that’s precisely what they will all do.

Although this may seem counterintuitive and difficult to accept, it is a positive development. The worst possible outcome would be if Germany’s political elite signed an unspoken agreement to protect one another by avoiding making this significant security failure a political matter.

The victims do not seek false, self-serving "piety.”

They deserve justice concerning not only al-Abdulmohsen, the murderer but also those who failed to take him seriously enough to stop him.

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME

A journey to Vietnam

Hersh was at work in North Vietnam in 1972, three years after he broke the massacre story. / Courtesy Seymour Hersh.

By Seymour Hersh
Substack.com
26 December 2024

Sadly, this holiday season is yet another marked by war and death throughout the Middle East, Ukraine, and especially in Gaza.

In keeping with the somber spirit of our time, I have decided to fill this off week with an old yet relevant piece originally published in the New Yorker in 2015 about the horrific My Lai massacre, which I first reported as a lowly freelance journalist in Washington in the fall of 1969.

I traveled to Vietnam a decade after the war ended but could not bear the thought of visiting My Lai and seeing the ditch full of innocents who, as I reported, had been executed by members of an American infantry company. I later learned—I wrote two books about the massacre—that some leaders at the top of the Army’s chain of command realized early on that those slain in the ditch were prisoners of war and, under the Geneva Conventions, were entitled to protection, housing, food, and the right to send and receive mail. They all remained silent until I stumbled upon the story.

I felt ambivalent about visiting the ditch—how many tears can one shed?—but David Remnick, the editor of the New Yorker, thought it was essential to remind readers of what happened that day, March 16, 1968.

The past proved to be vividly present at My Lai.

There is a long ditch in the village of My Lai. On the morning of March 16, 1968, it was crowded with the bodies of the dead—dozens of women, children, and older adults, all gunned down by young American soldiers. Now, forty-seven years later, the ditch at My Lai seems wider than I remember from the news photographs of the slaughter: erosion and time doing their work.

During the Vietnam War, there was a rice paddy nearby, but it has been paved over to make My Lai more accessible to the thousands of tourists who come each year to wander past the modest markers describing the terrible event. The My Lai massacre was a pivotal moment in that misbegotten war: an American contingent of about a hundred soldiers, known as Charlie Company, having received poor intelligence and thinking that they would encounter Vietcong troops or sympathizers, discovered only a peaceful village at breakfast. Nevertheless, the soldiers of Charlie Company raped women, burned houses, and turned their M-16s on the unarmed civilians of My Lai. Among the leaders of the assault was Lieutenant William L. Calley, a junior college dropout from Miami.

By early 1969, most members of Charlie Company had completed their tours and returned home. At that time, I was a thirty-two-year-old freelance reporter in Washington, D.C. Eager to understand how young men—boys, really—could have done this, I spent weeks seeking them out. In many cases, they spoke openly and, for the most part, honestly with me, recounting their experiences at My Lai and how they planned to cope with the memories.

In testimony before an Army inquiry, some soldiers acknowledged being at the ditch but claimed they disobeyed Calley, who ordered them to kill. They stated that one of the main shooters, along with Calley himself, was Private First Class Paul Meadlo. The truth remains elusive, but one G.I. described a moment that most of his fellow soldiers, I later learned, remembered vividly. At Calley’s order, Meadlo and others fired round after round into the ditch and tossed in a few grenades.

Then came a high-pitched whining, which grew louder as a two or three-year-old boy, covered with mud and blood, crawled his way among the bodies and scrambled toward the rice paddy. His mother had likely protected him with her body. Calley saw what was happening and, according to the witnesses, ran after the child, dragged him back to the ditch, threw him in, and shot him.

The morning after the massacre, Meadlo stepped on a land mine during a routine patrol and…

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Making a Difference – The Means, Methods, and Mechanism for Many to Move Mountains

Photo Credit: Abraham A. van Kempen, our home away from home on the Dead Sea

By Abraham A. van Kempen
Senior Editor
Updated 19 January 2024

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