The Adam Walsh Effect: 2016

The summer of 2016 must cause us to revisit the Adam Walsh Effect. 

Adam Walsh

Who was Adam Walsh? He was the son of John Walsh, best known for his successful series, America's Most Wanted (Fox, 1988-2012) and currently Hunted with John Walsh (CNN, 2014-Present). John Walsh was propelled into crime-fighting after the murder and beheading of Adam Walsh.

Adam John Walsh (November 14, 1974 – July 27, 1981) was a six-year-old American boy who was abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981. His severed head was found a little over two weeks later, on August 10, 1981, in a drainage canal off of the Florida Turnpike.

During the 16 days he was missing, Adam Walsh's photograph, especially one of him as a tiny baseball player, was all over the media.

It became a memorable image, haunting parents for years to come.

Indeed, many point to the Adam Walsh beheading and chilling nature of the post-traumatic stress caused in repeated viewings of the photograph of Adam as leading directly into the era of the helicopter parents.

One mother, who identifies herself as "Marianne" wrote about the "Adam Walsh Effect" in 2013, as she struggled with letting her three sons get their pictures taken with their Little League teams:

As someone who grew up in the wake of the 1981 kidnapping and murder of little Adam, the image of the sweet little boy smiling from beneath his too-big baseball hat has haunted me for 30 years. This baseball picture was widely circulated throughout the media at the time of the kidnapping, and for many mothers, it served as a reminder to hold tightly to their kids and trust nobody.
As a mother now, I have forced myself to shake off some of my Adam Walsh fears. I realized that I needed to allow my boys to use public restrooms without screaming "EVERYTHING OKAY IN THERE?" every 10 seconds. I needed to learn to let them cross the street without my all-clear. I needed to fight the urge to homeschool them whenever I read a story of a shooting or child predator.
I started relying on statistical data and odds relative to stranger abductions in this quest. For the first time ever, I have consciously suppressed my helicopter tendencies. Most days, it is physically painful, but I am determined to ease up or I know my children will end up fleeing to Alaska to escape me.
I must say, though, this thing would be a whole lot easier if our last name wasn't Walsh. Source.

[As an onomatological aside, Walsh is a common Irish surname, meaning "Briton" or "foreigner," literally "Welshman," taken to Ireland by British (Welsh, Cornish and Cumbrian) soldiers during and after the Norman invasion of Ireland.]

During the summer of 2016, the Adam Walsh Effect - down to the similar photos and decapitations - are part of the news of some days.

After I posted this blog essay, I became aware that Time Magazine just published an article, "The U.S. Is Still Dealing With the Murder of Adam Walsh" on the 35th anniversary of the discovery of Adam's head, August 10, 2016. (August 10th popped up again this year as a focus date; see below.)

The Time article noted:

“[The Adam Walsh case] created a nation of petrified kids and paranoid parents,” says Richard Moran, criminologist at Mount Holyoke College. “Kids used to be able to go out and organize a stickball game, and now all playdates and the social lives of children are arranged and controlled by the parents.”
Even despite the decline in actual abductions, Moran says, “the fear still lingers today.”

Lane Graves

You know the story of little Lane Graves and the Disney alligator(s), from a previous posting here. His picture was one of the first kids this summer you may have seen a great deal of, via the media.

Some of the Lane Graves images had a Adam Walsh reflective aura.

An alligator snatched the 2-year-old boy and dragged him under water in the Seven Seas Lagoon on the evening of June 14, 2016, between 9 and 9:15 p.m. at Disney's Grand Floridian Resort & Spa in Bay Lake, Florida. His father Matt desperately tried to rescue him, but was reportedly attacked by a second alligator and forced to flee. His mother, Melissa witnessed the attack as well and tried to save him too. Lane's four-year-old sister was standing there as well and saw the tragic event take place. The Orange County Sheriff's office and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission conducted a search and recovery effort to locate the boy's body, which was recovered on June 15, 2016, at approximately 1:45 p.m.

His body, which was intact, was found about 10-15 yards away from the location of the attack. It is believed that he was drowned by the alligator, which was 4-7 feet long. It took authorities about 17 hours to find and recover the body.

Some of the media montages were ill-conceived and in bad taste.

Brodie Copeland

On Bastille Day, July 14, 2016, a truck rammed through a crowd in Nice, France. The first two Americans identified as having died in that attack were a father and son from Lakeway, Texas.

Sean Copeland, 51, and his 11-year-old son Brodie were among the more than 80 people killed when the truck zig-zagged through a screaming crowd for more than a mile along the Promenade des Anglais.

The first picture shown of Brodie was of him in his Little League outfit. 

Caleb Schwab

Then the boy with a bat returned in a big way when on August 7, 2016, Caleb Schwab, the 10-year-old son of Kansas state representative Scott Schwab, died riding when he was thrown from the Verrückt. Schwab was decapitated. He was one of three passengers on a raft with two women, one of whom suffered a broken jaw, and the other a broken bone in her face requiring stitches in her eye. The park was closed for two days following the incident, pending inspection results that took place during the time. The park reopened on August 10 but the ride itself has been shut down indefinitely (at least for the rest of the season), pending further investigation. (Graphic details of Caleb's death were carried by some media.)

The Schwab family lives in Olathe, Kansas. 

Olathe was one of the towns attacked by William "Bloody Bill" Anderson's and William Quantrill's raids in "Bleeding Kansas." Anderson "is known to have personally executed several people during William Quantrill’s raid on Lawrence, Kansas, and his unit’s savage tactics reportedly included cutting off enemies’ ears, decapitation and scalping." Source.

The first published photograph of Caleb Schwab showed him in his Little League outfit, baseball bat in the resting position, a la' Adam Walsh.

In an unfortunate photo montage, a news picture shows Caleb Schwab's headshot floating above the waterslide ride that resulted in decapitating him. Unconsciously, other media outlets did the same thing.

Caleb Schwab was the son of a state representative in Kansas. He was decapitated on a water slide. The name of the slide caught Andrew B's attention: "The Guinness World Records has certified the ride called Verruckt — or German for 'insane' — as the tallest in the world." Source.

Declan McClain

Declan McClain, 3, of Jeanette, Pennsylvania, fell from a 78-year-old wooden roller coaster at Idlewild Park and SoakZone at about 1:00 PM, on Thursday afternoon, August 11, 2016.

The McClain incident was the fourth amusement park accident in five days when a boy apparently fell out of roller coaster in Pennsylvania.

In the other recent accidents around the country, one child has been killed, another suffered a brain injury and at least two others were hospitalized.
Idlewild and SoakZone spokesman Jeff Croushore provided few details regarding the accident, but he said it happened on the Rollo Coaster, an old-style wooden ride, about midway to the finish, CNN-affiliate WTAE reported.

Recent Incidents:

Recent accidents of amusement park rides have been summarized by CNN (with dates added by me to clarify the chronology):

The Pennsylvania amusement ride accident comes after several others across the nation.
A 10-year-old boy died on a water slide at the Schlitterbahn Water Park in Kansas City, Kansas, on Sunday, August 7, 2016.
Two riders were injured when a launch cable detached at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, that same day, August 7, 2016.
Three children fell from a Ferris wheel at a Tennessee county fair on Monday, August 8, 2016, critically injuring two of them.
On Thursday, a 6-year-old girl remained in critical condition with a brain injury and a 16-year-old girl had been upgraded to stable condition.

Other Incidents:

A soldier who lost both legs serving in Iraq fell to his death from a roller coaster in upstate New York in 2011. Sgt. James Hackemer, 29, was riding the Ride of Steel roller coaster at Darien Lake Theme Park Resort when he plummeted about 200 feet to the ground. Hackemer's remains were laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. 

A teen was decapitated by the Batman roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia in 2008. He was struck by a train after he scaled two fences around the ride to retrieve his lost hat. 

Kaitlyn Lasitter lost both feet when a free-fall thrill ride malfunctioned at the Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom Amusement Park in Louisville in 2007. A cord wrapped around the then-13-year-old's feet and severed them at the ankles on the Superman Tower of Power. 

A group of high-schoolers' pre-graduation outing turned into a nightmare when a water slide collapsed at Waterworld California in 1997. The accident injured at least 30 people and killed a teenage girl. The girl's family settled a lawsuit against Waterworld USA and its parent company Premier Parks Inc. for $1.7 million three years later, according to the Los Angeles Times. 

James A. Young II, a 45-year-old special-education teacher, lost his cell phone and wallet when riding a roller coaster at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio, in 2015. When Young jumped over a fence into the restricted area under the roller coaster to look for his belongings, he was hit and killed by a coaster train. 

In 2013, Rosy Esparza was thrown out of her seat on the Texas Giant roller coaster at Six Flags Over Texas and died from multiple injuries. Her family filed a civil wrongful-death lawsuit accusing Six Flags of negligence. The ride was closed for nearly two months and reopened in September 2013 with improved safety measures.

The Adam Walsh Effect: 2016 Edition

In a year that is rapidly becoming filled with terrorist attacks, mass shootings, and violent incidents, it remains to be seen what impact this new wave of publishing young boys' photographs who died tragically will have. The public's attention is being overwhelmed with dreadful news, and the overall ripple repercussions of the Adam Walsh Effect revisited are unknown.

Moore and More Beheadings

Assyrians counting heads. Source. 

A man has beheaded a woman, Colleen Hufford, 54, after a workplace dispute in Moore, Oklahoma, U.S. law enforcement officials told CNN on September 26, 2014. The suspect also tried to kill another woman.

The suspect reportedly worked at Vaugan Foods in Moore and had been trying to convert his co-workers to Islam. The FBI is actively investigating the case. KFOR reports that the Feds are targeting the religious elements of the case.

The incident happened late Thursday afternoon, at 4:15 pm, September 25, 2014, at a Vaughan Foods processing plant at 216 NE 12th St # A in Moore, in Cleveland County, which is located about 10 miles south of Oklahoma City. The plant is located between a railroad trackway and Messenger Road.

There were no immediate indications of a link to terrorism, officials said.

A sheriff's deputy shot the suspect, identified by officials as 30-year-old Alton Alexander Nolen (shown above). Nolen was taken to a hospital and is expected to survive.

Nolen was shot and subdued by an off-duty Oklahoma County reserve deputy, Mark Vaughan, who was working security at Vaughan Foods.

Nolen has ties to the Bell meme:

In 2009, court records indicate that Nolen (born August 16, 1984) living in Idabel, Oklahoma. Formerly, the post office there had been named was called Bokhoma (Choctaw for "Red River"), when opened on December 15, 1902. Railroad officials then chose the name Idabel, a compound of the names of Isaac Purnell's two daughters, Ida and Bell. The post office was then renamed Idabel. (H/T to BT.)

His criminal records also note he may have attended the traditional black college of Langston University, which is located in Logan County, Oklahoma. Two of his felonies were of selling pot in Logan County, in or near Langston, Oklahoma. I talked about the Logan name in July.

More and more beheadings appear to be in store for the West's immediate future.

The Moore beheading followed the release on September 23, 2014, of a new ISIS related beheading video.

French tourist Hervé Gourdel was beheaded by Algerian militant group Jund al-Khilafa following his abduction in the north-east Kabylie region. He was a 55-year-old qualified mountain guide.

A few sites have identified Gourdel's shirt as an Illuminati pyramid t-shirt. No confirmation of that fact has been made.

Hervé Gourdel was captured by the Islamist ISIS-aligned group while hiking in the Djurdjura National Park on Sunday, one day after he arrived for a 10-day walking holiday. The park is located in Kabylie and is named after the Djurdjura Range of the Tell Atlas, Algeria. The Roman Empire used to call it Iron mountain in Latin (Montus Ferratus). The name Djurdjura is also used for the villages located in this mountain chain. Mmis n'Djerdjer means "children of the Djurdjura," which is a Kabyle word referring to mountain inhabitants; there is also a Kabyle female group called DjurDjura.

Ancient reports of a tribe of Amazons in Libya may be related to this Algerian female group.

According to several historical records, the Libyan birthplace of the Goddess Neith was also the traditional homeland of the warrior women known as the Libyan Amazons, in the western parts of Libya, particularly around the legendary Lake Tritonis (southern Tunisia today). The etymology of the name "Amazon" is still undecided, with European enthusiasts deriving the name from Greek Muse, and Berberists linking it with Amazigh and Tamezyant. Source.

The Bell Tolls White House Invasions and Mass Murders

No man is an Iland, intire of it selfe; every man is a peece of the Continent, a part of the maine; if a Clod bee washed away by the Sea, Europe is the lesse, as well as if a Promontorie were, as well as if a Mannor of thy friends or of thine owne were; any mans death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankinde; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; It tolls for thee. ~ John Donne, Devotions upon Emergent Occasions, Meditation XVII, 1624 (original spelling).

Synchronicity is strange. It plays games with your mind, leading you down one road, and dropping you off on another path that leads you right back to the beginning.

Let's take one down the synchromystic journey that appears to be going back and forth in time, starting with a horrible incident that occurred in a microscopic town in the South of the USA.

On Thursday, September 18, 2014, it was Bell, Florida, where a "spirit" - Donald Charles Spirit, 51, - killed his adult daughter (Sarah, 28) and six grandkids, before killing himself. The children who died were identified as Kylie Kuhlmann, 9, Kaleb Kuhlmann, 11, Johnathon Kuhlmann, 8, Destiny Stewart, 5, Alanna Stewart, born June 28 of this year, and Brandon Stewart, 4. The fathers (James Lawson Stewart and Edward Kuhlman) of both sets of children were imprisoned at the time of the shootings.

If that wasn't bad enough, the history here was mysterious and murderous:

Media reports indicate that Spirit accidentally shot and killed an 8-year-old son, Kyle, during a hunting trip to Three Lakes Wildlife Management Area near Kenansville, Fla., on Nov. 14, 2001. During a walk through the woods, Spirit pointed out some rust on the muzzle of a gun and it fired, hitting Kyle in the head, officials said. He was sentenced to three years in prison for illegal possession of a firearm. Spirit pleaded guilty in exchange for a minimum sentence just as his trial was about to begin. After that incident, the family moved from Tampa to Bell, according to published reports. Source.

The Bell killings occurred on the same day, a Taco Bell in Antioch (named after the ancient warring Greek city founded by one of Alexander the Great's generals), California, announced it would be closing its inside area from 3:00 pm to 4:30 pm, Monday through Friday. This was an attempt to deter high school students using their place as a fight club. After school brawling had routinely broken out in that Taco Bell. Fights had occurred in the previous days.

Also on Thursday, Kenneth Osako, 46, allegedly used a bar-bell at a gym in South San Francisco to beat Diego Galindo, 43, to death. Source.

Meanwhile, a few hours before, late on Wednesday night, September 17, 2014, a high speed chase in Bell Township, Pennsylvania, ended when multiple law enforcement departments' pursuits came to an abrupt stop after police shot driver Joshua Jesse of Monroeville, after he allegedly fired on officers. Source.

Also on September 17, the Denver Chapter of National Society of Daughters of the American Revolution rang their Colorado Liberty Bell replica for the first time in 40 years, on Constitution Day. Constitution Day commemorates the formation and signing of the U.S. Constitution by thirty-nine men on September 17, 1787, recognizing all who are born in the U.S. or by naturalization have become citizens.

Even "celebrity news" got involved in this cycle. See "Kristen Bell's Husband Dax Shepard Got a Bell Tattoo on His Ring Finger in Honor of His Wife!" (h/t Todd Campbell).

Something seemed to be in the air regarding "Bell," needless to say.

Soon my attention was drawn to the White House. Here too, a Bell was in the twilight there.

Appearing online, this image has now been turned into

a political statement of undetermined meaning.

You will recall that on September 11th, a man wearing a Pokémon shirt & cap and carrying a Pikachu doll, climbed the fence, got onto the White House lawn, and created quite a scare. Turns out the guy was named Jeffrey Grossman, 26, from Rensselaer, New York, who has mental disabilities. He wanted to ask President Obama about healthcare, allegedly. Grossman has a Bachelor of Science degree in business from College of Saint Rose in Albany.

Grossman (shown) was a graduate of Chatham High School in Chatman High School. On September 19, the school put out an alert "about children in Colonie and Berkshire County being approached by a man in a gray car with New York plates, which police are investigating as possible attempted abductions. While there have been no reported incidents in our immediate area, today we took the opportunity to remind all our students to be vigilant about their safety when out and about."

Grossman's White House intrusion was disturbing, but what happened next was even more concerning, considering the White House is suppose to be the best guarded location in the Free World. 

On Friday evening, September 19, 2014, Omar J. Gonzalez, 42, who allegedly is from Bell County, Texas, jumped the White House's North Fence, darted across the lawn and through the unlocked North Portico doors before officers finally tackled him. It was announced on Saturday that he was carrying a knife. The President and his family had just left for Camp David, and the White House was evacuated. When Gonzalez was apprehended he told Secret Service agents he was "concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing" and needed to contact the president "so he could get word out to the people." Certainly for Gonzalez, the bell was tolling for him.

Update 22 September 2014: White House intruder had 800 rounds of ammunition in his car.

Newer Update:

On September 22, 20014, USA Today made this observation:

Samantha Bell, Gonzalez's ex-wife, said she and Gonzalez married in 2006 and lived together in Copperas Cove, near Fort Hood, until she split up with him in 2010 because of his worsening mental condition. After his second tour in Iraq, Gonzalez began carrying a .45 on his hip at all times and kept three or four rifles and shotguns behind the doors in their home, said Bell, who remarried and now lives in southern Indiana.

Yes, that's correct. His ex-wife is named Bell.

Gonzalez is listed as living in Copperas Cove, Texas, which partially overlaps into Bell County. Records indicate Gonzalez was born and married in Bell County. Waco, Texas, is nearby, and Fort Hood is too. Fort Hood is the scene of murder-suicides and mass shootings. The month has been filled with child murders and homicidal/suicidal acts.

The federal government's action at Waco allegedly triggered the Oklahoma City bombing, which caused the new security measures at the White House. This is all getting to be circular.

On Saturday, September 20th, there was the third recent incident at the White House. The Associated Press shared the slimmest of details:

Less than 24 hours after Gonzalez's arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, the Secret Service said, prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle as agents shut down nearby streets.

Where is this going? We shall see, for whom does the bell toll? It tolls for thee.

Bells, tridents, beheadings. White House invasions, child endangerment, NFL players being charged with domestic violence. What are these times we are experiencing. The bell is tolling for thee. Is it really something distance, or are these events close to home?

Why Bells now? Is the metaphor ringing as a herald of news? Or of danger?

I have talked of "Bells" in synchrocinema before. See, for example, 2008's "The Brotherhood of the Bell" and my recycled thoughts on "Yeti, Jimmy Stewart, Bell and Book."

In Jim Brandon's 1983 book, The Rebirth of Pan: Hidden Faces of the American Earth Spirit, he writes, regarding the "name game":

I'm not talking here of such spooky tongue-twisters as H.P. Lovecraft's Yog-Sothoth or Arthur Machen's Ishakshar, but of quite ordinary names like Bell, Beall and variants, Crowley, Francis, Grafton, Grubb, Magee/McGee, Mason, McKinney, Montpelier, Parsons, Pike, Shelby, Vernon, Watson/Watt, Williams/Williamson. I have others on file, but these are the ones which I have accumulated the most instances.

In my 1983 Mysterious America, I wrote:

Cryptologic or coincidence? Jim Brandon should be credited with calling attention to the name Watts/Watkins/Watson, and its entanglement with inexplicable things. Some other names involved in mysterious events pinpointed by Brandon are Bell, Mason, Parsons, Pike, Vernon, and Warren. The influence of such names as Mason, Pike, Warren, and Lafayette, for example, issues, in some cryptopolitical and occult way, from their ties to the Masonic tradition.

From the original source, the Dictionary of American Family Names (Oxford University Press, 2013), the following is shared for the meaning of the name Bell:

Scottish and northern English: from Middle English belle ‘bell,’ in various applications; most probably a metonymic occupational name for a bell ringer or bell maker, or a topographic name for someone living ‘at the bell’ (as attested by 14th-century forms such as John atte Belle). This indicates either residence by an actual bell (e.g. a town’s bell in a bell tower, centrally placed to summon meetings, sound the alarm, etc.) or ‘at the sign of the bell’, i.e. a house or inn sign (although surnames derived from house and inn signs are rare in Scots and English). 

Scottish and northern English: from the medieval personal name Bel. As a man’s name this is from Old French beu, bel ‘handsome,’ which was also used as a nickname. As a female name it represents a short form of Isobel, a form of Elizabeth. 

Scottish: Americanized form of Gaelic Mac Giolla Mhaoil ‘son of the servant of the devotee.’ 

Jewish (Ashkenazic): Americanized form of one or more like-sounding Jewish surnames. 

Norwegian: habitational name from a farmstead in western Norway named Bell, the origin of which is unexplained. 

Scandinavian: of English or German origin; in German as a habitational name for someone from Bell in Rhineland, Germany, or possibly from Belle in Westphalia. Americanized spelling of German Böhl or Böll (see Boehle, Boll).

The bell and the trident - and beheadings - appear in combination in many cultures.

Copycat Beheadings & Hangings

Another Decapitation

Unfortunately, ISIS/ISIL has carried out another beheading. This will be the third in a short amount of time (see here). British hostage David Cawthorne Haines was allegedly beheaded on September 13th or 14th (Iraqi time), 2014.

Strange though, looking at these two photographs of the pre-beheading, it appears that Mr. Haines has exactly the same expression in the picture. Were they doctored? Or are they quick screen captures in which Mr. Haines did not move an millimeter? (There is a slight difference in the shadowing on the orange gown, apparently.) Are the hostages drugged, as some theorize? Why no facial reactions to their coming fate? It is weird.

The name Haines has two similar meanings, depending on origin:

Haines (Old English / Germanic) A dweller near the wood, forest, thicket, grove, enclosures.

Haines (Old Nordic) From the word hegn, meaning a forest clearing or hedged enclosure.

David Haines' middle name is Cawthorne. Cawthorne is a long-established surname is of Anglo-Saxon origin, and is a locational name either from Cawthorn, a parish north west of Pickering in the north riding of Yorkshire where traces of Roman camps remain, or from the parish and village of Cawthorne near Barnsley in the West Riding of Yorkshire. Both places were recorded as "Caltorn" in the Domesday Book of 1086, and as "Calthorn" in Yorkshire Charters, dated 1125 to 1176. They are believed to be so-called from the Olde English pre-7th Century "cald," (= cold), with reference to the "bare, exposed position of the places," plus "thorn," "thorn-bush," thus, "the bare place of the thorn-bushes." Source.

The Copycat Effect

We don't know how many hanging deaths have occurred in the wake of Robin Williams' suicide. What we do know is that calls to suicide prevention hotlines are at an all-time high after the Williams' self-death, and it follows that probable suicide attempts are up. It may be months before we know if the rate of suicide after Williams' suicide actually increased.

All we can do now is note how the media keeps posting hanging suicides.

Take 14-year-old Lizzie Lowe, who was found on Wednesday night, September 10, 2014. Lizzie, a pupil at Pars Wood High School in East Didsbury, UK was found hanged in Fletcher Moss Park in Didsbury, Manchester around 11.15pm, according to the British media.

On the same day, September 10th, the American media announced that former professional wrestler Sean Haire, who went by the stage name of Sean O’Haire, had died at the age of 43 of what is being ruled a suicide. A suicide by hanging.

I wrote about Simon Battle already, but there have been others (see here).

We will continue to hear more about hanging suicides in the near future.

Sioux City Alert for September 14th?

Okay, someone seems to be reading the synchromystic literature about Tridents - or me - and there is a new video that is intriguing. Not that I might consider any of the connections valid, but they are interesting and a great amount of work went into these links. The trident at Dealey Plaza is apparent, and this video is a good reminder of that.

What are we to make of this business about a "false flag" operation in Sioux City? I'm not sure about the false flag part, but maybe something is going to happen in Iowa today - something sinister?

The Sergeant Floyd Monument, a 100-foot obelisk, marks the final resting-place of Sergeant Charles Floyd, Jr. Photo by G.R. Lindblade, Courtesy of the Sioux City Public Museum. See details from Enki King, below, in "comments."

Ooops, what did I just read in the morning news?

Hillary Clinton will be at the 37th Harkin Steak Fry in Indianola, Iowa, today, September 14, 2014. Indianola is about 225 miles from Sioux City. I wonder if Clinton is flying in via Sioux City? (See here.)

Decapitations, Dawns, Masked Men, and Tridents

September 9-11 Alert:

How is it that we find ourselves here? At this juncture of history, after recent years of writings on red dawns, auroras, beheadings, dark knights, masked men, and tridents, we rush towards an exact moment in time foreshadowed in our nightmares (predestined for madness?) by the Libyan Dawn, the Masked Men Brigade, ISIS, and indirectly, the Rapid Trident exercise.

An Islamist fighter from the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition flashes the V sign for victory at the entrance of Tripoli international airport on August 24, 2014 - and his truck has an enigmatic "17" painted on its door. (For more on the synchromystical significance that some give to the number 17, see here.)

What hellish path brings us to this temporal point, with September 9th to September 11th on the horizon for the Mideast? And what is to occur with a mid-September "Rapid Trident" exercise in the Ukraine?

Masked men belonging to various Palestinian factions announced in Hebron on Dec. 15, 2012, the establishment of the National Unity Brigades and the beginning of a third intifada against Israel. Source.

Decapitations

Beheadings are in the news, thanks to ISIS. And thanks to tabloid journalism. These acts of terror have been placed to the forefront of news reportage for over a decade. They are graphic, individual attacks of terror. The list is growing long.

Steven Joel Sotloff, abducted August 4, 2013, beheaded around September 2, 2014.

James Foley, abducted November 22, 2012, beheaded around August 19, 2014.

Kenneth John "Ken" Bigley, abducted September 16, 2004, beheaded on October 7, 2004.

Jack Hensley, beheaded on September 21, 2004.

Owen Eugene "Jack" Armstrong, abducted September 16, 2004, beheaded on September 20, 2004.

Paul Marshall Johnson, Jr., abducted June 12, 2004, beheaded around June 18, 2004.

Nicholas Evan "Nick" Berg, abducted around April 9, 2004, beheaded on May 7, 2004.

Daniel Pearl, abducted January 23, 2002, beheaded on February 1, 2002.

Are you aware there have been three US/UK decapitations/beheadings in the last few days? (There have been several, historically, needless to say.)

On August 29, 2014, an unidentified man, formerly of Chicago, conducted a self-decapitation (with a cable tied to a tree, wrapped around his neck) in Yorktown, Virginia. Source.

On September 1, 2014, using a similar method - a cable, a wooden pole, and a car - Tomas Rivera, 51, of Port Jervis, New York, decapitated himself in Hunts Point, Bronx, New York. Source.

Both news reports used exactly the same wording that the men "hit the gas" before killing themselves.

An unnamed elderly woman was beheaded in the garden of a north London, UK, house, and her body found on September 4, 2014. Source.

Tragic and horrible, of course. Perhaps the American suicides are related to the copycat suicidal atmosphere in the USA, in the wake of the Robin Williams self-hanging? Perhaps the UK beheading is stimulated by the beheadings in the news of Sotloff and Foley?  But is there something more wicked this way coming?

Libyan Dawn/Masked Men Brigade

Eleven - yes, 11 - commercial airliners have been stolen by the Masked Men Brigade or the Libyan Dawn or both in Tripoli. And where does ISIS fit in this picture?

Tripoli International Airport was overtaken by the group Libyan Dawn in August 2014, and now 11 aircraft for Libyan Airlines and Afriqiyah Airways are missing. 

Members of the Fajr Libya (Libyan Dawn) coalition guard the entrance to the Tripoli International Airport on August 24, 2014.

September 9-11 Anniversary Syndrome

There is great concern for what might be ahead for next Thursday, on the anniversary of September 11.

But the focus on the 11th could be a danger, in and of itself.

This year's Supermoon on September 9th is metaphorically creating a tidal wave of human emotions in ways unimagined. But astronomy is not the key. It is the human elements in play that will cause what we see unfold.

The 13th anniversary of 9/11 is reinforced with the second anniversary of the attack on the American embassy on September 11, 2012, and killing of former Navy SEALS and American diplomats at Benghazi, Libya.

Human behavior forecasting is not a parlor game. It is a real life exercise to attempt to predict real time behaviors (actions, conduct, performance) that call forth protective factors that should be put in place, and prevention measures to employ to keep our friends out of harms' way.

The anniversary syndrome is strong at this time of year. You can actually "feel it in the air," with the changing seasons.

Here are some events tied to incidents in the past that jumped out during my examination of the dates September 9-11:

September 9 ~
1970 – A British airliner is hijacked by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and flown to Dawson's Field (a remote desert airstrip near Zarka, formerly used as a British Royal Air Force base) in Jordan.
2001 – Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of the Northern Alliance, is assassinated in Afghanistan by two al Qaeda assassins who claimed to be Arab journalists wanting an interview.
2004 – A bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people.
2012 – A wave of attacks kill more than 108 people and injure 351 others in Iraq.

September 10 ~ 
1898 – Empress Elizabeth of Austria is assassinated by Luigi Lucheni.
1939 – World War II: The submarine HMS Oxley is mistakenly sunk by the submarine HMS Triton near Norway and becomes the Royal Navy's first loss.
1976 – A British Airways Hawker Siddeley Trident and an Inex-Adria DC-9 collide near Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176.
2000 – Operation Barras successfully frees six British soldiers held captive for over two weeks and contributes to the end of the Sierra Leone Civil War.
2001 – Antonio da Costa Santos, mayor of Campinas, Brazil is assassinated.
2003 – Anna Lindh, the foreign minister of Sweden, is fatally stabbed (assassinated) while shopping, and dies the following day.

September 11 ~

1922 – The British mandate of Palestine begins.

1939 – Iraq and Saudi Arabia declares war on Nazi-Germany. 

1968 – Air France Flight 1611 crashes off Nice, France, killing 89 passengers and 6 crew.
1970 – The Dawson's Field hijackers release 88 of their hostages. The remaining hostages, mostly Jewish and Israeli citizens, are held until September 25.

The origins of the Black September movement began with Arafat's clashes with Jordan, intriguingly due to hijacked planes. On September 6-12, 1970, four TWA, Swissair and BOAC planes were hijacked (the El Al one failed), destroyed, and this was directly tied to Palestine civil uprisings and the resulting suppression that was to be called Jordan's "Black September." 

1972 – The Munich Summer Olympics end. At this Olympics the "Black September" terrorists killed 11 Israeli athletes, on the 5th.
1974 – Eastern Air Lines Flight 212 crashes in Charlotte, North Carolina, killing 69 passengers and two crew.
1976 – A group of Croatian nationalists plant a bomb in a coin locker at Grand Central Terminal. After stating political demands, they reveal the location and provide instructions for disarming the bomb. The disarming operation is not executed properly, killing one NYPD bomb squad specialist.

1994 – A private plane attempts to crash into the White House.
2001 – Two hijacked aircraft crash into the World Trade Center in New York City, while a third smashes into The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, and a fourth into a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania, in a series of coordinated suicide attacks by 19 members of al-Qaeda. Altogether, 2,996 people are killed.
2003 – Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies from her assassination stabbing of the previous day.
2012 – The U.S. embassy in Benghazi, Libya is attacked, resulting in four deaths. U.S. Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens, Foreign Service Information Officer Sean Smith, and CIA contractors and former Navy SEALS Tyrone Woods and Glen Doherty were killed during the series of raids, commencing at nightfall and continuing into the next morning.

11s

There is something special about the number 11 to terrorists, no doubt about it. Such incidents as the 3/11 [2005] Madrid, 7/11 [2006] Mumbai, and 9/11 [2001] terrorist attacks serve as misnamed “celebrity events” that become models copied by other Islamic extremists.

Pakistani Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the alleged Al-Qaeda mastermind behind the first World Trade Center bombing, was quoted as saying after the failed 1993 attempt that they would do it right the second time. He was also the brains behind the elaborate Bojinka, translated as “the explosion.” This was a plot to place bombs on 11 American jetliners and have them all explode on the same day, over the Pacific Ocean. 

Yousef carried out a test run for Bojinka by planting a bomb that detonated on Philippines Airlines Flight 434, on December 11, 1994. One tourist was killed, ten injured. Yousef called the Associated Press after this bombing, to give credit to Abu Sayyaf. His friend Khalid Sheik Mohammed would launch the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks, which were built from parts of Operation Bojinka.  

It does not seem to be a coincidence that the first airliner to crash into the Twin Towers (a symbolic 11) was American Airlines (AA = 11) Flight 11.

The flight number for the American Airlines plane that crashed into the Pentagon was 77.

As noted in the opening of my 2004 book The Copycat Effect: How the Media and Popular Culture Trigger the Mayhem in Tomorrow's Headlines, September 11th was the date of an assault by a private plane on the White House, in 1994, although the attack is little remembered today. 

September 11th is not to be ignored. But is there a growing "danger zone" around that date now?

For this September 2014, avoid letting your guard down on the 9th and 10th, just because you know you should be on alert on the 11th. Also, realign the hot spots of awareness from land-based sites, and think outside the box. While watching Iraq, Syria, and Ukraine, be careful of soft symbolic targets linked to those that are identified with, for example, the U.S. Navy (tridents), political figures (dark knights/assassinations), and auroras (red dawn attacks). 

A storm is coming. The Dark Knight still rises. We are at a concurrence of circumstances that will be revealed, soon enough. It is up to you to prevent them. Yes, you. Be alert, be safe, and be proactive.

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Upon reading the above, the following was sent in response:

"Sometimes these days when I wake up, I think I must have

been dreaming, and it is still the 12th century." ~ Brad Steiger, September 5, 2014.