Bhav Singh

English 10H

Articles for 4/19/15

Article 1: Fleeing ISIS terror: A Yazidi family's horrifying tale

"A Yazidi Family's Horrifying Tale of Escaping ISIS - CNN.com." CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/13/middleeast/yazidi-refugee-camp-arwa-damon/>.

Link: http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/13/middleeast/yazidi-refugee-camp-arwa-damon/

Summary: This article talks about an incident of a mother and other civilians and what they have been threw because of the wrath of the ISIS group members. On April 13, 2015 in Duhok, Iraqi Kurdistan CNN crew members recorded the story of Ahlam who was part of the Yazidi prison. In the prison she witnessed raping and torturing of other prisoner. She tells the story of what she has gone through in the camp. After not being able to handle the intensity of the camp anymore Ahlam and her family try to attempt to escape. After her parents were taken from her home is the real spark that encouraged her to take such a big step. Ahlam gives some new insight into what the ISIS treatment is really like.

Response: In these camps the horrible things that occur are horrific. After reading about what Ahlam herself has gone through I feel lucky to be living in such a safe neighborhood. Ahlam says that “she was spared because she was breastfeeding and she had young children, which makes her impure and therefore unable to be used as a sex slave”. When I read this piece I wonder what the United States and other countries are trying to do to resolve this continuous situation in Iraq. What I found to be very intriguing is the strength that it took to make a decision to escape. The one thing that was seemed to be inhumane was when I read what they did to two previous prisoners who tried to escape. Ahlam says that she recalled that two prisoners in their 40s or 50s bones were broken and their bodies were tied to the back of a truck and driven through the village. What keeps coming to my mind is: what is the law enforcement doing to resolve this situation and even the military? The Yazidi captives were forced to watch their gruesome actions and they were soon thrown into a ditch and told not to be buried. This seems like such a low thing to do and shows how some people just aren’t seen as equal. Don’t they realize that they are human like them too? This article overall to me seemed in a way like a wake-up call of current world crises.

Article 2: We Need Gun Control to Stop More Than Criminals

Milligan, Susan. “We Need Gun Control to Stop More Than Criminals.”USNews.com. U.S. News & World Report, 16 Jan. 2014. Web. 13 July 2014.

Link: http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/susan-milligan/2014/01/16/we-need-gun-control-to-stop-more-than-criminals

Summary: This article pretty much talks about issues that occurred around 2014 that could show how a gun law could have stopped certain criminals from conducting a crime. One example was from Indiana and how a criminal with a gun who invaded a grocery store could have been avoided with a simple background check. Another example includes how a 12-year old in a New Mexico was able to get ahold of a gun in middle school(and shoot two classmates)and how that could have been avoided if the guns were required to be stored in a locked structure or if there were safety-gaps. According to the author of the article the “why” for all of these incidents is because of the lack of enforcement upon gun rules, mainly that there should be background checks and required safes for these guns.

Response: My response to this is just brings me to the question of how did a 12-year old got ahold of a gun? The fact that were careless enough to let a kid get ahold of a gun and take it to school just surprises me. I feel that in that scenario it was more of a psychological problem than a gun safety problem. In the case where the Indiana shooter at the grocery store seems more of a gun law problem. If gun laws were enforced upon these people and background checks were mandatory I support the theory that there will be a decrease in crime and death itself. Another incident includes how a retired police officer shot a person in a theater when he stomped on someone’s phone purposely and broke it. This scenario seems like a very previous article that I worked on that talked about how cops are more warriors than guardians. This seems like too much of a simple situation for him to shoot a person. Well anyway from the author’s perspective he thinks that if there were laws that you could not bring guns into a theater would resolve the situation. I think that is just funny in a way because than you are basically saying that in any community attraction locations that you would need to ban guns. But what if they are needed? What do you do in a no gun-zone when a person like a cop needs to use his? Overall this article didn’t seems to essential because it seems that the author is making up silly ways that he/she believes will decrease crime and death.

Article 3:             Security expert pulled off flight by FBI after exposing airline tech vulnerabilities

Zimmerman, Malia. "Security Expert Pulled off Flight by FBI after Exposing Airline Tech Vulnerabilities." Fox News. FOX News Network, 17 Apr. 2015. Web. 20 Apr. 2015. <http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/17/security-expert-pulled-off-flight-by-fbi-after-exposing-airline-tech/>.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2015/04/17/security-expert-pulled-off-flight-by-fbi-after-exposing-airline-tech/

Summary: A man named Chris Roberts of the Colorado-based One Worlds Labs, a security intelligence firm that recognizes risks before they are exploited, was pulled off of a Boeing 747 on April 17 of 2015 for unleashing airline tech vulnerabilities.  On his flight to from Denver to Colorado to Syracuse he was found to have been telling passengers of the technological vulnerabilities. He says that it is easy to bring down a plane with just your computer because of the flaws in the in-flight entertainment system. It was the duty of the FBI to pull him off because he could be seen as a harm to the country’s protection. He also says that “If you don’t have people like me researching and blowing the whistle on system vulnerabilities, we will find out the hard way what those vulnerabilities are when an attack happens”.

Response: This article stands out to me because it shows how the country could potentially avoid another act of terror just by fixing the flaws in the in-flight entertainment system. I understand that the FBI did have to question Roberts because he posed a threat but why would you take him off the plane and disturb his important and vital safety aerospace meeting? Like the gun laws couldn’t you just have done a background check? In my opinion, I think that Roberts is one of the good guys and that the United States needs more people like him to ensure the safety of our civilians. Roberts even explains how at the press of a button an airplane’s engines can be shut off once they reach 35,000 ft and not even alarm the pilots located in the cockpit. I think that we should put more time and effort into fixing bugs in flight systems and other systems that could cause harm to people if they are altered.