W . -w qmpj- ,. "W w- w w Th Mihia Dail - nsdy Ocobr25 2 The bombing of the A2 CIA office turbBack Pages j Local History Column Wednsda,.Otobr.25 206 -TheMichganDaiy 3 TALKING POINTS QUOTES OF THE WEEK What you have is not 'stay the course' but, in fact, a study in constant motion by the admin- istration and by the Iraqi government - and frankly also by the enemy." - White House press secretary TONY SNOW, backpedaling on the White House's suddenly unpopular rhetoric on the Iraq war. "I said, 'Can I have a drink?''We have lemon juice, apple juice, still or sparkling.' I said, 'No, I want a drink. No drink?' I said, 'All right, I'm fucking off. I'll be back."' - Legendary actor PETERO'TOOLE on nearly missing his the reception for his 2003 honor- ary Oscar because of the ceremony's strict rules on alcohol. "I'd like to take credit for being adventuresome, but I think we're expressing a viewpoint 69 per- cent of the country agrees with." - "Simpsons" exec producer AL JEAN on an upcoming episode of the series that satirizes the U.s's initial invasion of Iraq. ormer Ann Arbor Police Chief Walter Krasny didn't rest well the night of Sep- tember 29, 1968. Asleep in his home more than two miles from downtown, Krasny awoke shortly before midnight, his sleep inter- rupted by the blast of an explo- sion on Main Street. There was a CIA recruitment office at 450 Main in those days, although its staff liked to keep quiet. A secretary would inform visitors who walked into the inconspicuous, unnamed office that the manager was out of town. That statement was prob- ably even true from time to time; the agent running the office, John F. Forrester, was charged with recruiting students both from our University and from that farm school over in East Lansing. On that night in late Septem- ber, someone set off four to six sticks of dynamite in front of Forrester's office. The explo- sion blew a three-inch deep hole in the sidewalk, shattered win- dows and overturned furniture, causing thousands of dollars of damage, though no one was hurt. The bombing was interpreted as a political act; Krasny was quick to tell the press he suspected "anti-establishment militants" and said that "hippies of a col- lege age" were the focus of the investigation. By itself, the CIA office bomb- ing might be a footnote, a par- ticularly explosive illustration of the unrest in those days. Indeed, Ann Arbor experienced two more bombings within a year. Two weeks after the CIA bomb- ing, the Institute of Science and Technology on North Campus was targeted, presumably for its role in military research. The following June, a bomb went off under a car outside North Hall in an apparent attempt to disrupt the ROTC program. A court case that arose out of the Ann Arbor CIA bomb- ing, however, went to the U.S. Supreme Court, which dealt the Nixon Administration a solid defeat. The case involved some of the leading figures in the White Panther Party, the radi- cal political group centered for a By itself, the CIA office bombing might be a footnote, a particularly explosive illus- tration of the unrest in those days. time around a commune at 1520 Hill that also happened to house the band MC5. The CIA bombing was similar to a string of bombings, mainly of police cars, then underway in Detroit. A fellow by the name of David Valler later confessed to carrying out or aiding those bombings, as well as the IST bombing in Ann Arbor. Valler, whether truthfully or not, claimed after his arrest to have repented his former dope-taking hippie revolutionary ways, and he rapidly made a name for him- self as a nationally syndicated newspaper columnist, denounc- ing the evils of drugs and youth culture and writing that the hippie "sweeps his dirt into the hallways of society. He creates chaos." A little more than a year after the bombing of the Ann Arbor CIA office, a federal grand jury indicted three members of the White Panther Party based on Valler'stestimony.White Panther Minister of Defense Pun Plamon- don was charged with having set off the bomb, and White Panther Minister of Education Jack For- rest was charged with conspir- acy to commit the bombing. The biggest name, though was White Panther Minister of Information - and MC5 manager and general counter-culture icon - John Sin- clair, who was also charged with conspiracy. When the indictment was handed down, Sinclair was already in prison on his infamous 10-year sentence for possession of two joints. Plamondon, mean- while, went underground for nearly a year after hearing the indictment on the radio, winning himself a spot on the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. From the White Panthers' perspective, the charges were a government frame-up to silence an inconvenient challenge to the established order. Admit- tedly, if a statement from Valler to one of Sinclair's attorneys now archived in the Bentley Historical Library is truthful, the defendants deserved to be found guilty as charged: Valler describes telling the grand jury how he asked Sinclair if he had anything to blow up, dropped off dynamite for Plamondon and See CIA, page 12B I I Three things you can talk about this weel: 1. The new Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit 2. The Fischer-Tropsch process 3. Picasso And three things you can't: 1. Chocolate cake 2. Dirt 3. Pine tar YOUTUBE VIDEO OF THE WEEK "Consent," a 2004 indie short by Jason Reitman At the end of a successful blind date, bashful young lovers Judah and Penny settle in for that most exhilarating of moments: the first make- out session. To avoid any future dispute over what did and didn't mean yes, the prudent Judah whips out a sexual consent form. Before long, his and Penny's lawyers are negotiating restrictions on nipple play, access below the belt and minutes of Article 17. In six minutes, writer/director Reitman showcases the caustic wit and shrewd satire of modern Ameri- can political correctness that would characterize his 2005 breakout film "Thank You for Smoking." If you've wondered why otherwise respon- sible reviewers gave the arguably pro-smoking "Thank You" slobbering Article 16, check out this clip. It's the sensible thing to do. DONN M. FRESARD BY THE NUMBERS The Bible's rank among the favorite books of students across the nation. The Bible's rank amongstudents at the University. Rank of "The Da Vinci Code" at the University and across the nation. DRINK OF THE WEEK Arrow vodka processed through a Brita water filter Being an undergrad at the Uni- versity: It's the best four (maybe five or six) years of your life. Part of what's so great about the col- lege experience is the allowance to slum it, to drag yourself to your 9 a.m. wearing sweatpants, live in a sty of an apartment on South University Avenue and Washtenaw Avenue, and - above all - drink some really shitty alcohol. I'm talking about cheap-even-when-you-buy-it-at- Diag Party Store liquor, the less- than-$10-a-fifth, $15-a-handle liquor. Popov. Heaven Hill. Five O'Clock (it castes so good when it hits your lips). And the best? Arrow. At the party store on Main Street, a fifth is $6.37 out the door, the price kept low with its bland stickered logo (those deceiving words "premium vodka" tattooed across its body) and questionable quality. And there's the one thing you have to try at least once: Brita fil- tering cheap vodka. Your friends will tell you that it works. It doesn't, really - we've tried it - but you won't be able to tell after six screwdrivers. When you're 28 years old and i-banking in Chicago, jogging regularly after work and pre- tending you frequent the Art Institute, this isn't going to be allowed. Live a little bit and do it now. KIMBERLY CHOU TREND OF THE WEEK Wearing Valentino suits and Oliver Peoples glasses, work- ing at P&P, going to the same barber as a colleague who also dresses in the aforementioned - but having a slightly better haircut. RANDOM WIKIPEDIA ARTICLE OF THE WEEK Pain (philosophy) "A much-talked-about issue in philosophy is the role of pain. Pain is often referred to in philosophical discussions concerning qualia and the fundamental nature of human experience. The meanings and conse- quences of pain have been a topic of writing by philosophers and theolo- gians alike. The experience of pain is, due to its seeming universality, a good portal through which one can view various aspects of human life. The experience of pain has been used by various philosophers to analyze various types of philosophy of mind. David Lewis, in his article "Mad Pain and Martian Pain," gives examples of various types of pain to support his own flavor of functionalism. He defines mad pain to be pain which occurs in a madman who has somehow gotten his 'wires crossed' in such a way such that what we usually call 'pain' does not cause him to cry or roll in agony, but instead to, for example, become very concentrated and good at mathematics. Martian pain is, to him, pain that occupies the same causal role as our pain, but has a very dif- ferent physical realization. Both of these phenomena, Lewis claims, are pain, and must be accounted for in any coherent theory of mind." Statistics taken, obviously unscientific, taken from facebook.com.