October 15, 2002
surfer killed in bali
Two Americans Killed in Bali Blast
Along with 100 or so Australians.
A California man on a surfing trip to celebrate his 41st birthday was one of two Americans killed when a bomb exploded at an Indonesian nightclub. A former University of Nebraska football player remained unaccounted for.
At least 180 people were killed, hundreds more injured and dozens unaccounted-for in the Saturday blast on the island of Bali. The attack was thought to be the work of terrorists.
Steven Brooks Webster, of Huntington Beach, Calif., was confirmed dead by morgue authorities in Indonesia, his friend Trent Walker said from Newport Beach, Calif.
Steven Cabler, one of Webster’s friends who survived the blast, was treated for third-degree burns. He arrived home in California on Monday night and spoke briefly with reporters about the bombing before hearing that his friend had died.
“It was hell on Earth,” said Cabler, seated in a wheelchair with both of his hands heavily bandaged. “All I saw was people burning, little girls with their hair on fire trying to put it out.”
aside from the fact that this event is a horrible tragedy, and not unlike many other terrorist events occurring, what exactly are you getting at by posting this?
i ask having seen your previous few columns in regards to iraq, having noted that you post few current events not directly dealing with the iraq situation, and having also seen the bush administration and indonesian government making accusations of this attack being caused by al-quada (sans evidence).
are you making a specific (unstated) point? or just letting us know that two of the many killed were u.s. citizens?
if the former, what point are you making? so many can be intoned, and i want not to assume something you are not intending.
as a technical aside, is there a way for a poster to not list an email here in order to post? the ‘ol internet pulled a fast one on me when a bot mined my email from your site and spammed me. stupid spammers…
as for the iraqi issue (from the lighter side of things) i still hope that the iraqi vp’s suggestion plays out:
bush vs. saddam, one on one, with kofi annan as the referee.
whee.
FUCK. I had a post but I got an internal server error that deleted it. Now I’ve lost all will to live.
I’ll look into changing the email address requirement. Right now I’m seething over losing that post. It’s a good thing my server is in Paduca or wherever, cuz if it was in this room I’d beat the hell out of it.
1) I think it’s silly how the media will localize stories with “TWO AMERICANS die” even though hundreds of other people die as well. What drew my attention to this one was that the the guy was a surfer. I’m a surfer. I feel an affinity towards other surfers, especially those who leave on surfing vacations. I would like to go on a surfing vacation and not burn to death. Just a little preference of mine.
2) Indonesia Questions 2 Men in Bali
They have found traces of C-4 at the site of the bombing. The target was the Sari Club, which caters to tourists; mostly Australians and other Westerners.
3)We have told Indonesia time and time again that they need to do something about terrorist cells in their country. They did nothing. This is the result of their inaction.
As soon as they displayed the least bit of balls a violent Muslim group disbands. Yes, it would be a jump to accuse them, as at this point there are only speculations and questioning. But that won’t stop me from speculating.
4) Australia is one of America’s allies in the war on terrorism. They were not attacked because they took a stance against terrorism, but because Indonesia refused to.
5) We are still targets.
6) If I am wrong in assuming this was the work of Islamic extremists, rather than some teen from Finland, I will eat my crow.
7) I’ve never really done a large post on my site this way, before, and I find it incredibly annoying. Apologies to anyone who has been forced to put up with this crap. As soon as I know what I’m doing I’ll get rid of this tiny window and server errors and such.
I’ll also do something about that requirement that you submit an email address. This blog is still very much a work in progress.