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About East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 2, 2017)
Page 4A OPINION East Oregonian Thursday, November 2, 2017 OTHER VIEWS Founded October 16, 1875 KATHRYN B. BROWN Publisher DANIEL WATTENBURGER Managing Editor TIM TRAINOR Opinion Page Editor MARISSA WILLIAMS Regional Advertising Director MARCY ROSENBERG Circulation Manager JANNA HEIMGARTNER Business Office Manager MIKE JENSEN Production Manager OUR VIEW Emergency scanners a critical tool for public Police scanners have been the background noise in newsrooms as long as the technology has been available. And journalists have long been tasked having one ear tuned to them, speeding out the door as soon as the fire department is dispatched to a blaze or police and medics are dispatched to an accident scene. Once on scene, we do our best to stay out of the way of emergency crews, while being witness to the event and passing along the story, photo and video to our customers once we have verified facts and information. We’re not the only non-law enforcement officials who listen to emergency scanners, however. For decades, many private citizens have used the scanners to stay apprised of emergency chatter. Social media has changed the power and reach of those people, as well as others who can listen remotely via online scanner apps. Some of those people could be criminals, using the scanner for nefarious reasons. A person could wait to hear when police are in another section of the county for instance, then commit a crime. Though no evidence of this happening in Eastern Oregon has been brought forward, radio and data districts are hoping to encrypt scanner traffic, so that police can communicate over non-public airwaves. We’re opposed to that plan. It raises taxpayer costs while providing negligible benefit to emergency crews. Law enforcement has long had workarounds to the public scanner, including two-way radios and the ever-present cell phone technology. We understand that sometimes scanner traffic is the enemy of good police work. We don’t expect officers to use it when setting up a sting, or to communicate their position or strategy in a SWAT environment. But the minutia of police activity requires scrutiny. When an emergency situation arises, it is critical to get factual important information disseminated as quickly as possible. Oftentimes, emergency responders and responsible media are partners in that endeavor, warning people to get out of the way of a wildfire, or avoid a road that has been closed due to an accident. Police scanners help keep the public apprised of the actions of our emergency responders. It should remain that way. Police scanners help keep the public apprised of the actions of our emergency responders. It should remain that way. Unsigned editorials are the opinion of the East Oregonian editorial board of publisher Kathryn Brown, managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, and opinion page editor Tim Trainor. Other columns, letters and cartoons on this page express the opinions of the authors and not necessarily that of the East Oregonian. OTHER VIEWS The New York attack: Terror by the ton The Chicago Tribune only his own twisted thinking drove him to choose this day, this celebration, to attack New Yorkers on this trail in magine the scene along Chicago’s a neighborhood laced with residential lakefront path on a typical weekday buildings and clotted with people traffic afternoon. Cyclists cruising in both — the ultimate soft target. directions, past runners and darting We’ve seen enough of these car children just released from school. and truck attacks — in London, Nice, Now imagine a rental pickup truck Stockholm, Berlin — to know they are barreling down the path, smashing all but impossible to predict or prevent. bicycles and pedestrians for a mile or Early news reports had Islamic more. State voices cheering the attack. If so, It happened in Lower Manhattan on they’ll awaken to the realization that an Tuesday, not far from the World Trade onslaught in New York Center memorial. — the deadliest attack A driver bent on mayhem sped Hamas terrorists had since 9/11 — doesn’t diminish the swift and down a bike path been so successful formidable victory of beside the Hudson forces River, sending with vehicle attacks U.S.-backed against Islamic State bodies and bicycles against Israelis that, in Iraq and Syria. To flying. He struck a contrary, any terror school bus outside in 2014, an Islamic the attack on the West a neighborhood landmark, Stuyvesant State official urged affirms that the job of eradicating this group High, before crashing similar attacks and others like it isn’t the truck. Leaping finished. from his vehicle, he across the West. Defeating brandished a pellet Islamic State on gun and a paintball the battlefields of gun and was shot by a police officer. Mosul and Raqqa has to be followed Even as they scrambled for safety, by a victory in the treacherous terrain some people wondered if this was a of cyberspace. Islamic State can spew Halloween prank. Others reached for hatred and draw terrorist wannabes to their cellphones, capturing snippets its savage cause. It doesn’t cost much to of the chaos on video: A figure that appears to be the driver, trying to escape brainwash and recruit adherents on the internet. on foot. The wreckage of the truck. Our hope is that as Islamic State Crumpled bicycles. Lifeless bodies. becomes more desperate to avenge its So the pattern established oceans losses to superior forces in its former away now visits America. Hamas caliphate, that the appeal of the group terrorists had been so successful with will fade. That’s the hope. vehicle attacks against Israelis that, in The reality is that terrorists humbled 2014, an Islamic State official urged in one place can regroup in other similar attacks across the West. This countries — in Libya, elsewhere resort to terror by the ton — cheap and in Africa. That’s why the Trump easy to execute — is a paradoxical administration recently pledged $60 tribute to the sophisticated protections million to help five African nations build that have denied extremists many of a counterterrorism force. the conventional weapons, and the The New York attack underscores easy access to air transport targets, they what we’ve always known: This is enjoyed at the turn of this century. a war that will be fought not by one We don’t know if this suspect was generation, but by this and other heeding an Islamic State call to attack generations to come. trick-or-treaters on Halloween. Or if I The plot against America been expecting. An obscure figure in n Monday morning, after foreign policy circles, Papadopoulos the United States learned was one of five people who Trump that Donald Trump’s former listed as foreign policy advisers campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, during a Washington Post editorial and Manafort’s lobbying partner, Rick board meeting last year. A court Gates, had been indicted and turned filing, whose truth Papadopoulos themselves in to federal authorities, affirms, says that in April 2016, the president tried to distance himself from the unfolding scandal. “Sorry, but Michelle he met with a professor who he this is years ago, before Paul Manafort Goldberg “understood to have substantial connections to Russian government was part of the Trump campaign,” the Comment officials.” The professor told him president wrote in one tweet. A few that Russians had “dirt” on Clinton, minutes later, he added, in another, including “thousands of emails.” (The “Also, there is NO COLLUSION!” Clinton campaign chairman John Podesta At almost the exact same time, news had been hacked in March.) broke suggesting that the FBI has evidence In the following months, Papadopoulos of collusion. We learned that one of the and his supervisors emailed back and forth Trump campaign’s foreign policy aides, about plans for a campaign trip to Russia. George Papadopoulos, pleaded guilty to According to the court filing, one campaign lying to the FBI about his attempts to solicit official emailed another, compromising information “We need someone to on Hillary Clinton from communicate that D.T. the Russian government. is not doing these trips.” Despite Trump’s hysterical D.T. clearly stood for denials and attempts at diversion, the question is Donald Trump. The email no longer whether there continued, “It should be was cooperation between someone low level in the Trump’s campaign and campaign so as not to Russia, but how extensive send any signal.” it was. Thanks to an August In truth, that’s been Washington Post story, clear for a while. If it’s we know that this email sometimes hard to grasp was sent by Manafort. the Trump campaign’s conspiracy against our Some have interpreted the exchange to mean democracy, it’s due less to lack of proof than that Manafort wanted a low-level person to to the impudent improbability of its B-movie decline the invitation, not to go to Russia. plotline. Monday’s indictments offer evidence But the court filing also cites a “campaign of things that Washington already knows but supervisor” encouraging Papadopoulos and pretends to forget. Trump, more gangster than “another foreign policy adviser” to make the entrepreneur, has long surrounded himself trip. Papadopoulos never went to Russia, but with bottom-feeding scum, and for all his foreign policy adviser Carter Page did. nationalist bluster, his campaign was a vehicle So here’s where we are. Trump put for Russian subversion. Manafort, an accused money-launderer and We already knew that Manafort offered unregistered foreign agent, in charge of his private briefings about the campaign to Oleg campaign. Under Manafort’s watch, the Deripaska, an oligarch close to President campaign made at least two attempts to get Vladimir Putin of Russia. The indictment compromising information about Clinton accuses him of having been an unregistered from Russia. Russia, in turn, provided foreign agent for another Putin-aligned hacked Democratic emails to WikiLeaks. oligarch, former Ukrainian President Viktor Russia also ran a giant disinformation Yanukovych. Trump wasn’t paying Manafort, campaign against Clinton on social media who reportedly sold himself to the candidate and attempted to hack voting systems in by offering to work free. But he intended to at least 21 states. In response to Russia’s profit from his connection with the campaign, election meddling, Barack Obama’s emailing an associate, “How do we use to administration imposed sanctions. Upon get whole?” If there were no other evidence taking office, Trump reportedly made secret against Trump, we could conclude that he efforts to lift them. He fired FBI Director was grotesquely irresponsible in opening his James Comey to stop his investigation into campaign up to corrupt foreign infiltration. “this Russia thing,” as he told Lester Holt. But of course there is other evidence The day after the firing, he met with Russia’s against Trump. His campaign was told that foreign minister and its ambassador to the Russia wanted to help it, and it welcomed United States, and told them: “I faced great such help. On June 3, remember, music pressure because of Russia. That’s taken off.” publicist Rob Goldstone emailed Donald We’ve had a year of recriminations over Trump Jr. to broker a Trump Tower meeting the Clinton campaign’s failings, but Trump at which a Russian source would deliver clawed out his minority victory only with “very high level and sensitive information” the aid of a foreign intelligence service. On as “part of Russia and its government’s Monday we finally got indictments, but it’s support for Mr. Trump.” Trump Jr. responded been obvious for a year that this presidency with delight: “If it’s what you say I love it is a crime. especially later in the summer.” ■ The guilty plea by Papadopoulos indicates Michelle Goldberg became an Op-Ed what information Trump Jr. might have columnist for The New York Times in 2017. O At the same time, news broke suggesting that the FBI has evidence of collusion. LETTERS POLICY The East Oregonian welcomes original letters of 400 words or less on public issues and public policies for publication in the newspaper and on our website. The newspaper reserves the right to withhold letters that address concerns about individual services and products or letters that infringe on the rights of private citizens. Submitted letters must be signed by the author and include the city of residence and a daytime phone number. The phone number will not be published. Unsigned letters will not be published. Send letters to managing editor Daniel Wattenburger, 211 S.E. Byers Ave. Pendleton, OR 97801 or email editor@eastoregonian.com.