Josh Margolin

INTERPOL Chief: 'Armed Civilians' Could be Key to Preventing More Westgate Mall-Style Terror Attacks
By Ken Shepherd | October 24, 2013 | 12:03 PM EDT

To prevent more soft-target terror attacks like the deadly Al Shabaab strike on Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya, policymakers around the world should consider liberalizing their gun laws to allow for armed civilians, the head of the the world's largest international police institution argued in an interview with ABCNews.com earlier this week. Unfortunately a search of Nexis finds that ABC has ignored this news development on its on-air programming. Competitors NBC and CBS have likewise censored the story.

As ABC's Josh Margolin noted, INTERPOL Secretary General Ronald Noble argued not only that an armed citizenry was a more sensible option than attempting to secure every "soft target" -- like malls, parks, and cafes -- but that it's hard to imagine a successful Westgate-style attack in the United States, particularly in gun rights-friendly states like Texas:

Heads Didn't Roll: State Department Officials Who 'Resigned' Over Benghazi Still Have Jobs, Per NY Post
By Tom Blumer | December 26, 2012 | 11:00 AM EST

On December 18, in covering the aftermath of the official report on the terrorist raid on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya which killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens, the Associated Press reported in the first three paragraphs of its coverage that "Three State Department officials resigned under pressure," identifying those who had stepped down as "Eric Boswell, the assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security, Charlene Lamb, the deputy assistant secretary responsible for embassy security, and Raymond Maxwell, the deputy assistant secretary of state who oversees the Maghreb nations of Libya, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco."

It wasn't until the fourth paragraph that readers who got that far -- clearly a tiny percentage compared to those who saw the headline ("State Department security chief, 2 deputies, resign after damning Benghazi attack report") or only heard headline-based reports on broadcast outlets -- learned that "Some of the three may have the option of being reassigned to other duties." In other words, they might not be losing their jobs or even receive cuts in pay. At the New York Post this morning, Josh Margolin is reporting that the three identified by the AP plus one other person aren't being meaningfully punished in any sense: