Word: makeshift
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...particular, and collectively potent, elements to this equation. As a volunteer in the war that the Islamic rebels of Afghanistan fought against the Soviets in the 1980s, bin Laden had a front-row seat at an astonishing and empowering development: the defeat of a superpower by a gaggle of makeshift militias. Though the U.S., with billions of dollars in aid, helped the militias in their triumph, bin Laden soon turned on their benefactor. When U.S. troops in 1990 arrived in his sacred Saudi homeland to fight Saddam Hussein, bin Laden considered their infidel presence a desecration of the Prophet Muhammad...
...Union Square, peace signs and messages for tolerance proliferated around the makeshift cement monument, erected next to the towering statue of George Washington astride a war mount; reprinted articles from renowned academics Howard Zinn and Edward Said hung next to squadrons of miniature flags...
Invisible Downtown took the makeshift stage next. The band, made up of Joseph S. Bell ’03 and Michael J. Palmer ‘03, vocals and guitar, Matthew J. Kamen ’03, bass and Travis M. Beamish ’04, drums, describes itself as “an edgy indie power pop quartet,” but this is an indie power pop quartet that isn’t shy about spontaneously breaking out with “Bust a Move...
About 50 would-be travelers spent the day at the makeshift center...
...around a Boeing cockpit - and all the security weaknesses in the U.S. civil aviation system. The enemy had chosen the quietest day of the week for the operation, when there would be fewer passengers to subdue; they had boarded westbound transcontinental flights - planes fully loaded with kerosene; armed with makeshift knives and retractable knives; they had gained access to the cockpits and herded everyone to the back of the plane. Once there, they turned off the aircraft's self-identifying beacons known as transponders, a move which renders the planes somewhat less visible to air traffic controllers. And each aircraft...