September 23, 2013.

Kenya Mall Attack: Smoke Billows After Explosion

But no! His courage seemed suddenly to stiffen of its own accord. The face of O'Brien, not called up by any obvious association, had floated into his mind. He knew, with more certainty than before, that O'Brien was on his side. He was writing the diary for O'Brien----to O'Brien; it was like an interminable letter which no one would ever read, but which was addressed to a particular person and took its color from that fact.

NAIROBI, Kenya----A large explosion sounded Monday afternoon before a black plume of smoke billowed up into the Nairobi skyline from the upscale shopping mall that has been under a terrorist siege since Saturday.

The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command. His heart sank as he thought of the enormous power arrayed against him, the ease with which any Party intellectual would overthrow him in debate, the subtle arguments which he would not be able to understand, much less answer. And yet he was in the right! They were wrong and he was right. The obvious, the silly, and the true had got to be defended. Truisms are true, hold on to that! The solid world exists, its laws do not change. Stones are hard, water is wet, objects unsupported fall toward the earth's center. With the feeling that he was speaking to O'Brien, and also that he was setting forth an important axiom, he wrote:

Gunfire preceded the blast and local television channels reported that a section of the mall was on fire.

Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows.

Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Ole Lenku said the smoke came from a fire set by the attackers in order to try to foil security forces, and that almost all of the people trapped inside have been evacuated.