Posted on 07/10/2002 8:48:49 AM PDT by 1bigdictator
Terror & Denial [at LAX]
by Daniel Pipes New York Post July 9, 2002 http://www.danielpipes.org/article/431 http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/52004.htm
On the 4th of July, an Egyptian immigrant to the United States who believes in wild conspiracy theories about Jews, is known for his great "hate for Israel," and has possible ties to al Qaeda, armed himself to the teeth and assaulted the Israeli airline counter at Los Angeles International Airport, killing two.
It is obvious why Hesham Mohamed Ali Hadayet targeted Jews in a highly visible place on so prominent a date: to engage in terrorism against Israel.
But one important institution - the U.S. government - claims not to know Hadayet's goals. An FBI spokesman has said that "there's nothing to indicate terrorism." Another FBI official said of Hadayet: "It appears he went there with the intention of killing people. Why he did that we are still trying to determine." Possible causes named include a work dispute and a hate crime.
Sure, law enforcement should not jump to conclusions, but this head-in-the-clouds approach is ridiculous. It also fits a well-established pattern. Consider three cases of terrorism in the New York City area: Rashid Baz, a Lebanese cab driver with a known hatred for all things Israeli and Jewish, armed himself to the teeth in March 1994 and drove around the city looking for a Jewish target. He found his victims - a van full of Hassidic boys - on the Brooklyn Bridge and fired a hail of bullets against them, killing one boy.
And how did the FBI classify this crime? As "road rage." Only because the murdered boy's mother relentlessly fought this false description did the bureau finally in 2000 re-classify the murder as "the crimes of a terrorist."
Ali Hasan Abu Kamal, a Palestinian gunman hailing from militant Islamic circles in Florida, took a gun to the top of the Empire State building in February 1997 and shot a tourist there.
His suicide note accused the United States of using Israel as its "instrument" against the Palestinians, but city officials ignored this evidence and instead dismissed Abu Kamal as either "one deranged individual working on his own" (Police Commissioner Howard Safir) or a "man who had many, many enemies in his mind" (Mayor Rudolph Giuliani).
Gamil al-Batouti, an EgyptAir copilot, yelled "I put my faith in God's hands" as he crashed a plane leaving Kennedy airport in October 1999, killing 217. Under Egyptian pressure, the National Transportation Safety Board report shied away from once mentioning Batouti's possible terrorist motives. And despite all the "world-has-changed" rhetoric following the horrors of last September, Western officialdom continues to pretend terrorism away.
Damir Igric, a Croat immigrant from the former Yugoslavia, used a boxcutter to slash the neck of a Greyhound bus driver in Tennessee last October, causing the bus to roll over, killing six passengers and himself. Although this bus-hijacking scenario echoed similar attacks by Palestinians on Israeli buses, the FBI immediately classified it "an isolated incident" and not an act of terrorism. The media attributed the violence to post-traumatic stress syndrome.
Hassan Jandoubi, an Islamist with possible connections to al Qaeda, had started working at the AZF fertilizer factory in suburban Toulouse, France, just days before a massive explosion took place there last Sept. 21. This, the worst catastrophe ever in a French chemical plant, killed Jandoubi and 29 others, injured 2,000, destroyed 600 dwellings, and damaged 10,000 buildings.
The autopsy revealed that Jandoubi was wearing two pairs of trousers and four pairs of underpants, which the coroner compared to what is worn by "Islamic militants going into battle or on suicide missions." Also, the chemical plant was processing ammonium nitrate, a stable chemical that requires a substantial infusion of energy to explode.
Ignoring these signs, the French authorities declared there was "no shred of evidence" of the explosion being a terrorist act and ruled it an accident. They even prosecuted two publications merely for calling Jandoubi a "radical Islamist," making them pay tens of thousands of dollars in fines to Jandoubi's heirs, a mosque and a Muslim organization for their "defamation" of Jandoubi. Work dispute, hate crime, road rage, derangement, post-traumatic stress, industrial accident ... these expressions of denial obstruct effective counterterrorism. The time has come for governments to catch up with the rest of us and call terrorism by its rightful name.
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This perspective is not tolerable for a conservative! Are we turning into the French? Where we broadly define acts of terror unless the victims happen to be Jewish? Remember French ideologues dismissed the burning of Synagogues and beating of Jews there recently as "isolated and understandable" acts by Arabs who "justifiably" were reacting to the "Jewish Terrorist State".
Many of these people have witnessed what has happened to people of principle standing up for the truth - witness Franklin Graham, who stated that Islam is not a religion of peace!
Even President Bush distances himself from those statements, which is a disappointment. However, politicians only care about getting re-elected and never about standing on principle, whether Republican or Democrat.
Bush need only worry about swing voters-- and since these voters don't reflexively vote Democrat, let's give them a modicum of credit for being rational and sensible. If I were in Bush's shoes I'd expose the Charade of all the soveriegn arab nations who hold the Palistinian issue out as a red-herring meant to deflect attention away from Muslim-State sponsored terrorism-- "Read My Lips" were going into Iraq yesterday, or as soon as Rumsy feels were prepared to accomplish the job.
The autopsy revealed that Jandoubi was wearing two pairs of trousers and four pairs of underpants, which the coroner compared to what is worn by "Islamic militants going into battle or on suicide missions."On second thought, maybe I don't want to know.
I'm thinking about inventing a "double trousers detector", or a "multiple underpants monitor" to be used by airport security.
And w/r to the media, yes, see "Coloring the News: How Crusading for Diversity Has Corrupted American Journalism"
It's part of getting ready for the 72 virgins who they are sure are waiting one microsecond away on "the other side".
Must be some esoteric suicide/Islam thing.
Perhaps they want to have on clean panties for the groupies at CNN who rejoice at publishing photos which glamorize homicide bombers... as they know it will make Ted Turner happy if he believes he can swell the ranks of terrorists willing to attack innocent Israelis.
Errr.. four pairs of underwear to get ready for the virgins??
I guess I don't want to know!!
Why would they want to be wearing two pair of pants and four pair of underpants when they meet their 72 virgins?
This cult is just too bizarre. They'd be the laughingstock of the world if they weren't so murderously serious.
Nothing is left up to the individial, not even how to bathe and dress before committing mass murder and suicide.
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