Other Voices To Hear About Terrorism

In reading about recent terrorist activities--Hezbollah in the Middle East and now an averted terror plot involving airplanes in England, I ran across two very interesting stories that give insight into each of these situations.

While journalists are laying fault at the feet of Israel and/or Hezbollah for the current conflict, little has been said about the culpability of Lebanon itself--until now. Writing in Beirut, Michael Behe exposes the fault of Lebanon's government in allowing Hezbollah free reign in their country after the UN passed resolution 1559 and after Israel abandoned its occupation in 2000. He writes:

"It is easy now to whine and gripe, and to play the hypocritical role of victims. We know full well how to get others to pity us and to claim that we are never responsible for the horrors that regularly occur on our soil. Of course, that is nothing but rubbish! The Security Council’s Resolution 1559 – that demanded that OUR government deploy OUR army on OUR sovereign territory, along OUR international border with Israel and that it disarm all the militia on OUR land – was voted on 2 September 2004.

"We had two years to put implement this resolution and thus guarantee a peaceful future to our children but we did strictly nothing. Our greatest crime – which was not the only one! – was not that we did not succeed but that we did not attempt or undertake anything. And that was the fault of none else than the pathetic Lebanese politicians.

"Our government, from the very moment the Syrian occupier left, let ships and truckloads of arms pour into our country. Without even bothering to look at their cargo. They jeopardized all chances for the rebirth of our country by confusing the Cedar Revolution with the liberation of Beirut. In reality, we had just received the chance – a sort of unhoped-for moratorium – that allowed us to take the future into our own hands, nothing more."

On the other terror front, a hair-raising article by Annie Jacobsen shows that as early as 2004, terrorists have been trying to blow up planes in-air by manufacturing a bomb in-flight with materials brought on board. These attempts are not just recent. They've been going on for three years. She recalls the events of her June, 2004 flight from Detroit to Los Angeles with 14 Middle Eastern men aboard:

"The take-off was uneventful. But once we were in the air and the seatbelt sign was turned off, the unusual activity began. The man in the yellow T-shirt got out of his seat and went to the lavatory at the front of coach -- taking his full McDonald's bag with him. When he came out of the lavatory he still had the McDonald's bag, but it was now almost empty. He walked down the aisle to the back of the plane, still holding the bag. When he passed two of the men sitting mid-cabin, he gave a thumbs-up sign. When he returned to his seat, he no longer had the McDonald's bag.

Then another man from the group stood up and took something from his carry-on in the overhead bin. It was about a foot long and was rolled in cloth. He headed toward the back of the cabin with the object. Five minutes later, several more of the Middle Eastern men began using the forward lavatory consecutively. In the back, several of the men stood up and used the back lavatory consecutively as well.

For the next hour, the men congregated in groups of two and three at the back of the plane for varying periods of time. Meanwhile, in the first class cabin, just a foot or so from the cockpit door, the man with the dark suit – still wearing sunglasses – was also standing. Not one of the flight crew members suggested that any of these men take their seats.

Watching all of this, my husband was now beyond "anxious."

Once you start reading Jacobsen's story, you can't stop until you've reached the end. Let's hope and pray these fascist threats to our freedom will soon end.