Terrost Acts Against US And Peace Threats

Terrost Acts Against US And Peace Threats: Kamala Sarup

As many hindsight analyses have shown, US leaders and indulgent voters from all parties since the 1970s have been remiss in gauging the seriousness of fundamentalist terrorism. It took the 9/11 disaster to awaken them.

In the interest of some objectivity, here is a list of terrorist acts:

Like Some Examples ( http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001454.html)

1979 Nov. 4, Tehran, Iran: Iranian radical students seized the U.S. embassy, taking 66 hostages. 14 were later released. The remaining 52 were freed after 444 days on the day of President Reagan's inauguration.

1982–1991 Lebanon: Thirty US and other Western hostages kidnapped in Lebanon by Hezbollah. Some were killed, some died in captivity, and some were eventually released. Terry Anderson was held for 2,454 days.

1983 April 18, Beirut, Lebanon: U.S. embassy destroyed in suicide car-bomb attack; 63 dead, including 17 Americans. The Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Oct. 23, Beirut, Lebanon: Shiite suicide bombers exploded truck near U.S. military barracks at Beirut airport, killing 241 marines. Minutes later a second bomb killed 58 French paratroopers in their barracks in West Beirut. Dec. 12, Kuwait City, Kuwait: Shiite truck bombers attacked the U.S. embassy and other targets, killing 5 and injuring 80.

1984 Sept. 20, east Beirut, Lebanon: truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. embassy annex, killing 24, including 2 U.S. military. Dec. 3, Beirut, Lebanon: Kuwait Airways Flight 221, from Kuwait to Pakistan, hijacked and diverted to Tehran. 2 Americans killed. 1985 April 12, Madrid, Spain: Bombing at restaurant frequented by U.S. soldiers, killed 18 Spaniards and injured 82. June 14, Beirut, Lebanon: TWA Flight 847 en route from Athens to Rome hijacked to Beirut by Hezbollah terrorists and held for 17 days. A U.S. Navy diver executed.

Oct. 7, Mediterranean Sea: gunmen attack Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro. One U.S. tourist killed. Hijacking linked to Libya. Dec. 18, Rome, Italy, and Vienna, Austria: airports in Rome and Vienna were bombed, killing 20 people, 5 of whom were Americans. Bombing linked to Libya. 1986 April 2, Athens, Greece:A bomb exploded aboard TWA flight 840 en route from Rome to Athens, killing 4 Americans and injuring 9. April 5, West Berlin, Germany: Libyans bombed a disco frequented by U.S. servicemen, killing 2 and injuring hundreds.

1988 Dec. 21, Lockerbie, Scotland: N.Y.-bound Pan-Am Boeing 747 exploded in flight from a terrorist bomb and crashed into Scottish village, killing all 259 aboard and 11 on the ground. Passengers included 35 Syracuse University students and many U.S. military personnel. Libya formally admitted responsibility 15 years later (Aug. 2003) and offered $2.7 billion compensation to victims' families.

1993 Feb. 26, New York City: bomb exploded in basement garage of World Trade Center, killing 6 and injuring at least 1,040 others. In 1995, militant Islamist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 9 others were convicted of conspiracy charges, and in 1998, Ramzi Yousef, believed to have been the mastermind, was convicted of the bombing. Al-Qaeda involvement is suspected.

1995 Nov. 13, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: car bomb exploded at U.S. military headquarters, killing 5 U.S. military servicemen.

1996 June 25, Dhahran, Saudi Arabia: truck bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds of others. 13 Saudis and a Lebanese, all alleged members of Islamic militant group Hezbollah, were indicted on charges relating to the attack in June 2001.

1998 Aug. 7, Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania: truck bombs exploded almost simultaneously near 2 U.S. embassies, killing 224 (213 in Kenya and 11 in Tanzania) and injuring about 4,500. 4 men connected with al-Qaeda 2 of whom had received training at al-Qaeda camps inside Afghanistan, were convicted of the killings in May 2001 and later sentenced to life in prison. A federal grand jury had indicted 22 men in connection with the attacks, including Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who remained at large.

2000 Oct. 12, Aden, Yemen: U.S. Navy destroyer USS Cole heavily damaged when a small boat loaded with explosives blew up alongside it.

17 sailors killed. Linked to Osama bin Laden, or members of al-Qaeda terrorist network. 2001 Sept. 11, New York City, Arlington, Va., and Shanksville, Pa.: hijackers crashed 2 commercial jets into twin towers of World Trade Center; 2 more hijacked jets were crashed into the Pentagon and a field in rural Pa. Total dead and missing numbered 2,9921: 2,749 in New York City, 184 at the Pentagon, 40 in Pa., and 19 hijackers. al-Qaeda terrorist group blamed.

2002 June 14, Karachi, Pakistan: bomb exploded outside American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan, killing 12. Linked to al-Qaeda. 2003 May 12, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: suicide bombers killed 34, including 8 Americans, at housing compounds for Westerners. Al-Qaeda suspected.

2004 May 29–31, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: terrorists attack the offices of a Saudi oil company in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, take foreign oil workers hostage in a nearby residential compound, leaving 22 people dead including one American. June 11–19, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia: terrorists kidnap and execute Paul Johnson Jr., an American, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 2 other Americans and BBC cameraman killed by gun attacks.

Dec. 6, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia: terrorists storm the U.S. consulate, killing 5 consulate employees. 4 terrorists were killed by Saudi security. 2005 Nov. 9, Amman, Jordan: Suicide bombers hit 3 American hotels, Radisson, Grand Hyatt, and Days Inn, in Amman, Jordan, killing.

57. Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility.

(Source:http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0001454.html)

Some comments:

Norm added "Our businesses have been in the Middle East since the 1930s. Israel is the only country in that region that is indisputably on our side, which assists us in protecting the oil, so we support them. Jewish voters augment our support.

Our presence in the Middle East contaminates the fundamentalists' view of their principles on how people should behave, gives vent to all fundamentalists who have been taught how Western countries have pushed them around and threatens the power of their current crop of dictators and theocrats. Therefore, the militants are waging war against us using our oil dollars to buy arms from the technically advanced west. Such irony!

"Because it will be a long war of large numbers v. advanced military technology, it is too bad that none of us will be around to see how it ends."

Tom adds: "What we face now is a situation not unlike that which prevailed the second half of the 19th Century and into the early 20th. Then, industralization unleashed socio-economic-political forces which produced both the Anarchists, Maoists and the Bolsheviks. Though the latter emphasized terror as a tactic, while the former saw it as a logic, they both viewed the structural arrangements of the time as justifying attacks upon the innocent.

"In using the framework of Western radicalism to set forth their own arguments, violent radical have expanded still further the notion that "they" -- the structural "other" -- are the enemy. Thus it matters not that victims are noncombatants or children or the innocent. "They" are all guilty, as bin Laden hammered home in his recent statement.

"Anarchists or maoists claimed the state had long abrogated to itself the same right, but the crucial distinction is that today's present terrorists claim that any sub-state actor can decide not only the law but the implementation of the law. They, in other words, in a rogue reflection of the James Bond novels, claim to have 'a license to kill'."

It can be shown by an impartial review of our polticians' statements and actions since the first terrorist attacks on the Tehran U.S

Embassy in 1979, that Rep and Dem politicians have been confused and inconsistent in their evaluations and pursuit of radical terrorists. For example, after the 1983 Beirut bombings that killed 17 Americans at the embassy in April (63 total deaths) and 241 U.S. marines in barracks in October, why did the president remove the troops instead of declaring war on terrorists, pursuing them, and improving domestic security? That might have prevented 9/11. Instead, his action demonstrated to the radicals that the U.S. was vulnerable and could be cowed.

Nepali Journalist and Story Writer Kamala Sarup is an editor of peacejournalism.com. She is specialising in in-depth reporting and writing on Peace,Anti War, Women, Terrorism, Democracy, and Development. Some of her publications are: Women's Empowerment (Booklet). Prevention of trafficking in women through media,(Book) Efforts to Prevent Trafficking in for Media Activism (Media research). Two Stories collections. Her interests include international conflict resolution, cross-cultural communication, philosophy, feminism, political, socio-economic and literature. Her current plans are to move on to humanitarian work in conflict areas in the near future. She also is experienced in organizational and community development.

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