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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