Terrorists, then and now

"If they turn on the radars we're going to blow up their goddamn SAMs (surface-to-air missiles). They know we own their country. We own their airspace... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need." - U.S. Brig. General William Looney, Washington Post, August 30, 1999


http://www.forgotten-ny.com/STREET%20SCENES/morgan/morgan.html "On September 16, 1920, person or persons unknown exploded a bomb in front of 23 Wall Street, then as now the offices of J.P. Morgan Inc., causing 400 injuries, some of them horrific, and 33 deaths.

A single warning had come in the form of a note placed in a mailbox at Cedar Street and Broadway just before the blast, "Remember we will not tolerate any longer. Free the political prisoners or it will be sure death for all of you. American Anarchists Fighters."

Investigations centered on known Sicilian, Romanian and Russian terrorist groups. But no sure leads developed and the FBI dropped the case in 1940. Whoever was responsible for this crime is almost surely dead by now.

It is widely surmised that the blast was done by anarchic terrorists bent on destroying a building symbolic of American capitalism. The Bolsheviks had taken Russia by force some three years earlier.

From Slate.com, June 6, 2003. "In the middle of the night on Feb. 28, 1971, a blast tore apart a ground-floor bathroom (In the U.S. Capitol). The bomb harmed no one, but it struck fear in Washington and around the country, triggering calls for tighter security and a swift crackdown on anti-war radicals. This was a period when bombs and bomb scares were a daily part of American life and when President Nixon and White House aides exchanged memos warning of the onset of anarchy in the United States.

The Capitol bombers belonged to the militant left-wing organization known as the Weather Underground, who at the time enjoyed a certain mystique for their bravado and their willingness to test the limits of revolutionary ideology."

The two terrorist attacks described above had a different agenda than the radical Muslim attacks of today, but it only took a handful of criminals to strike terror into the minds of millions.

Were their agendas much different from today's terrorists? The motive for the attack against J.P. Morgan is unknown, but it was probably against capitalism. The Weather Underground attack at the U.S. Capitol was against our foreign policy in Vietnam. The radical Muslims say their attacks are because of our foreign policy involvement in the middle east, and capitalism (secularism), which will destroy their culture.

These terrorists attacks were not from radical Muslims. Yet it did not prevent the State from exploiting the fears of the group. The group wants protection, and the State is willing to be the mob enforcers, for a fee, and control over the mob.

To label terrorist acts something to declare war on is a simple way for the government to grow and gain power. Just look at how the size of the U. S. government has grown since 9/11. To declare war on; poverty, drugs, pollution, global warming or anything else is in the government employees' benefit. They gain in power, pay and benefits.

Bilbo Baggins