He Speaks With Forked Tongue

When I was a young lad, I was fascinated with western m0vies and one of the lines I have never forgotten was one often spoken by an Indian Chief referring to American leaders with whom the Chief was forced to negotiate. He referred to the U.S. leaders as men who spoke with "forked tongues." The Chiefs', of course, were referring to snakes whose integrity has been questioned by every society since the story of Adam and Eve.

I continue to read in the papers and hear on the news advisers, political pundits and many government leaders tell the American public that by keeping our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan and fighting terrorists there, we are protecting ourselves from being attacked by terrorists in the United States. These sound bites are comforting and seemingly give us a strong reason for keeping our young service personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan but the question remains are they correct? Let's see if we can determine if the statement is in fact truthful.

First, We need to determine if there was ever a terrorist attack on United States soil by a foreign terrorist group prior to 9-11-2001. (I am intentionally excluding any attack on any foreign U.S. Embassy as such an attack is technically an attack on U.S. soil and restrict attacks to those occurring within the continental limits of the United States.)

There was such an attack and remarkably it was against the Twin Towers. This attack occurred on Friday, February 26, 1993, when a group of eight Islamic fundamentalists engineered an attempt blow up the "Twin Towers" by planting a car loaded with explosives in a parking lot under the North Tower of the Twin Towers Complex and remotely detonating the bomb. The plan was to force the North Tower to topple into the South Tower causing both towers to fall. The resultant explosion produced a crater five floors deep and 140' in diameter rupturing sewer and water mains and cutting off electricity to the Tower Complex. The blast further killed six people and injured more than a thousand but the infra-structure of the Twin Towers held and the New York Subways System which ran beneath the Trade Center Complex was only slightly damaged. The subway was up and running on Monday and business returned to normal in the Twin Towers and the Trade Center Complex in a very short period of time.

Was this initial terrorist attempt to destroy the Twin Towers sufficiently comparable to the attack on 9-11-2001 such that it might be used as a historic comparison? There are definite similarities: (1) The group that executed the attack were all Islamic jihadists: (2) The leader Ramzi Yousef received training at a terrorist training camp in Peshawar, Pakistan on how to build a bomb. This training camp was also used by Al Queda; (3) Ramzi Yousef received funds from his uncle Khalid Sheikh Mohammad, a top figure in Al Queda; (4) The targets in both instances were the same-The Twin Towers; and (Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, a blind Egyptian Cleric. who had ties to Al Queda masterminded the Attack. While the method of attack is not the same, the intent to destroy is the same, the people funding the attack is the same, the group attempting the attack is the same, the group planning the attack is the same and the reason for the attack is the same-hatred for the U.S. I believe the factual events involving the two attacks are similar enough to enable us to historically review the actions the United States government took against its attackers in 1993 with those it took against its attackers on 9-11-2001 and be on solid ground.

The United States responded to the 1993 attack against the Twin Towers by utilizing local, national and international police agencies and apprehended everyone involved in the attack. All of the terrorists involved in the attack on the attack on the Twin Towers were caught, tried, convicted and remain in U.S. prisons except one. The one person not in a U.S. prison is in an Iraqi prison and his name is Abdul Ramad Yasim. Yasim was arrested by the Iraqi police in 1994. When Saddam learned the FBI was offering a 25 million dollar reward for Yasim, Saddam tried to turn Yasim over to the FBI in exchange for the reward. The FBI never picked him up. When Leslie Stahl of "60 Minutes" found out about the situation in 2002, she flew to Iraq and interviewed Yasim and confirmed his identity. When Stahl left Iraq, Yasim was still in custody. There has never been a press release stating Yasim has been picked up by the FBI. The question lingers why the FBI has never picked up Yasim as it is obvious the entire world knows where he is located; yet, Yasim languishes in an Iraq jail with a $25 million dollar reward posted for his capture.

What the U.S. did not do following the 1993 attack on the Twin Towers was invade another country. It limited its action to standard police action supplemented by international police activity and it captured, tried, convicted and placed in prison every one of the men involved in the attack on the Twin Towers in 1993 less one who has remained in custody the entire time in an Iraqi jail. Therefore a period of eight and a half years passed without an attack on the U.S in spite of the fact we did not have any troops in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

Perhaps,, our news advisers, political pundits and governmental leaders,who backed our entry into the war in Iraq against the advice of our own intelligence leaders and continue to back our troops presence in these countries are "speaking with forked tongues" to protect their own fading political careers. Perhaps, they should simply admit they made a terrible mistake that has cost us and continues to cost us the lives of fine young men and women each day we coninue to remain in Iraq. We Have the finest military force in the world. They have done everything we have asked of them and more. It is time they be treated as such and brought home.

Will Roger's had a saying that I think is very applicable to this situation, "When you find yourself in a hole, the best thing to do is to quit digging."