SAN`A, Yemen — A Yemeni-American, one of the FBI's 26 "most wanted" for terrorism, appeared at a session of his trial in a Yemeni court Saturday with bodyguards and then walked free, apparently not subject to any form of incarceration, eyewitnesses said.Granted, good ol' Jaber isn't quite as high a prize as dear Muggie was. Sure, he did get sentenced to 10 years for masterminding two terrorist attacks in 2006. Oh, yes, and he and 22 of his insane friends broke out of jail in February, digging a little rat hole to a nearby mosque, but he certainly isn't Muggie. Now Muggie - there was a pretty reprehensible guy. And Muggie's death came as a special reason for celebration as far as I am concerned. Watching the story run repeatedly on the news, I frequently saw a familiar image:
The 41-year-old Jaber Elbaneh attended a session of the trial for him and 22 other Al Qaeda members charged for a series attacks on oil facilities, an eyewitness said speaking on condition of anonymity because of security concerns.
Footage of the suspect entering and leaving the court unimpeded also appeared on the Dubai-based pan-Arab satellite channel, al-Arabiya. - AP, via Fox News
Remember that one? That was probably Muggie's most famous handiwork - the hijacking of TWA flight 847. Aside from 9/11, it's the most vivid illustration of terrorism that resides in my memory. But it isn't that particular image I see. I see this one:
SW-2 Robert Dean Stethem. On June 14th, 1985, Muggie and his friends beat the young Navy hero, shot him in the back of the head, and dumped his body out on the tarmac like so much garbage. He was 23. That is what I see when I hear Muggie's name. And that is why I couldn't be happier that the S.O.B. is dead. Blowing him up was probably way too good for him, but I'll take it.
Sadly, Jaber isn't dead; he's free. Clearly the Yemenis didn't think he was a threat, right? Strange, that - since he's planned attacks in Yemen, and since the FBI is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to his arrest. Odd that we'd throw around that kind of money to get a hold of someone who isn't a threat. Jaber's wanted for "providing material support to a terrorist organization and conspiring to provide material support, specifically to Al-Qaeda."
You'd think Yemen would know better. I seem to recall a little incident taking place there. You know, a ship, big whole blown in the side of it, seventeen brave U.S. military personnel killed...
Then again, you'd think we'd know better than to let it go. I thought we meant what we said when we said we'd hunt terrorists down wherever they were. We also said that if countries harbored terrorists, they were no better than terrorists. Apparently, I was mistaken.
One of the biggest difficulties that we have had in this war on terror is that we're finding few true allies. Either because of fear of reprisal, or because their government is already held hostage to political correctness, most other countries are refusing to fully confront the threat posed by Islamic extremism. Many are denying there is a threat - at least, to anyone other than the U.S.
At the same time, our politicians are allowing valuable terrorist surveillance venues to disappear, and continuing to advocate the nauseating irony of bestowing citizens' rights on people who would just as soon kill us as look at us.
So why, exactly, would any country want to stand with us against the terrorists? The terrorists prove on a daily basis that they will do what they say they will. We're not so clear on that point.
We are steadily returning to an era of hiding under the covers, hoping that the bogeyman will just go away. But he won't. We are looking more like we're doomed to repeat, rather than learn from, the bloody lessons we've learned from terrorism.
This week, Serbian protesters attacked the U.S. embassy, setting it on fire.
And the U.S. response amounted to "Heyyyyyy...."
Not too long ago, there was another embassy that got attacked by rowdy students. More than a year later, their hostages were released.
The U.S. spent a year going, "Heyyyyyy....."
That time period had been marked by plane hijackings, bombings, and all sorts of mayhem at the hands of Islamic terrorists. Things eased up significantly when we taught them that ticking us off really just wasn't a great idea. We went from the worst president in American history, who let us be walked on, to arguably one of the best - largely because America was tired of being kicked around. We started acting like a country that believed in freedom, and was not willing to compromise its principles for the false illusion of security.
In recent years, we've gone from a president who seemed pretty darned good at handling the terrorist threat to one who doesn't seem to be very good at actually doing anything. From one who spoke of clear resolve and hunting terrorists wherever we found them to one who doesn't treat unsecured borders as a threat. Inexplicably, it's the same president.
But it could be worse - it very well may be far worse - in less than a year.
We continue to hear about the 'travesty' of maintaining Gitmo. We don't hear about the conduct of the cockroaches being held there.
Our government is failing entirely to control the borders, despite numerous warnings about the threat posed to us from terrorists who can easily cross over. Yes, the 'virtual fence' is almost ready to go. But the 'virtual fence' isn't going to cut it. For one, it doesn't cover all of the southern border - not even close. And in case anyone's forgotten (as our government apparently has), there's a border to the north, too. Now, I'm not living in fear of hordes of Canadians coming down to wreak havoc. But Canada is a VERY large place, with a lot of remote areas. It's a great venue for sneaking into this country.
I hope it brings a measure of comfort to Robert Dean Stethem's family that one of his murderers is now facing his fate (I'm thinking that's taking place somewhere REALLY warm). It's a giant step forward. One more dead terrorist.
Then there's Elbaneh. The fact that a country who supposedly is working with us to arrest terrorists just let Jaber Elbaneh go represents a significant step back. An even larger backward step is the fact that a political candidate has a real chance of winning the U.S. presidency despite saying that would 'personally negotiate' with a country sworn to the destruction of Israel and the west. One step forward, two steps back.
Too many more steps back and we may find we've just stepped off a cliff. The landing is likely to be brutal.
If we don't start taking REAL steps to deal with the entire threat posed by radical Islam and their demented minions, there are going to be a whole lot more Robert Dean Stethems out there, and a whole lot more steps back into a part of history I don't think we want to repeat.
Labels: opinion, politics, Robert Dean Stethem, terrorism
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