December 28, 2003

Just to make sure they’re not biased towards freedom, democracy, and the American people,

the LA Times today couches a news report in terms that sound like they’re cheering for those who are killing Americans:

Coordinated Suicide Strikes Kill 13 in Iraq
Car bombers attack in the holy city of Karbala. The victims are six coalition soldiers and seven Iraqis. More than 170 are wounded.

...Although the number of daily attacks may be down by U.S. military count, Saturday’s incursion in relatively peaceful Karbala sounded a roar of defiance.

Not too subtle, is it? “By U.S. military count,” says the Times, as if hoping that the U.S. military count is false and the attacks are really greater. And that “roar of defiance”—that’s just standard cheering-them-on rhetoric. Whose side is the Times on?

Another Significant Event in the War on Terror Took Place This Weekend.

This could change the minds of a lot of people who had hoped they could safely ignore terrorism.

The Premiere of Italy stated that terrorists had planned to fly a hijacked plane into the Vatican.

Leader: Terrorists Planned To Attack Vatican On Christmas

Security Tightened Around Vatican In Recent Weeks

ROME-Terrorists planned to attack the Vatican with a hijacked plane on Christmas Day, Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi said in a newspaper interview published Saturday.

Berlusconi told Milan's Libero newspaper of a "precise and verified news of an attack on Rome on Christmas Day."

"A hijacked plane into the Vatican," Berlusconi is quoted as saying. "An attack from the sky, is that clear? The threat of terrorism is very high in this instant. I passed Christmas Eve in Rome to deal with the situation. Now I feel calm. It will pass."

He added, "It isn't fatalism, but the knowledge of having our guard up. If they organized this, they will not pull it off."

This is going to wake up a lot of people who had been hoping they might be able to stay out of the way of or otherwise appease the terrorists-including Italy as a nation and Christians in other European countries.

When the news came out about the attempt by Al Quaida to hijack a French plane bound for Las Vegas, I noticed a particular incongruity. In 9-11 Al Qaida made a point of crashing planes full of fuel. A plane coming to Las Vegas from France would be about out of fuel.

So it seems possible that the French plane is the one that was bound for the Vatican.

Naturally, the major media hasn't printed giant headlines congratulating George Bush and the CIA on stopping that French Plane from being hijacked. I guess it's up to the us in the blogosphere.