The editorial pages of the Post and Courier are a joke. From the editors themselves to the useless columnists they publish down to the letters from local readers that they publish, these pages are a better comedy than the funny pages. I make it a point to head straight for the editorial pages of the Pointless Courier to see what the latest completely banal and false pronouncement from the right wing demagogues will be for the day. Rarely does the Pointless Courier disappoint and this morning was no exception.
"For eight years under the Bush administration, we had no terrorist attacks on U.S. soil after 9/11."
For weeks now, this has been the conservative mantra. Only it is not true. Not only is it not true, it hasn't been true almost since the day it supposedly began: September 12, 2001. Everyone remembers September 11, but do you remember September 18, 2001. That is the day that letters began arriving at select media outlets including, NBC, ABC, CBS, the New York Post, and the National Enquirer, laden with deadly anthrax. Three weeks later, two more anthrax letters arrived. These letters weren't addressed to just any average senator; they were addressed to two powerful senators, Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy.
5 people died as a result of these terrorist attacks and a dozen more were injured. We still don't how all of the victims received their dose of anthrax and we are not certain who carried out these attacks. But the partisan hacks in the conservative movement to destroy America don't really care about facts. But make no mistake about it, the 2001 Anthrax Attacks were terrorism on U. S. soil.
Around Christmas 2001, Richard Reid attempted to set off a shoe bomb onboard a plane bound for the United States in an attack identical to the one perpetrated by the Underpants Bomber the conservatives are wetting their pants over. Reid failed because his shoe bombs were no longer functional due to him having worn them the previous day when he was prevented from boarding an airplane. Note, that was the previous day that security was concerned about Reid.
El Al, the Israeli airline, is perhaps the most secure airline in the world. It has to be. There are many terrorists who have tried to attack El Al. On July 4, 2002, a Muslim terrorist named Hesham Mohamed Hadayet attacked the El Al ticket counter in Los Angelos International Airport killing two Israelis and wounding 4 others before an El Al security guard shot and killed him. This was a terrorist attack on U. S. soil. But do not any unAmerican conservatives to acknowledge this terrorist attack even though it happened on OUR INDEPENDENCE DAY.
A couple of months later, on September 5, 2002, a man was shot six times in Maryland in what was to become a series of shootings throughtout the DC area. On September 21, two people were shot, one died, in Alabama. Unknown at the time, but these shootings were also a part of the DC Shooting Spree. On October 5, another man was shot and killed in Maryland. The following day, 4 more people were shot in Maryland and a fifth person in DC. All died from a single shot wound fired from a long distance away. On October 7, a teenager was shot as he arrived at school; he survived the wound. But on October 9, another fatal shooting occurred at a gas station in Virginia. Again, on October 11, a person pumping gas was fatally shot in Virginia. On October 14, another person was fatally shot in Virginia. On October 19, there was another non-fatal shooting in Virginia. On October 22, a man was fatally shot on the steps of his bus in Maryland. This was to be the final shooting in this rampage as on October 24, police arrested John Allen Mohammed and Lee Malvo. It turned out that they were Islamic jihadists bent on terrorizing Americans, and for three weeks, they had done so. On American soil.
In 2006, Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar drove his SUV into 9 students at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. He did so to avenge the deaths of Muslims and to honor his personal hero Mohammed Atta. This was a terrorist attack on U. S. soil.
In 2005, a bomb was set off in a mosque in Cincinnati, Ohio. No one was killed, but it was a terrorist attack.
In 2008, a conservative terrorist killed 2 people and wounded 6 others in a church in Knoxville, Tennessee.
But do not look for the Pointless Courier to correct the record anytime soon. It is not on their agenda.
And let us not forget that China punked Bush three times while he was president, which is far more dangerous to our national security than any of the attempts a group of unprofessional criminals might think of.
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