Interviewing Osama bin Laden last February, ABC News asked this question:
“You have been charged with masterminding the bombings of the two U.S.
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Are these charges true?”
Bin Laden’s answer:
Praise be to God, the Cherisher and Sustainer of the
Worlds. Peace and blessings be upon Prophet Muhammad, his companions and his
kin. Let me begin by stating that we, in the World Islamic Front for jihad
against Jews and Crusaders, have, by the grace of God Almighty, issued a
crystal clear fatwa calling on the Nation to carry on jihad aimed at
liberating Islamic holy sites, and the Ancient House, The Holy Ka’aba, and
Al-Aksa Mosque and all Islamic lands. By the grace of God, praise and glory
be to him, this Nation, the Nation of Muhammad, God’s peace and blessings be
upon him, has responded to this appeal and this instigation. We will continue
this course because it is a part of our religion, and because God, praise and
glory be to him, ordered us to carry out jihad so that the word of God may
remain exalted to the heights. If the instigation for jihad against the Jews
and the Americans, in order to liberate Al-Aksa Mosque and the Holy Ka’aba,
is considered a crime, let history be a witness that I am a criminal.
Strip away the bovine excrement and here’s the answer: Yes.
The bombs went off at the U.S. embassies, in other words, because the Grand
Pooh-Bah in the Sky has ordered a holy war, has ordered his most ardent fans
to blow themselves up in pizza shops and smash passenger jets into the sides
of skyscrapers.
And “we will continue this course,” explains bin Laden, because it’s “a part
of our religion.” And if that’s “considered a crime,” i.e., considered a
crime to kill 10 or 20 thousand people in one morning at the World Trade
Center, so be it.
And here’s the second question from ABC News: “You warned that Americans
would die. Then, two months later, the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar As
Salaam were bombed. Were these bombings because of your fatwa, your decree,
against America?”
Bin Laden’s reply: “By the grace of God, praise and glory be to him, we have
repeatedly issued warnings, over a number of years. Following these warnings
and these calls, anti-American explosions took place in a number of Islamic
countries. Most probably, these acts came about as a result of such calls and
warnings. But only God knows the truth.”
Again, get past the heifer dust and here’s the answer: Yes. Yes, I ordered
the hits and “most probably, these acts came about as a result,” but, hey,
only the Grand Pooh-Bah knows for sure.
There’s nothing new in any of this, except that the destruction has
escalated. It’s the same demonization of the West, the same painting of the
United States as the Great Satan, the same faith-based blather, the same envy
of our prosperity from the boondocks of the world, the same hatred of our
freedom by those who’ve sacrificed their individual distinctiveness to a
collective psychosis.
If Ronald Reagan was still in the White House, he might well be saying the
same thing now about bin Laden that he said in his Jan. 7, 1986, press conference
about Libyan leader Col. Gaddafi: “I find he’s not only a barbarian but he’s flaky.”
Unfortunately, it looks like we ain’t seen nothing yet. “They’re looking to
acquire chemical, biological and nuclear weapons,” says former U.S. Defense
Secretary William Cohen. Benjamin Netanyahu, former Prime Minister of Israel,
issued much the same warning six years ago in his book “Fighting Terrorism”:
“The very real possibility that terrorists may soon acquire horrific weapons
of mass destruction and use them to escalate terrorism beyond our wildest
dreams has not been addressed properly by Western governments. Today’s
tragedies can either be the harbingers of much greater calamities yet to come
or the turning point in which free societies once again mobilize their
resources, their ingenuity, and their will to wipe out this evil from our
midst. Fighting terrorism is not a ‘policy option’; it is a necessity for our
survival.”
The problem, says Leonard Peikoff, founder of the Ayn Rand Institute, is that
we’ve been too soft: “Fifty years of increasing American appeasement in the
Mideast” have led to “fifty years of increasing contempt in the Muslim world
for the U.S.” – and Sept. 11 was the “inevitable climax.”
At its root, Peikoff argues, our capitulation was philosophical. We were
denounced as too wealthy, too unholy, too egoistic and we refused to answer
back that we are motivated, and rightfully so, by the desire to pursue
personal happiness here on earth in a rich, free, secular and individualist
society.
And now? “We must wipe out the terrorist training camps and eliminate any
retaliatory military capability – and thereby terrorize and paralyze all
the tyrannies watching, who will now know what is in store for them if they
choose in any form to attack the U.S.,” states Peikoff. “The choice today is
mass death in the U.S. or mass death in the terrorist nations. To those who
oppose war, I ask: If not now, when? How many more corpses are necessary
before this country should take action?”
Birthright citizenship is a breach in the border
Daniel McCarthy