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White House issued statement:

Flight 253:  It was not “an attempted terrorist attack”



Shortly after Flight 253 landed in Detroit on Christmas Day, the White House issued a statement calling what happened during the last 20 minutes of the flight “an attempted terrorist attack”. The use of the word “attempt” was dutifully picked up by the media and repeated ad nauseam to the point that whenever the incident will be referred to in the future it will be described as the attempted terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight from Amsterdam to Detroit.

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Terrorism is one of those words that is easy to throw around without actually thinking about its meaning. There are several definitions but generally speaking terrorism is the use of violence or the threat of violence against people or property for the purpose of intimidating governments or societies. While the politically correct leave the definition at that, part of the full definition includes the fact that terrorist acts are those that are committed for political, ideological or yes, religious reasons. What separates an act of terror from an ordinary criminal act is that the intent to terrorize must be present in the former. Terrorizing is the essential element of the act; property damage and death are just the means by which the objective is reached. What Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab did as the plane was making its final approach to the Detroit airport was not an attempted terrorist act; it was a terrorist act. By use of the word “attempt” the media are following Obama and the Democrats’ playbook that what transpired was really no different than a crime. Terrorist acts such as the one that occurred on December 25 qualify as crimes as well. In order to be guilty of an attempted crime, the perpetrator must have the intent to commit the offence and carry out at least one overt act in furtherance of that intent. The “crime” in this case would be bringing down the aircraft and if viewed solely as a crime Abdulmutallab’s actions would have been properly classified as an attempt. But what is necessary to qualify an action as a terrorist act is that there must be intent to terrorize as opposed to people simply ending up having been terrorized. Look at bank robberies for example. A robbery of the bank would naturally leave employees and customers feeling terrorized. It would also affect people who were not there but who became apprehensive the next time they visited a financial institution. But we don’t call bank robberies terrorist acts. That’s because those who rob banks do not do it with the intent to terrorize. As Willie Sutton once said, people rob banks because that’s where the money is. Bank robbers do not try to make all citizens vulnerable nor do they attempt to influence how governments operate for some religious or other ideological purpose.

Terrorism, Violence, Fawning Media

The definition of terrorism includes the threat of violence and this makes what happened on the Northwest Airlines flight a full blown terrorist attack, not simply an attempt to commit one. Major damage or deaths are not essential elements in terrorist acts. As proof that this terrorist act was successful, one only has to look at what the U.S. and other governments did in reaction to the attempt to down the aircraft. Policies were instituted to keep passengers in their seats with the hands folded on their laps during the last hour of the flight. Another policy is that people should not be shown where the aircraft is. Someone will eventually figure out that passengers can tell when they are over land and not water and probably order the blinds on the windows closed. Nothing showed that the terrorists achieved their objective than a picture in the National Post showing a woman awkwardly standing beside her wheelchair while she was being patted down. The terrorist (or as Obama prefers to call him, the alleged suspect) achieved the objective of committing an act of terrorism even though he was unsuccessful in bringing the plane down and reaching paradise. It is improbable that the United States government or any other government would have acted any differently in the wake of the attack had Flight 253 actually been brought down. While it is doubtful that the fawning media has given any thought to the words that the White House and Obama use in describing what happened, the president knows what he’s doing. It’s nothing more than downplaying the threat that the United States and the free world is facing and his contention that people like Abdulmutallab are no different than common criminals. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab did not commit an attempted terrorist act. He committed an act of terrorism, plain and simple.


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Arthur Weinreb -- Bio and Archives

Arthur Weinreb is an author, columnist and Associate Editor of Canada Free Press. Arthur’s latest book, Ford Nation: Why hundreds of thousands of Torontonians supported their conservative crack-smoking mayor is available at Amazon. Racism and the Death of Trayvon Martin is also available at Smashwords. His work has appeared on Newsmax.com,  Drudge Report, Foxnews.com.

Older articles (2007) by Arthur Weinreb


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