The Next Targets

THE NEXT TARGETS The year was 1995 and the worst terrorist attack on American soil had just taken place. That April morning, nobody imagined that nineteen children would be the victims of Timothy McVeigh’s warped thinking. And yet it happened. And the reaction of Americans was that of horror and anger. How could someone do this to children? There was a daycare in the Murrah building. McVeigh knew that. He took no precautions to carry out his heinous act only on adults. Adults have lived. We have had life to maturity. But children just begun to live life. Three years ago I made the statement that the next attack on American soil would not be another incident of airplanes flying into buildings. The terrorists don’t simply want to take down buildings. They want to cause America to come under submission to Islam. Like a bully in a playground, these Islamists won’t hesitate to grab our nation by it’s collective arms and pin them back until we scream “uncle!” I proposed what I thought they would do: go after the children. Why children? Remember our national horror at the deaths of nineteen children? And even though media outlets wimped out in giving us detailed reports about the tragedy in Beslan, Russia, those who did cover it were horrified. And some of us wondered: could it happen here? Recently Glenn Beck has been addressing this in his television show in a series called “The Perfect Day.” Glenn and I agree that they’ll go after children. It’s the how they'll do it that we don’t see eye to eye on. But I find myself agreeing with him in that our schools are vulnerable. As vulnerable as I believe our children’s hospitals are. To borrow from Mr. Beck: here’s how I got there. STEP ONE: OUR VALUES. American core values tell us that children are to be protected and valued. We have an extended childhood in our country, in spite of liberal attempts to convince us that kids need sex education on the elementary levels and in spite of legal abortion. In this country messing with a child even raises the rancor of hardened criminals. Many a child molester has become someone’s “prison bee-yatch” or a target for death because of his dastardly deeds. Women who murder their babies don’t receive any sympathy from the average American, no matter how “mentally ill” they claim to be. In most states childhood lasts until at least sixteen. Sometimes older. And nobody under eighteen may serve in the military nor vote in a national election. Purchasing alcohol is restricted to a certain age as well. We don’t allow kids under sixteen to work in the active workforce. And a twenty year old can still be accused of statutory rape if he or she has sex with someone under seventeen. The McMartin daycare scandal rocked the world and our national senses. The media went on it’s feeding frenzy and a cottage industry treating Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) developed.

In general, however, our nation went spastic because this involved very young children. Very few people even blinked. So strongly do Americans believe in the innocence of children that the McMartin’s couldn’t have gotten a fair trial on the moon. Had it not been for the work of excellent defense attorney’s an innocent family would’ve spent the rest of their days in prison. While some Muslims will point to America’s laws on abortion, the problems with kiddie porn, the Catholic priest scandals and the exploitation of children in marketing, they also know that the one way to get to Americans in general is attack our most vulnerable and innocent. According to Lt. Col. Dave Grossman of the Killology Research Group, our children are at risk because we, the Americans who still love our children, could never fathom anyone going after kids. According the Todd Rassa, a law enforcement motivational speaker, the goal of such an attack would be to lower our collective morale while boosting that of Islamists around the world. STEP TWO: THEIR VIEW OF CHILDREN. Most Muslims, I believe, love their children. But there are those who do not. At least not in the way WE consider loving a child. Some of these parents have received monies in compensation for their offspring blowing themselves up in the name of their God and cause. These parents express profound love for their child and are proud of their "accomplishment." They raised their child to "grow up to blow up" and the training stuck. A video making the rounds over this past year involves a television show for Muslim children wherein the child, with the help of an Islamic Mickey Mouse, declares her desire to die for Allah. On January 19, 2007, MSNBC reported that an Australian Cleric, Sheik Feiz Mohammed, was encouraging Muslim children to become martyrs: “We want to have children and offer them as soldiers defending Islam…Teach them this: There is nothing more beloved to me than wanting to die as a mujahid. Put in their soft, tender hearts the zeal of jihad and a love of martyrdom…” Nice guy, eh? In 2004, Dr. Shafiq Massalha, conducted a study which led him to conclude that: “…in about 10 years, a very murderous generation will come of age, full of hatred and ready to die in suicide missions…” Massalha also noted that more than half of the Palestinian children ages 6-11 dream of becoming suicide bombers. At an age where your children and mine were probably learning about sharing from Mr.

Rogers, children in certain Islamic countries are being taught by a “Jihadi Bee” that becoming a martyr is the way to go. Especially when it comes to defeating the “Zionist Jews.” Incidentally, the show also encourages the abuse of cats. If memory serves, wasn’t that the stuff of serial killers? Abusing animals during their childhood years? Does this stuff work? Are Islamic parents and children really following this? Or is it simply a few minor cases of extremists having their “freedom of speech” moment? In 2007, during the siege of the Red Mosque, the TIMES ONLINE reported that children inside the Mosque begged to be killed as martyrs. We’re not talking fifteen year olds. We’re talking children. Little boys and little girls: “SAIMA KHAN wants to die a martyr. Life is transient, she told her father in a telephone call last week, and the real glory is to sacrifice it for Allah. Her statement would be alarming at any age, but Saima is only 10.” According to Justice Reid Weiner, of the South Asia Terrorism Portal, the use of children (theirs and others) to achieve the desired goal, but especially sacrificing them on the altar of martyrdom, isn’t uncommon throughout the Islamic world. He cites several countries wherein this has become a staple and an issue. The children, he explains, are being primed to become terrorists: “A Palestinian TV children’s show called ‘The Children’s Club,’ which is modelled on the American programme ‘Sesame Street,’ aired an episode in which young boys with raised arms chanted ‘we are ready with our guns; revolution until victory; victory.’" What parent encourages a child to purposely become a martyr? What kind of religion or culture or country would air programs designed to teach their children that death is preferable to life? We’re not talking about an adult martyr here. We’re talking about young children. Sesame Street age children. If this isn’t psychological and emotional abuse, I don’t know what is! So what makes us think they give a rat’s ass about our kids? STEP THREE: WE’RE NOT READY. I can’t fathom someone attacking a school or childrens' hospital with an airplane. And it’s precisely our lack of readiness which is why I believe they will target the children. There’s been an amazing quiet since 9-11, at least on our soil. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Foiled attempts had happened before September 11, 2001. Minor attacks. Too many survivors. But how does one top a 9-11? You find the vulnerable spots. Oh yes, there’s nuclear plants and storage facilities, electrical grids, military bases, etc. etc. But let’s be real here: unless the event sends such a shockwave through America that 9-11 is all but forgotten in the turmoil, any such attacks will be ineffective in “humiliating” the “Great Shaitan.”

If Columbine and the VA Tech shootings have taught us anything, it’s that our schools are ill equipped to defuse an attack, let alone prevent one. And our hospitals are in even worse shape. In fact our own Equal Opportunity laws could become our worst enemy when it comes to prevention of an attack on our children. Picture this scene: on any given day of the week, delivery, custodial, cafeteria and transportation personnel have access to all, or nearly all, areas of the school to which they’re assigned or the hospital at which they work. Muhammed Aziz* is a delivery man for a local business supply company. He has access to every office in the hospital that contracts with the company he works for. Desktop delivery means up and down several elevators, access to bathrooms, access to the basement and probably other places as well. According to a study by Homeland Security (funny how this information isn’t put out there regularly) hospitals are prime targets for chemical attacks. Gee, imagine that! Now imagine a chemical attack at St. Judes Children's Hospital. In 2002 UCSF reported the FBI warning that hospitals could be the object of terrorist attacks. This prompted simulations and increasing security. But I know for a fact that delivery services aren’t impeded at all in most hospitals. ASK ANY DELIVERY DRIVER. All you need is the right badge and access. In an interview with one man who wishes to remain anonymous, I was informed: “I’ve delivered to nurseries, into post-surgery, and through ER’s. All I needed for identification was my badge. Nobody stopped me.” Things aren’t any different for the schools. In fact, they may be worse. For while security may catch wanderers, and doors are locked throughout the day, they only lock out parents and others, not school employees. Recently I wrote an article discussing one of the most ridiculous attempts by a school to “prepare” for an attempted terrorist attack. The school decided to make a simulation using “The Crusaders” as the name of the terrorist group and the issue of prayer in school as their reason for holding hostages. I remarked in that article that this was obviously NOT designed to mention the source of the real threat (I can’t picture the ACLJ’s Jay Sekulow charging a principle with an Ak-47). Though the department of Homeland Security has advised on preparing schools for an attack, each school must prepare according to it’s own specific needs and possibilities. Schools are limited in the types of background checks they do for potential employees. They’re not necessarily screening through established databanks. But even if they were, this might not be how the attack goes down. Another Baslan could occur. And what then?

PREVENTION IS THE KEY. We don’t want children to be scared. We want them to feel safe. But just as we teach our children to “say no” to strangers and tell them “nobody should touch your privates” we also have to tell them that there’s bad people out there and that we need to do all we can to make our world safer. This may mean their friend, Abduleh, may have to be upset that his Dad doesn’t get a job in a hospital or school. Did I really just say that we should exercise job discrimination? When it comes to the safety of Americas children, you betchum! I will go a step further. How many bombs have been delivered by delivery drivers? There are ways to keep that in check. But it’s going to require businesses to be a little inconvenienced. No more desktop deliveries. Everyone comes to a central location to get their goodies. Large amounts of paper or ink cartridges may just have to be toted by inhouse employees. And companies that provide delivery services should be able to discriminate. Or at least be able to run names through the FBI system for complete background checks, instead of settling for the $199.95 databank which only tells us if someone has too many DUI’s. The problem here is that discrimination in America is “anathema” even if it means saving the lives of school children. So what else is left? Well, armed guards can help. Grossman points out: “Terrorists are willing to die, but they desperately don't want to die for nothing, without completing their tactical objective. They want a body count.” Israel has long used armed guards for field trips and other events. Perhaps we will need to go to that extreme as well. And what about teachers? Utah and New Hampshire allow conceal-carry permits on school campuses. Maybe that will help? CONCLUSION: After reading reports from terrorism experts I came to realize that the kind of training necessary to protect our children in hospital and school environments will likely never come to pass. We have a powerful aversion to changing the environments of our children. We don’t want schools or the hospital to become prison-like. It will take a great deal of money as well. And, let’s face it, the NEA won’t likely allow anything that’s remotely “anti-Islam” because it could offend someone. This past February (2007) the Family Security Foundation reported that terrorists have made it plain that they plan to attack our children. For some strange reason, this threat isn’t being taken seriously. At least, I didn’t see the leadership of America speaking out loudly about the threat. Okay, they’re afraid of a panic.

Heaven help us if parents began pulling children out of school! (Actually, the kids could be better off, but that’s another article). The fact is, we’re not taking the most important terrorist threat we have ever had levied against our nation as seriously as we need to. Washington sleeps on this topic and offers little information to the average citizen. Today I drove past a school three blocks from my home. I watched the children exiting, happy, smiling, and remembered back to the days when we used to dive under our desks in case of atomic attack. Not that our desk would have saved our lives had our school been ground zero, but at least we had awareness that there was a possibility of such an event. When it comes to terrorist attacks, however, it seems our American children seem are blissfully unaware and maybe the government likes it that way. Do you?

resources: *not a known person http://www.schoolsecurity.org/terrorist_response.html#Terrorist%20Threat:%20Naysayers% 20&%20Reality http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5907600/ http://www.killology.com/art_mass_slaughter.htm http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4&mode=related&search= http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16702195/ http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=38826 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0w1M0hKMsI&feature=PlayList&p=17F8AAE6A2F56F53& index=5 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2042156.ece http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume16/Article3.htm http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/publication/faultlines/volume16/Article3.htm http://www.homelandsecurity.org/newjournal/Articles/displayArticle2.asp?article=146 http://pub.ucsf.edu/today/news.php?news_id=200211141 http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=20803 http://www.killology.com/art_mass_slaughter.htm http://www.americanchronicle.com/articles/viewArticle.asp?articleID=20803