Why doesn’t America fight its own terrorists?

Well, it is not only America. There are a lot of terrorists in Western Europe, and not only terrorists, but also organizations that can become terrorist organizations. Extreme right and nationalist organizations are referred to this category first and foremost. The list of such organizations is very long; it would fill several pages, but some of them are worth mentioning. Let’s take the most infamous organization in Europe, the Basque separatists in Spain , the ETA. The gunmen from this organization perform acts of terrorism all too often: a week without news of such events is rather rare. The victims of their acts of terrorism are in thousands already, not in the hundreds. The Scotch National Liberation Army has recently announced its existence in Great Britain, having sent 15 or 16 packages with natrium hydroxide to well-known British politicians and public figures, including Prime Minister Tony Blair. Scotland Yard is still looking for some of the packages.

There are separatists operating in Corsica who fight for the separation of the island from France. Their methods cannot be called humane, although they are far behind ETA’s guerrillas. Then there are the Albanian terrorists, who are considered to be Milosevic’s victims in the West; the West is so used to this idea that it is ready to forgive them of anything anything, even obvious acts of terror.

Nationalist and even racist organizations are gradually becoming a part of the political establishment in some countries of Europe. There are a lot of examples for that: Jorg Heider’s Freedom Party in Austria, Italy’s Lega Nord (Northern League) with its leader Umbetro Bossi, and so on and so forth. Heider’s appearance in the Austrian government caused a big scandal in Europe’s political life, but Bossi’s activity in the position of the minister for the issues constitutional reforms does not seem to be a concern to anyone. Bossi has urged people to fight the European Union, comparing it with the USSR. Well, it is no use to speak about Bossi if Italian Premier Berlusconi thinks that the union with Italy’s right-wing parties will lead to prosperity. Italy was also “prospering” too when Mussolini was in power. What about Germany, in which the government cannot ban a nazi party? That party is one of dozens of the kind that are live and kicking over there.

There are also big problems with extreme right-wing organizations in the USA. These organizations have been using terrorist methods for a very long time already, in contrast to their “colleagues” in Europe. An explosion killed 168 people in 1995 in Oklahoma City’s federal building. Timothy McVeigh was found guilty, and he was sentenced to death by lethal injection. As McVeigh said, he committed that horrid crime because of the events of 1993, when Branch Davidian religious sect members barricaded themselves in Waco, Texas. Eighty people were killed during the assault on the building. In his address to Americans, McVeigh wrote that when American aircraft or missiles are sowing death in other countries, the nation is delighted with it. However, when the nation approves the bombing of other cities, they approve explosions similar to the one in Oklahoma City, like it or not. In McVeigh’s opinion, he was standing up for American traditional liberties with that tremendously horrible act of terror. The press surely mentioned McVeigh’s possible links with radical organizations, but nothing was done so that the American extremists seriously suffered.

The latest information says that there was a conspiracy unveiled in Montana, the participants of which were going to kill state officials and the National Guards soldiers. It is too early to say anything on the subject, as the investigation is continuing. However, there is no information to prove that members of that terrorist group maintained contacts with the Muslim terrorists. They did not have anything in common with them; it is totally an internal American problem.

Therefore, extremist organizations in the USA are alive and growing. One may not say there are a lot of them, but not many people are needed to blow something up. These groups have the funds to purchase explosives and weapons, so one may assume that they have a certain support in American society. Therefore, America is not protected from the repetition of the events in Oklahoma City, taking account of the fact that George Bush and his team are basically fighting with international terrorism.

The threat from domestic terrorist groups is much more real for the USA than the threat from Iran, Iraq, or from North Korea. However, it’s about time that the American special services pay attention to their own potential domestic terrorists. They have enough energy to organize something like the September 11 terrorist attacks, and if you want to wage war against the international terrorism, then this war should be started from your own country first, whether it is America or not.

Vasily Bubnov PRAVDA.Ru

Translated by Dmitry Sudakov