Author: Daniel Pipes
Publication: The Jerusalem Post
Date: June 20, 2001
URL: http://www.meforum.org/articles/20010620.shtml
Islamist terrorism has afflicted
nearly every Western country and is likely to get worse. One reason is
the radicals' aggressiveness; another is the feeble Western response. I
personally experienced both of these problems just this past week.
This story began in early 1998,
when John Miller of ABC News sought an interview with Osama bin Laden in
Afghanistan. Needing an intermediary, his producers found Tarik Hamdi of
Herndon, Virginia, a self-described journalist who helped make contacts
and then accompanied the ABC news team to Afghanistan.
Hamdi, it turned out, had his own
purposes for traveling there; he was to bring Bin Laden a replacement battery
for his vital link with the outside world, his satellite telephone. From
the remoteness of Afghanistan, Bin Laden could not simply order a battery
himself and have it overnighted to him. He needed someone unsuspected to
bring it. So, one of Bin Laden's top aides ordered a replacement battery
on May 11, 1998, and arranged for it to be shipped to Hamdi at his home
in Herndon. Hamdi took off for Afghanistan with Miller on May 17 and shortly
afterward personally delivered the battery.
Just over two months later, two
bombs went off nearly simultaneously at the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania,
killing 224 and wounding thousands.
When the US government brought four
of the embassy bombers to trial in New York City this year, it focused
on the phone powered by the battery from Herndon; assistant US attorney
Kenneth Karas called it "the phone that Bin Laden and the others will use
to carry out their war against the United States." The trial also established
Hamdi's centrality to Bin Laden.
After five months, a jury found
all four bombers guilty of all 302 charges against them, validating the
prosecutor's interpretation of Hamdi's role.
Which is where I come in.
Explaining this guilty verdict in
The Wall Street Journal on May 31, I co-authored an article with Steven
Emerson arguing in favor of this outcome, but pointing out that it did
little to protect American lives; defeating Bin Ladin and his murderous
gang will require the US government to deploy armed forces, not policemen
and lawyers.
The article then focused on the
huge body of evidence made public in the trial proceedings, noting that
Bin Laden had "set up a tightly organized system of cells" in six American
cities, including the small town of Herndon - an allusion to Hamdi.
Picking up on this reference, Jeannie
Baumann, a reporter at The Herndon Observer, contacted us to learn more.
Emerson explained to her Hamdi's role and several times referred her to
the complete court transcripts available in the Internet. But Baumann spurned
his offers, replying that her newspaper is "not equipped to handle such
information." Instead of doing research, Baumann turned to Herndon's police
chief, Toussaint E. Summers Jr., for an opinion. He in turn called the
FBI, which told him nothing. >From this lack of information, Summers blithely
concluded that "there appears to be no truth... at all" to a Bin Laden-Herndon
connection.
Baumann then cited this opinion
to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), for a statement. Ibrahim
Hooper, the spokesman for this Islamist organization (and sometime Bin
Laden apologist), pounced on the police chief's statement and declared
our Wall Street Journal article inaccurate and prejudicial against Muslims.
Baumann's article, published on June 15, then carried the title "Police,
Muslims Refute Herndon Link to Terrorism."
This episode clearly demonstrates
three problematic Western responses to Islamist violence: law enforcement
officials resist the fact that this scourge exists in their jurisdictions.
Reporters fail to do the spadework needed to dig out stories in their own
backyards. And the most prominent Islamic organizations shamelessly talk
away Islamist terrorism and smear anyone who points out the realities of
this hideous phenomenon.
If Bin Laden and his band of killers
are to be stopped, it will take more vigilance from law enforcement officers
like Summers, better journalism from reporters like Baumann, and the rise
of moderate Muslims who will take the microphone out of the hands of extremists
like Hooper.
