Time Magazine: Terrorists Planning U.S. Soft-Target Hit

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Published on Wednesday, 30 November -0001 00:00

Written by Jeff Garvas

Time Magazine is reporting that, two weeks after intelligence officials confirmed that Osama bin Laden had sent a message to terrorist Abu Mousab al-Zarqawi, urging him to plan attacks on U.S. soil, information gathered from interrogation of a top al-Zarqawi aide indicate the terrorist has talked about hitting "soft targets" in the U.S., which could include "movie theaters, restaurants and schools."

It should surprise no one that our enemies would target some of the softest targets in the United States – places where gun ban extremists have succeeded to a large degree in obstructing the human right of self-defense via bans on carrying concealed firearms.

Click on the "Read More..." link below for more.

This is an issue that has long been a concern for citizens in Israel. That country has responded by encouraging citizens to be trained in defensive firearms use. In a 1998 letter to the Baltimore City paper, Keith Batcher, Chairperson, United Sportsmen of Maryland noted that having citizens armed does, in point of fact, translate into enhanced public safety. Many, many examples exist.

One of the most prominent occurred in 1991 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Three Palestine Liberation Organization terrorists opened fire in a crowded restaurant, using fully automatic arms. They only managed to wound a couple of patrons before they were dispatched by Israeli citizens using their private arms.

The situation in Luby's Cafeteria in Killeen, Texas, that year had a much more distressing outcome, with 23 innocent lives lost. Texas legislators, not wishing any repeats of that incident, and comparing it to the occurrence in Israel, passed a "shall-issue" concealed-carry law, which allows citizens to carry concealed guns unless the state can prove a reason why they can't."

"Are you guys ready? Let's roll," said Todd Beamer before leading fellow passengers in a suicide charge to retake United Airlines Flight 93.

The whole world knows Beamer's story.

But another hero in the War on Terror has been ignored. He is 46-year-old Israeli shoe salesman William Hazan.

This account is taken from U.S. Press Ignores Another Armed Citizen-Hero, by Richard Poe.

When the windows of the restaurant burst in from the gunfire, I pushed my wife and the others toward the bathroom, and then crawled out with my gun. As I got up to my feet, I called out for everyone to stay down... suddenly the big guy stabbed me in the back.

Taking aim, I shot the terrorist three or four times, and he went down.

And what about the police who allegedly came to the rescue? The Israeli newspaper Ha'aretz explains that a young plainclothes cop named Salim Barakat was parked outside when the attack began.

Officer Barakat shot and wounded the terrorist. But the gunman fought back, stabbing the policeman in the chest and killing him on the spot. Only then, reports Ha'aretz, did a "civilian on the scene shoot the gunman in the head, killing him."

Before you tell yourself that Mr. Hazan's story is an anamoly, consider this, from the Jerusalem Post: Alert customer shoots terrorist in Efrat supermarket .

An alert customer shot dead a terrorist who tried to set off an explosive device in a supermarket a few minutes ago in Efrat. The town is in Gush Etzion, a block of Jewish communities in Judea, south of Bethlehem.

At least one small explosion did take place, leaving one customer lightly wounded but causing no casualties, said Jerusalem Post reporter Margot Dudkevitch. Nails from one of the explosions littered the floor.

Further tragedy was averted when a woman shopping in the packed supermarket apparently saw the terrorist trying to set off a second explosion and shot him twice in the head from close range.

In the past year, the FBI has issued warnings that terrorists also plan to target American shopping malls and city busses. And yet some mall managers would rather disarm their customers than allow a law to work that just might save the lives of countless people should an attacker attempt to detonate an explosive. In addition, some public transportation bureaucrats seem intent on violating state law by extending bans beyond what was authorized by the General Assembly.

Given the fact that the millions upon millions of CHL-holders in our nation are known as the most law-abiding of citizens, while terrorists continue to prove their exhibit their desire to murder innocent Americans at will, why are some Ohioans more concerned about law-abiding citizens than they are about terrorists?

Related Stories:
Facts on guns and crime reduction in Israel ''surprise'' Michael Moore

The ultimate case against disarmed victim zones

FBI BULLETIN: LOOKOUT FOR SUICIDE BOMBERS INSIDE THE U.S.

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