?Who will define terrorism

?Who will define terrorism

Afshain Afzal

President Barack Hussain Obama ordered the American flag be flown at half-mast over the White House, all public buildings and embassies & military bases overseas, until sunset on July 25, to honor the victims of the mass shooting in Aurora Colorado on 20 July 2012. In a proclamation released by the White House, Obama said he meant the gesture to be “a mark of respect for the victims of the senseless violence.” One wonders why US President is not convinced that it was terrorism and the tragic incident is being confused with violence. It was 20 July 2012, when an American terrorist, James Holmes wearing black SWAT uniform opened fire into a crowded movie theater at an opening of the Batman movie ‘The Dark Knight Rises,’ killing at least 12 people and injuring at least 73 others.

What we may term it as an ill-planned terrorist attempt on the lines of Mumbai attacks ‘26/7’. Probably, other terrorist failed to reach their points and Holmes was unable to figure out that he would be arrested so soon and drama would be over in the first episode. Where one would like to express sympathy with thefamilies and love ones of all those killed or injured in the tragic incident there is lot of room to criticize US government for hiding the filth of Americanhome grown terrorism under the carpet. Horrifying scenes were revealed by witnesses including a female witness who saw blood spraying in the air,people spitting blood from their mouth. For some Americans, these are the usual scenes in Afghanistan, where US intruders settle their scores with the locals in the same manner to avenge killing of its personnel in neighbourhood village. Every day US drone attacks in parts of Pakistan and Afghanistan kill and injure scores of innocent locals on mere suspicion.

President Obama termed one of the gravest acts of terrorism in the history US as violence but US federal and local enforcement officials disclosed that Holmes was sheathed in a helmet, a gas mask, a tactical bulletproof vest, throat and groin protectors and tactical gloves. Holmes was armed with two .40-caliber Glock handguns, a Remington 870 single-barrel pump shotgun, a Smith & Wesson AR-15 assault-style rifle and 6,000 rounds of ammunition. Holmes, who was expert in terrorism, hurled a tear gas bomb and then opened fire during to kill as many people as he can. A single man killed and wounded at least 85 people reflects his standard of training in SWAT operations. When Andrew Joseph Stack of North Austin, a software engineer in California crashed his single-engine fixed-wing Piper PA-28-236 into a civilian building, killing at least three persons and injuring several others in 2010, he was graded innocent. The aircraft missed the target of FBI office by few yards and crashed in a seven-story office building of Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at Research Boulevard. Although fleet of US F-16 aircraft continued hovering around after the incident and his house was searched by FBI and other agencies but nothing came out.

However, under the similar conditions, as in the case of Holmes, the house of Stack was burnt to ashes which destroyed every piece of evidence which could establish his links with other terrorists. Probably, his links were only with the members of free world who are deadly against fundamentalist Muslims, Christian and other followers of Divine Books so how can innocent Joseph Stack be a terrorist.

If a non-Muslim is involved in act of terrorism, it is always his independent act. But if the same act is carried out by a Muslim, he is linked with self-proclaimed deadly terrorist group preferably Al Qaida or Taliban. It is an open secret that James Holmes was also linked with Jewish Big Brothers Big Sisters o Los Angeles but no one would bother to find any terrorist link. It could not be yet confirmed that US military and intelligence agents had trained and equippedHolmes for his deployment for SWAT operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. We have also examples of David Coleman Headley alias Dawood. Gilani and Tahawwar Hussain Rana, a deserter from Pakistan Army, who were directly linked with Mumbai attacks but today they are free. It is on record that Headley and Rana were working for FBI, CIA as well as US Drug Enforcement Administration and were tasked to penetrate into Muslim communities. Then we have Raymond Davis and Shahzad Faisal, US citizens who are above the law.

It is high time the Washington and other western nations should shred their anti-religious policies against Muslims, Christians, Jews and others and must define terrorism in clear term so as to distinguishing between terrorism and violence. The western sponsored terrorism that led the ouster of Libyan and other legitimate governments through use of arms were dubbed as revolutions but same attempts in other countries are terrorism. One wonders why no one bothers to clarify these terminologies.