Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: When that ‘friend’ calls

Friday, Oct. 5, 2001 | 4:30 a.m.

SOME WRITERS have been promoting the idea that the terrorists killing people are a new breed of killers. Actually they are the very same people we identified years ago, but they have come closer and used their killing tactics here in the U.S. About the only thing different from those who have killed innocent Americans around the world is their successful adaptation to our way of life, so our liberty and goodness can be used against us.

Instead of pushing an elderly wheelchair-bound American from a cruise ship to his death in the sea, they have killed 6,000 or more people right here at home.

Almost 20 years ago the terrorists used an explosive-loaded truck to kill 241 U.S. Marines sleeping in a Beirut barracks. This year they hijacked one of our own civilian airliners and took its passengers to their death, along with even more people working in the Pentagon.

Fifteen years ago PLO Colonel Hawari put a bomb on a TWA plane, in which four Americans were killed, including a baby. This time four American planes and their passengers were destroyed.

The list of atrocities can go on and on and about the only thing that is different is the number of people killed and where they were killed. This brief bit from my files brings to memory a column I wrote 10 years ago that got little notice.

Xavier Raufer, writing for the Institute of International Studies, was my source summarizing the seven rules of the Middle East terrorism game.

* When the unexpected and the incomprehensible happen, don't look backwards, look forward.

* Disregard ideological postures and rhetoric and look for real communal interests.

* Terrorist groups and their sponsors have recognizable styles, each of which can be identified.

* Terrorism is a dangerous weapon for the user as well as for the victim. Thus, always look for strategic reasons behind an important terrorist act.

* Terrorism cannot be used anytime: it's a weapon for the middle or the end of the game.

* Terrorism is used only when real masterminds and the real sponsors say so, not when any dictator makes a speech and declares jihad.

* There are rarely publicly identified enemies in the Middle East. Watch out for "friends" and those who pretend to help.

Because of the importance of rule number seven, I will let Raufer explain it in depth by writing:

In the Middle East, no one will ever look straight into your eyes and say, "Stop arming or supporting so and so, or else."

You will simply, without any clear warning, be the victim of a spectacular attack. The very person who ordered it will be the first to express his condolences, lament over the disaster and denounce the criminals.

Shortly afterwards, a "friend" of the perpetrator will contact you, with alarming news. New attacks are rumored, he is doing his best to stop them, but now he needs a gesture from you to placate these mysterious terrorists, over whom he has modest influence. Why not suspend -- temporarily, of course -- the weapon deliveries to X? This way your friend will have excellent arguments with which to defend you. As a reward for his help, he will content himself with a few economic and military favors and, of course, a few words of appreciation in the press.

So what are our "friends" telling us today? Give up your friendship with Israel, and after we drive them into the sea we will return and again shed American blood with more demands.