Terrorism

HANCOCK -- The American Legion and other veterans organizations should change their policies to begin admitting members who are police, firefighters and rescue personnel, retired U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Ronald Bowers told the crowd at a Memorial Day ceremony in Hancock on Monday. They are the first line of defense in this country, Bowers said in a phone interview after the ceremony. "Those people put their life on the line every time they go out," he said. "The dynamics of the world have changed and I think the dynamics of our veterans organizations have changed," said Bowers, who is a member of Morris Frock American Legion Post 42 in Hagerstown.

andrews@herald-mail.com TRI-STATE - Sixteen months after four U.S. jets were hijacked and crashed, terrorism continues to be the leading global fear for a pool of Tri-State residents surveyed Saturday. Close behind were North Korea's nuclear threat and the possibility of a United States attack on Iraq. Some respondents wouldn't label one fear as the greatest. About 30 people were asked which situation worries them the most. Eight named terrorism, four named North Korea and three named Iraq.

CHAMBERSBURG, PA. - Three military installations, 16 hospitals and hundreds of police, fire and ambulance personnel from eight counties will participate Saturday in one of the largest anti-terrorism exercises ever conducted in Pennsylvania, Franklin County Director of Emergency Services Jerry Flasher said Tuesday. With approximately 3,000 people involved, including more than 700 "victims" of mock terrorist attacks, Flasher said Exercise Wide Vigilance is the largest drill of its kind in Pennsylvania, in terms of the numbers of counties and size of the area involved.

CHAMBERSBURG, Pa. - The gymnasium at J. Frank Faust Junior High School was temporarily transformed Saturday into a memorial for the thousands of American lives lost to terrorism since 1970. A 63- by 35-foot flag was laid out on the wooden floor, with space between the stripes for people on foot and in wheelchairs to view the names cross-stitched on patches of cloth sewed to the stripes. The bottom stripe is plain red cloth with no squares of remembrance. The 50 stars are 2- by 2-feet with a peace rose and the state's initials cross-stitched in the center.

Fire, rescue and police agencies in Washington County have been awarded $1.14 million in grants as of Tuesday, Director of Emergency Services Joe Kroboth told the County Commissioners. The commissioners approved Memorandum of Understandings with various agencies who distributed the grants, making the awards final. The $1.14 million consists of 11 separate awards and includes a $668,038 weapons of mass destruction grant and a $212,578 law enforcement terrorism grant, both distributed by the Maryland Emergency Management Agency.

Do you agree with President Bush's decision to secretly approve U.S. military raids inside anti-terrorism ally Pakistan? Yes 319 votes (71 percent) No 128 votes (29 percent) Results as of 2 p.m. Monday of votes received at www.herald-mail.com.

To the editor: The United States must admit that it was wrong in attacking Iraq and apologize to the world to restore our international credibility. Weapons of mass destruction have not been found, which we were so sure about as our primary reason for launching the war. There have been no proven prewar ties of Iraq to al Qaeda and therefore the war was not an extension of the war on international terror as the Bush administration wants us to believe. The war has only been a distraction from the war on terror and has diverted resources that could have been used for that effort and at the same time has given more incentive to the terrorist cause.

INWOOD, W.Va. - While many people are gearing up to celebrate the new year, others are afraid to stray far from home and some celebrations have been canceled because of fears of terrorist attacks. That fear is what scares Inwood resident Tonya Robertson. Robertson knows the impact of terrorism firsthand and doesn't want to see it drive others to change the way they live or how they plan to celebrate New Year's Eve. In the early morning hours on Oct. 23, 1983, Robertson lost her husband, Marion E. Kees, in a bombing at a U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut, Lebanon.

U.S. Marine Corps Pfc. Jerry W. Chafin recently completed basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot, Parris Island, S.C. Chafin is a 2002 graduate of Williamsport High School. Gene Danfelt, son of David Danfelt and stepson of Kristy Danfelt of Williamsport, and son of Barbara Bent of Sykesville, Md., was promoted to the rank of sergeant on Nov. 1, and is currently stationed with the 3rd BN 6th Marines, 2nd Marine Division at Camp Lejeune, N.C., and is attached to the 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade Anti-Terrorism Unit.

As a writer, I suppose I have a different view of the texts that I read than most people. I think of each text - whether it be a poem or a novel or an editorial for that matter - as a space that is waiting to be explored by me, the reader. I like to delve, to look closely at the architecture of the text and see the space that is held by each word. Of course the structure created by a poem is going to be different than that created by an editorial piece. Either way, line by line and bit by bit something unique is created, something worth exploration.

Terror does not change minds. In fact, the force of its bombs blow human sentiment away from the ideals of the bomber, and cement the opposition. History has always had its barbarous rogues, from pirates to warlords to inquisitors to hijackers. Some, whose pursuit has been money, have even been thought of in sympathetic terms as time has gone by. But random political terror is harder for the reasonable mind to accept, because it never works. Whatever purpose, whatever the cause behind the bombings at the finish line at the Boston Marathon on Monday, it will not prevail.

John Dreisch said that he would have no problem with President Obama using drone strikes on suspected al-Qaida terrorists if only the United States would declare war on the organization. “Without it, where do they get the authority to convict an individual without due process?” said Dreisch, 74, of Fayetteville, Pa. A U.S. Department of Justice document that was leaked Monday concluded that the Federal Government can legally kill U.S. citizens abroad without evidence that they are involved in an active plot to attack the U.S. if they are believed to be “senior operational leaders” in al-Qaida or “an associated force,” according to published reports.

I am worried about our nation and specifically, in recent days, about our president's welfare. First let me say I did not vote for Mr. Obama in the 2008 election and I do not intend to vote for him in 2012; the current president and I have many differences associated with politics and ideology. All that said, he is our president, commander in chief and arguably the leader of the free world. So in spite of my political or ideological bent, he is still “the man.” Several times in my past I have personally sworn allegiance to our Constitution and those leaders appointed over me. The president of the United States is the top leader reflected in that oath and unless the president violates our Constitution I have always sworn to defend or protect our president and his office.

Did you ever wonder how we know about Pocahontas and her role in the history of Jamestown, Va.? Or how we learned that Squanto helped the Pilgrims at Plymouth? Perhaps you've wondered if the Puritans of Massachusetts Bay followed the law as severely as the characters in Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter" or Authur Miller's "The Crucible. " What inspired Hawthorne and Miller to write those works? The answers to all those questions can be found in early American literature, specifically what is referred to as the literature of settlement.

High bonds were set Tuesday in Washington County District Court for two Smithsburg men charged with a home-invasion robbery Sunday in which Deputy State's Attorney Joseph Michael said they "terrorized" a woman and her son. Judge Dana Moylan Wright raised the bond from $400,000 to  $1.5 million for Victor Wolfe McCormick, 19, of 12906 Bradbury Ave. She increased the bail for Jesse Cole Lombardi, 18, of 60 S. Main St., from $350,000 to $750,000....

For most Americans, the touchstone event marking the beginning of the war on terror was the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon and Flight 93, but for Tom Wibberly and his family, it began 11 months earlier. More than a decade after the Oct. 12, 2000, attack on the USS Cole that claimed the life of his son, Craig, Tom Wibberley was awakened by a call from his daughter informing him that the man who ordered that attack, Osama Bin Laden, had been killed by U.S. Navy SEALs in a raid in Pakistan.

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- The FBI said it searched eight homes in Minneapolis and Chicago as part of a terrorism investigation on Friday, and two subjects said the agency is targeting leaders of the anti-war movement. FBI spokesman Steve Warfield told The Associated Press agents served six warrants in Minneapolis and two in Chicago. "These were search warrants only," Warfield said. "We're not anticipating any arrests at this time. They're seeking evidence relating to activities concerning the material support of terrorism.

HANCOCK -- The American Legion and other veterans organizations should change their policies to begin admitting members who are police, firefighters and rescue personnel, retired U.S. Army Reserve Maj. Ronald Bowers told the crowd at a Memorial Day ceremony in Hancock on Monday. They are the first line of defense in this country, Bowers said in a phone interview after the ceremony. "Those people put their life on the line every time they go out," he said. "The dynamics of the world have changed and I think the dynamics of our veterans organizations have changed," said Bowers, who is a member of Morris Frock American Legion Post 42 in Hagerstown.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The suspect in the failed Times Square bombing told authorities he trained at a terrorism camp in Pakistan, officials said Tuesday as they worked to unravel the events leading up to the nearly catastrophic attack. Faisal Shahzad was arrested late Monday and charged with trying to blow up an SUV in crowded Times Square on Saturday evening. Attorney General Eric Holder said Shahzad was cooperating with authorities and would face terrorism and weapons of mass destruction charges.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York man who authorities say plotted with an admitted al-Qaida associate to set off homemade bombs in the city's subway system pleaded guilty Friday to charges including conspiracy to use weapons of destruction. Zarein Ahmedzay said in court in Brooklyn that he had received orders from leaders of the al-Qaida terrorist network to carry out the foiled plot in September 2009 to bomb Manhattan subway lines. He also pleaded guilty to providing material support to al-Qaida.