Terrorism

BOSTON (AP) -- A pharmacy college graduate conspired with two other men on a terror plot to kill two prominent U.S. politicians and carry out a holy war by attacking shoppers in U.S. malls and American troops in Iraq, prosecutors said Wednesday. But their plans -- in which the men used code words like "peanut butter and jelly" for fighting in Somalia and "culinary school" for terrorist camps -- were thwarted in part when they could not find training and were unable to buy automatic weapons, authorities said.

Editor's note: The Herald-Mail invites readers to answer poll questions on its Web site, www.herald-mail.com. Readers also may submit comments when voting. A sampling of edited reader comments will run on The Herald-Mail's Opinion page on Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday. The question posted Wednesday on The Herald-Mail's Web site was: Does the expansion of terrorism warnings from transit systems to U.S. stadiums, hotels and entertainment complexes make you more vigilant? o "I will be more vigilant, but I will not live my life in fear.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Counterterrorism officials are warning police departments around the country to be on the lookout for evidence of homemade bombs following raids on several New York City apartments in a hunt for explosives and possible links to al-Qaida operatives. Investigators issued warrants to search the residences early Monday for explosives material but did not find any, according to a person briefed on the matter who was not authorized to discuss the case and requested anonymity.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama put his own clear stamp on U.S. national security policy on Thursday, ordering Guantanamo prison camp closed within a year, naming new envoys to the Middle East, Afghanistan and Pakistan and welcoming Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton to help forge new global strategies. "We intend to win this fight, we are going to win it on our terms," Obama said of pursuing the campaign against global terrorism. On his second full day in office, Obama took a series of steps overturning some of his predecessor's most contentious war-on-terrorism policies.

History books have long written that the American Civil War ended in 1865, soon after Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender to Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse near Lynchburg, Va. But in his nonfiction work, "The Bloody Shirt: Terror After Appomattox," author Stephen Budiansky explains that the wounds of the Civil War never had a chance to heal after both sides laid down their weapons. For the next 10 years, racist organizations led by ex-Confederates wreaked havoc below the Mason-Dixon Line.

TRI-STATE -- Apparently, ghosts don't like me. Two years, two ghost-hunting adventures and I've seen not one Thing That Goes Bump in the Night. This year, I went on three ghost tours in three states and saw, heard and felt nothing out of the ordinary. Last October, I spent the night at the Pry House at Antietam Battlefield, a hospital during the Civil War where people claim to see ghosts. I didn't. I'm taking it personally because I'm told ghosts were with us during my final tour Tuesday night at the Old Jail in Chambersburg, Pa. A woman on the tour reported she saw not one, but two. They warn you on these tours that sometimes sensitive people become overwhelmed by the "energy" of a particular place and must leave that area.

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.

FORT LOUDON, Pa. - We call it, dryly, the French and Indian War. Residents of Colonial America called it by a more gripping name: the Terror in the Back Country. In 1756, frontier families in the Conococheague River valley feared for their livelihood and for their lives. For several months, French soldiers and their American Indian allies attacked homesteads, villages and forts. Hundreds were killed or captured. Livestock was slaughtered. Farms and businesses were burned. The attacks horrified surviving settlers, who fled or clustered around British forts for safety.

WASHINGTON COUNTY -- They are people who earned six figures just two years ago. They are people who could barely afford one house, let alone the two or three they now own. They are people employed by credit-processing companies. They are an area Realtor and others who have worked in that industry. They are truck drivers, retirees, correctional officers. "They" are Washington County residents now living the terror of losing their homes, their good credit ratings, their dignity.

The influx of racially motivated hate incidents that have come to the attention of mainstream America in recent weeks are only symptomatic of the root causes for why a share of our society remains mentally stagnated with regard to equality, justice and freedom. I am referring to the failure of the "powers that be" to adopt a zero-tolerance policy with regard to racism, hatred and the terrorist minorities that have been tolerated for more than 130 years. Hangman's nooses swinging from trees in the incident that became known as the Jena 6 and more recent incident at the University of Maryland College Park, which is alleged to be in retaliation for supporters of the Jena 6, are examples of social toleration for hate.