Apparently, there was a 'terrorist' attack on a women's clinic in Davenport, Iowa. Did you know or hear anything about it? Anyways, couldn't find the original newsday article, but a quick google search turned up this: Quiet warfare Few have been paying attention to that other ongoing terrorist threat By: JENNIFER L. POZNER http://www.thephoenix.com/article_ektid28087.aspx On September 11, 2006, the fifth anniversary of the terror attacks that devastated our nation, a man crashed his car into a building in Davenport, Iowa, hoping to blow it up and kill himself in the fire. No national newspaper, magazine, or network newscast reported this attempted suicide bombing, though an AP wire story was available. Cable news (save for MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann) was silent about this latest act of terrorism in America. Had the criminal, David McMenemy, been Arab or Muslim, this would have been headline news for weeks. But since his target was the Edgerton Women’s Health Center, rather than, say, a bank or a police station, media have not called this terrorism — even after three decades of extreme violence by anti-abortion fanatics, mostly fundamentalist Christians who believe they’re fighting a holy war. Since 1977, casualties from this war include seven murders, 17 attempted murders, three kidnappings, 152 assaults, 305 completed or attempted bombings and arsons, 375 invasions, 482 stalking incidents, 380 death threats, 618 bomb threats, 100 acid attacks, and 1,254 acts of vandalism, according to the National Abortion Federation. Abortion providers and activists received 77 letters threatening anthrax attacks before 9/11, yet the media never considered anthrax threats as terrorism until after 9/11, when such letters were delivered to journalists and members of Congress. After 9/11, Planned Parenthood and other abortion-rights groups received 554 envelopes containing white powder and messages like: “You have been exposed to anthrax. . . . We are going to kill all of you.” They were signed by the Army of God, a group that hosts Scripture-filled Web pages for “Anti-Abortion Heroes of the Faith,” including minister Paul Hill, Michael Griffin, and James Kopp, all convicted of murdering abortion providers, and a convicted clinic bomber, the Reverend Michael Bray. Another of their “martyrs,” Clayton Waagner, mailed anthrax letters while a fugitive on the FBI’s 10 most wanted list for anti-abortion related crimes. “I am a terrorist,” Waagner declared on the Army of God’s Web site. Boasting that God “freed me to make war on his enemy,” he claimed he knew where 42 Planned Parenthood workers lived. “It doesn’t matter to me if you’re a nurse, receptionist, bookkeeper, or janitor, if you work for the murderous abortionist, I’m going to kill you.” That’s textbook terrorism, defined by the USA Patriot Act as dangerous criminal acts that “appear to be intended to intimidate or coerce a civilian population” or “to influence the policy of a government by intimidation or coercion.” Which brings us back to car bomber, McMenemy. According to the Detroit Free Press (the only newspaper in the Nexis news database that reported his crime), he targeted the women’s health center because he thought it provided abortions. It doesn’t. (Oops!) It provides mostly low-income patients with pap smears, ob-gyn care, testing for sexually transmitted diseases, birth control, and nutrition and immunization programs for women and children. The attack caused $170,000 in property damage and left poor families without health care for a week. But long after Edgerton’s water-logged carpets are removed, scorched medical equipment replaced, and new doors reopened to the public, a culture of fear will linger among doctors, nurses, advocates, and patients across the country, who will worry they could be next. Some frightened workers will quit their jobs; some women will be too scared to get the health care they need. Every fresh incident of anti-abortion terrorism is a reminder that women’s health supporters are not safe in a country where abortion is legal but mobilized zealots believe Jesus has empowered them to kill to prevent women from choosing it. Is McMenemy a lone nut case, or a member of that network of violent extremists? We don’t know, because journalists haven’t investigated. Nor have they reported that just last year, nearly one in five abortion clinics experienced gunfire, arson, bombings, chemical attacks, assaults, stalking, death threats, and blockades, according to the 2005 National Clinic Violence Survey. Additionally, 59 percent suffered intimidation tactics such as photo and video surveillance. Federal efforts to hunt down these terrorists improved with the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act in 1994 and the National Task Force on Violence Against Health Care Providers, established by the Department of Justice in 1998. The feds have taken over McMenemy’s case, charging him with arson against a business affecting interstate commerce. Yet as of October 5, no news outlet on Nexis reported this, despite a second AP story. As we continue national debates on how to keep America safe from terrorism, journalists do us — and especially women — no good pretending that the threats come only from radical Muslims outside our borders. This article, which originally ran as an op-ed in Newsday, is published by permission of the author. Jennifer L. Pozner is founder and executive director of Women In Media & News ( wminonline.org ), a national media analysis, education, and advocacy group.
This is the first attack on an abortion clinic in many years. Let's be honest...dealing with terrorism from Muslim extremists is shifting global politics right now. This isn't.
"Since 1977, casualties from this war include seven murders, 17 attempted murders, three kidnappings, 152 assaults" Seriously, we are supposed to be more concerned about this than Muslim terrorism? Muslim terrorists will get 7 murders every few minutes.
Wow this is the first I've heard of it. Surprising since it happened in this region and the local media is pretty parochial.
by the way...only 1 murder in the last 8 years. that's still unacceptable. it's still should be prosecuted. but there is no way this sort of violence is anywhere on par with what we're seeing from Al Qaeda and the like. it is not comparable in scale. not even close.
I just did a google news search on this incident and while it was an act of terrorism was fairly small scale and the clinic was able to open in two weeks again which might've played a role in the lack of coverage.
I agree it's not on the same scale, I am just surprised that I didn't catch any mention of it on any of the MSM outlets...and I consider myself a news junkie.
i'd like everyone who is against abortions to condemn this. and if you dont condemn it you obviously support it. and if you condemn it make sure you condemn it on like evangelical television stations. and radio stations. and in print in all evangelical papers. i'd also like all of you to kill anyone who thinks this is ok. take the law into your own hands. clean up house. i mean they have the same ideology right? yall subscribe to the same ideology. so yes. show us that you dont support this by more than just mere shrugs on message boards.
