Latest Terrorist Training Video: More Personal Attacks Coming

In a post-September 11, 2001 interview, Osama bin Laden had some comments about the terrorists' goals for America. According to a CNN.com report he said, "I tell you, freedom and human rights in America are doomed…The US government will lead the American people in – and the West in general – into an unbearable hell and a choking life."

The USA Patriot Act and other government actions have demonstrated that the terrorist attacks have made progress toward that goal. Polls show that most Americans are indeed willing to sacrifice some of their liberty to forestall future attacks.

Now there are signs that the terrorists are planning to become more personal in their assault on our attitudes toward our own freedom. Their future activities are apparently designed to make Americans feel vulnerable to attack no matter where we are, including our own homes.

US forces have been finding al-Qaida training videotapes during the military actions in Afghanistan. The latest, according to a September 4, 2002 report on the WorldNetDaily news web site (www.worldnetdaily.com), reveals new information about the types of attacks that we might expect. In addition to the use of aircraft and other weapons of mass destruction, the report shows that terrorists have been trained to commit smaller scale murders. They are apparently planning drive-by shootings, home assaults, sniper killings on golf courses and other open areas, kidnappings (followed by taped "executions" of the victims) and many other forms of narrowly targeted terror.

It is horrifying to watch mass murder occur in New York City and Washington, DC from the safety of our own homes. Seeing reports of terrorist murders of individuals throughout our country would convert this horror to a personal fear that few modern Americans have ever experienced. Such fear for our personal safety will bring us much closer to the terrorists' goal of converting our society into a police state. If many of us are willing to surrender liberties to prevent mass attacks in large cities, how much more will we be ready to give up in response to a fear of attacks on families all across America?

When drive-by shootings by terrorists become a fact of daily life, will we be tempted to go along with the inevitable proposals to allow police checkpoints to conduct random searches of vehicles for evidence of terrorism, as currently practiced for drunk driving enforcement? If we are willing to throw out the Fourth Amendment to combat drug abuse with random testing of students, how much more willing will we be to ignore that constitutional protection when it comes to preventing terrorism? When we find that terrorists have entered the country illegally using fake identification, will we be tempted to tolerate establishment of some kind of national ID card or internal passport?

If we want to prevent bin Laden's "choking" vision of American life, we need to prepare ourselves to respond to these developments. Our preparation should start with repentance, and prayer that God will heal our tortured nation and preserve and enhance our liberty.

Next we need to work at building an understanding among Americans of the terrorists' goals. Knowing that we are expected to respond by moving toward a police state should help us to resist that pressure. We need to get our values in order, with love of freedom being right near the top, and our desire for safety just below it in priority.

Politicians need to be evaluated according to their commitment to those values. Leaders who are always ready to use the latest crisis as an excuse to tighten government controls over Americans should be viewed as cooperating with the terrorists.

Does this mean that we should sit by and hope that an attack happens to someone else, since there's nothing we can do to protect ourselves? Of course not. Certainly we need to give our police departments what they need to do their job, consistent with retaining our liberty. But the police can never be everywhere all of the time, even in a police state; much less in a free country.

Americans must prepare to defend ourselves and each other. More of us should be carrying concealed weapons so terrorists and other criminals never know which of the potential victims and witnesses might be a danger to them. More of us should learn the safe use of firearms, and keep them ready in our homes. We need to cultivate an attitude of looking out for each other at home and in public, so no one will be completely on his own if attacked.

With God's help, America can get through this dangerous period with our liberty intact.