As I was passing through the central LRT station one morning last week I noticed a big blue backpack propped up against the wall, unattended.
That gave me a bit of pause.
The bomb in a bag or package is a terrorist staple, of course, and
mass transportation systems can be a major target, as attacks in
London, Madrid and Tokyo have shown. Transit riders in big cities such
as London are commonly warned to be on the lookout for suspicious
packages and the like.
Fortunately, Edmonton has been unaffected by the ideology of violent
jihad that produced the London Underground bombing and the Madrid
train bombings, not to speak of the 9-11 destruction of the World
Trade Center and a host of lesser outrages. The chances that we will
be in the future seem remote.
In our fair city, the risk of getting of getting blown up in the LRT
is likely quite a bit smaller than being hit by a stray bullet in a
drug gang shooting or stabbed by a random sociopath. Far less than
that of being killed by some driver running a red light.
Some version of this was going through my mind while I walked past the
backpack. Still, it could have contained a bomb. It?s not only
jihadists that plant them, after all. It doesn?t even have to be an
organized group.
?Mad Bomber? George Metesky terrorized New York City in the 1950s. He
planted more than 30 time bombs in public places, injuring 15 people,
because of anger and resentment over a workplace injury. We?ve got
plenty of that around here.
I wondered if I should alert some authority. Phone 911? Contact
Edmonton Transit security? Would the matter be taken seriously or
would I just be wasting my time?
I?d just gotten to this point when somebody went over and grabbed the
backpack. He looked a little shifty so it may not actually have been
his, but it ceased being my concern.
The bomb in the backpack scenario probably presented itself more
readily to my mind because of the Khan al Khalili bombing in Cairo the
previous weekend. A young French tourist was killed and 24 other
people were injured in an explosion in this historic bazaar area,
where my wife and I had spent several pleasant hours last summer.
According to Al-Ahram Weekly, the blast was caused by a homemade bomb
weighing up to 1.5 kilos and containing metal, stones and gunpowder
that had been left under a bench. The detonator was a washing machine
timer.
The Egyptian police arrested a few people but don?t seem to have any
real idea of who did the bombing. Nobody has claimed responsibility,
however there a variety of conspiracy theories are apparently making
the rounds in Cairo.
Commented an Egyptian friend: ?Truly painful to see the violence and
loss of innocent lives. Violence definitely has a louder voice than
peace, and this is the real fight.?
1 comment:
I stood outside the Taj in Bombay, and visited the Leopold restaurant where the November terrorists killed several people. Tourism was down in all of India, but the indomitable Indian spirit still soars. The boat landing used by Bombay fisherman, and the terrorists, is now part of any taxi tour of the city.
I used the London underground and remembered some pictures I saw on the web of the bombings. The trains are still very busy.
I'm certain the people of Cairo will mostly go on with their lives. What choice have they? I am reminded that Ayman al-Zawahiri is Egyptian.
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