Crocodile Tears
Clinton’s war on terrorism.

By Seth Gitell, political writer for the Boston Phoenix.
September 11, 2001 5:20 p.m.

n the days to come, there are certain to be plenty of recriminations over the causes of this day of tragedy. While nobody knows who committed these crimes against the American people, we know they are enemies of America, and terrorists — people against whom our country has been allegedly waging war since the last World Trade Center bombing, in 1993. Out of that tragedy — and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing — sprang the Anti-Terrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (a weighty, 89-page document that can be downloaded off the Internet). The efficacy of that voluminous law can be judged by its result today.

Clinton promised a war on terror, but produced nothing of the sort. His administration never honored its commitment under the Act, which provided that families of victims could sue, in civil court, the state sponsors of terror. In 1998, two years after the law was passed, the Justice Department rebuffed Stephen Flatow's attempt to sue after his 20-year-old daughter, Alisa, died in an Islamic Jihad bomb attack. When he sought to collect on $247.5 million in damages against the Islamic Republic of Iran, Flatow found himself up against Justice Department lawyers in a federal court.

Nor did Clinton ever deliver on his commitments to the families of the Pan Am 103 disaster, the international airliner blown up over Scotland in 1988. Speaking at the 1998 anniversary of the disaster, Clinton bit his lip and promised to bring those responsible to justice. After the event Susan Cohen, the mother of 20-year-old Theodora Cohen, told me: "All he has is crocodile tears to share about this. What do I care about his emotions?" Ultimately, a compromise was forged that sent two individuals to the Hague for trial and let Libya — and any other nation that may have assisted in the crime — off the hook.

Examples like these showcase the problem of sending our political disputes into the courts. By treating acts of terror as normal acts of malfeasance, we fail to instill fear in the hearts of potential perpetrators. If individuals aren't afraid of blowing themselves up in bombing attacks, they're not going to be worried by legal briefs and prosecution.