Extremists

EGYPT'S ISLAMIC GROUP was on its last legs, which explains the act of desperation Monday in which terrorists from that group slaughtered 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor.Since members of the Islamic Group assassinated former President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Egypt's government had largely demolished it. Some 15,000 adherents have been arrested. Founding prophet Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman sits in prison in New York for inspiring the bombing of the World Trade Center.

"FIRE SARA Lister!" some have demanded. Oh no, that would be too good for her. Let's think of something really creative to do with the assistant secretary of the Army for staffing and reserve affairs, who resigned Friday.Lister didn't just put her foot in her mouth Oct. 26, when she addressed a seminar here in Baltimore. She wedged her foot well down her throat. There'll be shoe polish on her breath well into the next decade.Lister's is a classic case of how shutting up when there's a chance might actually be helpful.

He was obsessed with white supremacist literature. He railed against gun control. He believed federal agents had to pay for the deaths at Waco and Ruby Ridge.Driven by those beliefs and a hatred of the government, Timothy J. McVeigh bombed the Oklahoma City federal building -- a terrorist act that killed 168 people April 19, 1995. For that crime, a Denver jury condemned him to death.Some fellow members of the loose-knit patriot movement around the country said that sentence was just. McVeigh, they said, did not help their cause.

THE FALL of Jalalabad on Wednesday promises resolution to the struggles among extremist groups, extolling their own Islamic purity, that has tortured Afghanistan since the collapse of its Communist regime four years ago. The most extreme and least known of the groups, Taliban, controls more than half the country and lays siege to the capital, Kabul.President Burhanuddin Rabbani, a clergyman elected by rivals to interim leadership, heads a government whose writ runs only in the capital and parts of the north.

WITH thousands of anti- government activists -- militia groups, militant tax protesters, anti-gun-control zealots and right-wing extremists -- set to descend on Washington this weekend, I got out my ancient copy of William Powell's 1971 underground classic, "The Anarchist Cookbook," to bone up on the mind-set of the violent fringe.Ever since the bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City in April 1995, news reports have cited "The Anarchist Cookbook" as evidence of the ease with which homespun terrorists can get access to information about bomb-making and other acts of mayhem.

THE REAL DANGER in the stalemate in talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority aimed at getting the peace process started anew has been identified by Michael Eitan, head of the Likud bloc in the Knesset supporting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Mr. Eitan warned over Israeli radio this week that extremists among the 400 Jewish settlers in Hebron could provoke a bloodbath,He was citing praise among settlers for Baruch Goldstein, the American-Israeli who massacred 29 Palestinians praying at the Tomb of Abraham in 1994.

WE FIRST met several months ago, coming together as an American Arab and an American Jew, inspired by the initiation of the peace process in the Middle East. We had believed the movement toward peace was inexorable. Here in Baltimore we embraced one another in optimistic confidence that despite extremists, peace in the Middle East was just beyond the horizon.Since those heady days our optimism has been tempered with profound anguish. We are witnesses to the mounting whirlwind of violence that undermines reconciliation, justice and peace everywhere in our beleaguered world.

Real DemagoguesI feel the need to comment on the May 14 editorial "Zero Tolerance for Demagogy."My objection to the editorial stems from The Sun's attempt to paint the National Rifle Association as some sort of villainous hate group.The NRA is a 124-year-old organization that has spent most of its existence scheduling target shooting events and teaching firearm safety.Only in recent years, when it became obvious that a small minority of hard-core anti-gun extremists was determined to eliminate our right to bear arms altogether, did the NRA see a need to become politically active.

WASHINGTON -- An international manhunt has been launched to track down 20 Muslim extremists -- 15 of various Asian and Mideast nationalities and five Filipinos -- linked to Ramzi Ahmed Yousef's terrorist operations in the Philippines, according to Philippine and U.S. officials.The extremists are widely believed to make up the central core of a cell operated by Mr. Yousef, who was arrested last week in Islamabad, Pakistan, for allegedly masterminding the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in Manhattan.

SHE MAKES women's clothes.In today's Algeria, that is a political act, and potentially a fatal one.Until last year, when she abandoned her market stall in Algiers, 38-year-old Naima Belahi imported fabric from France and Italy and sewed it into beaded evening gowns or stylish short dresses.Then, last March 10, Algeria's Islamic insurgents ordered all women to veil themselves within a week or risk becoming legitimate targets of murder. The day after the deadline, militants killed a 16-year-old high school student who was walking to class without a head scarf.

WASHINGTON - U.S. efforts to shrink al-Qaida and Taliban sanctuaries in Pakistan have stalled, enabling militants to step up planning of terrorist strikes against the United States and cross-border attacks into Afghanistan unhindered, according to U.S. officials. Despite billions of dollars in aid, largely to the Pakistani military, the United States has watched from the sidelines as Pakistan has concluded peace deals with tribal leaders and extremists in Pakistan that have resulted in increased attacks against U.S. troops in neighboring Afghanistan, U.S. officials say. U.S. officials have been unsuccessful in getting the Pakistani army to move against the extremists.

WASHINGTON -- Attorney Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales said yesterday that Islamic extremists take advantage of more than 5,000 Web sites to train and coordinate internationally, filling the gap caused by the crackdown on the al-Qaida terrorist network. He also rebutted the implied criticism circulating in recent days that the United States somehow prompted British authorities to move prematurely against a London-area cell allegedly planning attacks on multiple airliners with homemade liquid bombs.

ATLANTA - Let's not waste time fretting over Judge John G. Roberts Jr.'s stance on abortion. It's most likely that his views on Roe vs. Wade are close to those of President Bush. After all, the president would hardly have nominated Judge Roberts to the Supreme Court if his record showed a strong liberal streak. Rather than focus narrowly on abortion, Americans who believe in individual rights - that's nearly all of us - should concentrate on Judge Roberts' views on something even more important: the right to privacy.

JERUSALEM - Hundreds of Israeli police officers raided a hotel in a Gaza Strip settlement yesterday and evicted about 150 Jewish extremists who had barricaded themselves in the building to resist a planned Israeli withdrawal from the territory. The raid came a day after militant Jews badly wounded a Palestinian teenager in a stone-throwing clash in the area, a mob assault shown on television that drew strong condemnation from Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and across the Israeli political spectrum.

JIDDA, Saudi Arabia - The royal family of this embattled kingdom announced a one-month amnesty yesterday for Islamic insurgents, framing its offer in the language of religious redemption and hinting at harsh punishment for those who refuse. In a speech that reflected the delicate politics of confronting an Islamic uprising in a land that has in the past tried to co-opt or reform militants, Crown Prince Abdullah promised fair treatment under Islamic law for those who turn themselves in. Surrendering insurgents would be spared the death penalty, said the crown prince, the kingdom's de facto ruler, who spoke on behalf of ailing King Fahd.

SPAIN PRESENTS an extraordinarily delicate dilemma to the rest of Europe and to the United States. Spaniards overwhelmingly opposed their nation's participation in the war in Iraq - and, we believe, with good reason - yet their repudiation of the government that allied itself with Washington poses a very real danger, coming as it does on the heels of the Madrid train bombings. Simply put, it is this: that Sunday's election will teach al-Qaida, or whoever set off the bombs, that terror is effective and can influence politics in the Western nations.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - The government has rounded up 1,430 people across Pakistan in recent days and closed 390 offices of militant groups as part of a widening crackdown on extremists ordered by the country's military ruler, Pervez Musharraf, a senior police official said yesterday. Most of the arrests have occurred since Saturday, when Musharraf, in a televised speech, pledged to Pakistan and the world that he would purge Pakistan's society of spreading extremism and prevent Pakistan from being used as a base for international terrorism.

How can any human being do what they did? Those rational anxieties are close to the core of the terrorism besetting most thinking people since Sept. 11. The outpouring of books related to 9 / 11 -- new, revived, reorganized, re-edited, memorial -- has been enormous. I commend Scott Shane's excellent survey of some of them on this page. No single volume, however, can provide the help that many people feel they need to overcome the unknown and the incomprehensible. Allow me to suggest one that, for strange and almost whimsical reasons, I find helps a lot. It is Them: Adventures with Extremists, by Jon Ronson (Simon and Schuster, 330 pages, $24)

EGYPT'S ISLAMIC GROUP was on its last legs, which explains the act of desperation Monday in which terrorists from that group slaughtered 58 foreign tourists and four Egyptians in the Temple of Hatshepsut near Luxor.Since members of the Islamic Group assassinated former President Anwar Sadat in 1981, Egypt's government had largely demolished it. Some 15,000 adherents have been arrested. Founding prophet Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman sits in prison in New York for inspiring the bombing of the World Trade Center.

"FIRE SARA Lister!" some have demanded. Oh no, that would be too good for her. Let's think of something really creative to do with the assistant secretary of the Army for staffing and reserve affairs, who resigned Friday.Lister didn't just put her foot in her mouth Oct. 26, when she addressed a seminar here in Baltimore. She wedged her foot well down her throat. There'll be shoe polish on her breath well into the next decade.Lister's is a classic case of how shutting up when there's a chance might actually be helpful.