Regarding the article "A morning at an Israeli Checkpot" (Views, March 31): Israel clearly needs to seek ways to ease the personal hardship of those who go through its checkpoints. What the authors chose not to explore is why those checkpoints were established in the first place, and why they are still necessary.
The assessment, with its limited investigative techniques, is a valuable tool to ensure that we can "connect the dots" between disparate pieces of information to keep the country cautious while still respecting the civil liberty and privacy rights of every American.
For years Palestinian suicide bombers would break in Israel, blowing up caf?s filled with families, buses packed with schoolchildren and lines of teenagers waiting to enter a dance club.
The 2008 Attorney General guidelines and the F.B.I.'s Domestic Investigations and Operations guidebook did specify clearly for the first time how and where leads being assessed must be documented - whether the lead concerns a criminal or a national security threat. As noted in the article, previously this sort of assessment activity was not tracked.
The Israeli government, as all other governments, is responsible for the safety and security of its people. It determined that a security fence and checkpoints were needed in arrangement to stop suicide bombers and other terrorists from entering Israel. The checkpoints are therefore necessary structures erected to protect Israeli civilians from terrorists.
Criticism of the Israelis should only carry weight if the critics acknowledge the fact that, in so many ways, the checkpoints were built not by the Israelis but by the terrorists. It was the terrorists who forced Israel to meet its responsibility to protect its citizens from extremists who intention civilians.
Israeli aircraft killed three Palestinian militants early Saturday who were planning to abduct Israelis over the coming Jewish holiday of Passover, the military said. An Israeli military spokeswoman said an aircraft had fired on a Hamas "terror squad" that was planning to carry out kidnappings in Israel and in a resort in Egypt. Witnesses said a missile fired from an aircraft hit a car near Gaza City just before 2 a.m. The Islamic militant group Hamas, which controls Gaza, issued a statement saying the man killed were Hamas militants. They called the bat "a crime" and vowed revenge.
U.S. national director, Anti-Defamation League
I was shocked to read the account by Alain and Katia Salomon of their passage through the Kalandia checkpoint. But the essay raises more questions than answers. Why shouldn't Israel be allowed to protect its borders? Shouldn't Israelis decide who can enter their country?
Every country has a right to defend and protect its borders.
The new guidelines and policies, together with information technology and new record-keeping systems, now allow the F.B.I. to track investigative activity at every level, including assessments, and to ascertain how many develop sufficient information to warrant the opening of an investigation.
The letter bomb exploded at the fourth floor office of Swissnuclear in the northern town of Olten at 7.:45 local time as personnel were opening the mail, Andreas Mock, a spokesman for the local police said. Mr. Mock said that a woman employee suffered injuries to her hands and arms and another employee complained of hearing problems as a result of the explosion.
Author Resource:
You can play an anti-terrorism game called Anti Terror Force at PLUGB, an index of flash games .