Reuters lists a few failed "militant" attacks in the last decade. Care to guess what two items are missing?
Firstly, the word "terror" doesn't appear anywhere. No surprise there. After 9/11, Reuters news chief Stephen Jukes wrote to his staff that
We all know that one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter and that Reuters upholds the principle that we do not use the word terrorist . . .
Also missing are freedom attacks terror attacks against Israel. This fact box isn't all-encompassing content, and failed attacks don't stick in our memory the sadly "successful" ones do. But Israel was and continues to be uniquely targeted.
The single most memorable failed terror attack against Israel was an attempt to blow up the Pi Glilot fuel depot near Tel Aviv. A bomb attached to a tanker truck was detonated by remote control, but an automatic sprinkler system and workers put out the fire, averting a catastrophic fireball. The NY Times wrote:
Another driver, Yaakov Karp, who was fueling his truck nearby, said it was lucky they were filling up with diesel fuel rather than gasoline, which is more volatile. Officials at the depot, named Pi Glilot, also said it was fortunate that the explosion did not take place near the above-ground fuel tanks, which sometimes hold as much as 3,000 tons of fuel. An explosion there could have set off a fireball destroying life and property over a wide area. A disaster drill at the depot three years ago called for the evacuation of 20,000 people in a radius of more than a mile.
Failed terror attacks only reflect an inability to cause harm, not a lack of intent. Try telling that to Reuters. We all know that one man's editor is another man's useful idiot.
