CNN's "Good Story": Tea with Terrorists

June 2nd, 2006 10:40 AM

CNN reporter Ben Wedeman got to spend some quality time with terrorists who get their kicks trying to kill Israeli children as he spent the day hanging out at a rocket factory. Nowhere in the story will you read a derogatory word about the terrorists, or even the word "terrorist" at all, and he closes the piece by calling it "a good story."

You might think, as an American or even as a decent human being, that if you knew people who knew bomb-making terrorists, or you had the means to get to where the bombs are being made, you would tell authorities. Not CNN reporters. They bend over backwards to protect these murderers:

I got to the rocket makers through an old acquaintance in Gaza. To protect his identity, I'll call him Majid. A journalist, Majid has the numbers of all Gaza's factions, parties, politicians, warlords, thugs, crooks and freelance gunmen... I didn't mention what I was trying to arrange to anyone -- not CNN's assignment editors, not our Jerusalem bureau, not even Adil, my cameraman who was hoping for a day off after two weeks in Gaza covering clashes and chaos. Gaza is crawling with informants, collaborators and spies, so the less anyone knows about your plans, the better.

This group makes three kinds of rockets: The biggest is the so-called Aqsa 103 has a maximum range of 14 kilometers, or 8.5 miles, and carries 6 kilograms of TNT. With one of his comrades, Ahmed showed us packets of iron shards they pack into rocket warheads for extra lethal effect. One of these missiles recently slammed into a school classroom in the nearby Israeli town of Sderot, a frequent target of the militants... Ahmed was proud -- not ashamed -- that his missile had hit the school.

"This group," as CNN refers to them, is responsible for untold carnage and death. If only CNN would give the same indifference to Marines accused of murdering children as they do to terrorists who willingly admit to targeting children. But... this is CNN.

So let me try to help out where CNN won't. From the article:

Be at your office at exactly 10 o'clock tomorrow morning," he said... After about 15 minutes our van stopped and the door opened... After 20 minutes, we stopped. Metal gates screeched open, then closed... We were in a cramped compound covered in green plastic sheeting... breeze-block walls and a corrugated tin roof... An Israeli unmanned aircraft was droning overhead... The only thing that's smuggled in is the TNT for the warhead, which comes through the network of tunnels dug under the border between Gaza and Egypt.

Dear fine people at the NSA/CIA/Mossad: within a 35 minute car ride from Ben Wedeman's office you'll find a compound covered with a green tarp, metal gates, and a corrugated tin roof. If you happen to have rewind capabilities, you'll have seen a small van drive into it within the last few days. It was close to the flight path of a recent unmanned drone. Destroy this facility. There are also tunnels between Gaza and Egypt that you might be able to locate with a ground penetrating satellite.

Thanks CNN. (and a hat tip to the great Neal Boortz.)