Left I on the News  

Thanks to Stephen Colbert last night, I learned about the existence of the National Counterterrorism Center and their "Counterterrorism Calendar." Yes, that's an actual U.S. government publication which, we're told by the government, "contains significant dates in terrorism history."

Naturally I looked up Oct 6. What happened on that date? Why, just the first (and still the only) mid-air bombing in the Western Hemisphere, with the death of 73 people which was at the time the most deadly act of terrorism in the Western hemisphere (and still one of the most deadly). Of course readers recognize that I'm referring to the bombing of Cubana Airlines Flight 455, carried out by mercenaries in the employ of Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, two men currently living in Miami, protected by the U.S. government from standing trial for their crimes.

You won't be surprised, I'm sure, to learn that the bombing of Cubana 455 didn't make the Counterterrorism Calendar. Not "significant" enough, evidently. Or, judging by the U.S. government's treatment of the two men responsible for it, not even a terrorist action.

Interestingly enough, one of the three things that is listed on that date, beside for the assassination of Anwar Sadat in 1981, is the start of the 1973 "Yom Kippur War" between Israel and Egypt and Syria, an event which certainly was a war, but how it qualifies as "terrorism" I have no idea. Other than that, you know, "Arabs" were involved.

Update: When I cross-posted this at Daily Kos, readers alerted me to the fact that there were a number of "insurance-related" mid-air bombings in the Western Hemisphere prior to the bombing of Cubana 455, which was the first mid-air terrorist bombing, but not the first mid-air bombing period as I wrote above (having read that at the link).