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For the second time this week ABC assigned Brian Ross to lead its newscast with a so-called terrorist plot. For the second time this week, Ross used "terrorist" terminology inexactly. On Tuesday, Ross (no link) referred to those suspected in the alleged pizza delivery plot to shoot up the USArmy base at Fort Dix as "possible terrorists." This time, Ross called warned of "particular concern" about "aggressive surveillance" of the Patch Barracks in Stuttgart, Germany, the headquarters of the USArmy's European Command: his unnamed sources told Ross that "one suspected terror cell in southwest Germany is under 24-hour surveillance."
To reiterate, "terrorism" refers to politically-motivated violence against civilians. Granted, Ross' report also warned about plots by ethnic Turks and Kurds in Germany against American tourists and airline flights using the hub in Frankfurt. But he used the T-word interchangeably to refer to the threat against military facilities and "so-called soft targets." It is the professional duty of the military to mount adequate defenses against sabotage attacks. If they occur, they are not terroristic; they are par for the course--and usually fail.
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