Hearts
Failing For Fear
(Signs of the Time - September 2004)
This month marks the third anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center. Since that time, the United States has countered with attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan in the hope that terrorism could be severely hampered.
While no further international terrorist attacks have occurred within the United States, fear of an attack has not abated. Constant raising and lowering of the threat level keeps the issue fresh in the public mind so that in many cases “men’s hearts are failing them for fear.”
Olympic security
In August 2004, the Olympics returned to Greece under intense security
precautions. As reported by the Associated Press, Athen’s measures
were unprecedented with the most complex planning ever. The cost was over
four times that of the preceding Olympics in Sydney.
The security measures included an arsenal of Patriot missiles, AWACS planes,
battleships, and 70,000 police officers. Security for the games was planned
with the input of a newly formed international Olympic security advisory
group, which includes members from the US, Britain, France, Spain, Germany,
Israel, and Australia. NATO troops were used with a focus on coastline
surveillance.
The computer networks controlling the Olympics security analyzed thousands
of hidden cameras and microphones as well as dozens of languages for terrorist
chatter. It also examined chemical sensors that picked up the first whiff
of a biological attack, cameras that swiveled and zoomed at the sound
of a gunshot, and a web of underwater cables and infrared cameras that
detected the slightest threatening movement. The computer software for
the systems cost over $300-million and the corporation that designed the
software claims it is the most complex system designed to date.
Terror alert
On March 1, 2003, approximately 180,000 personnel from 22 different organizations
around the United States government became part of the new Department
of Homeland Security – completing the largest government reorganization
since the beginning of the Civil War. In the eighteen months of their
existence, the department has had to expand their scope and reach in direct
proportion to the imaginative minds of terrorists. At first the issue
was airport and border security; today, however the department has expanded
its safety net to include tourist attractions, helicopter trips, limousine
services financial institutions and many more locations and services.
During the first week of August, more than 1,000 computer disks were seized
by British authorities during arrests of 12 suspected Al Qaeda operatives
in England. The seized files are now being subjected to intensive analysis
by British and American intelligence as they contain evidence of previously
unknown terrorist planning activities in the United States.
A world-wide threat
There are few nations immune from terrorists, but the Middle East has
suffered more terror attacks in the past three years than any other region
in the world. During their rebuilding effort, Iraq has been devastated
by countless car bombings, Israel has constructed a barrier in an attempt
to thwart terror and even once immune Saudi Arabia has also been targeted.
Terrorism has become the modern way of “getting your message
across.” This type of violence is recorded in Genesis as leading
to the devastation of the flood: “The earth also was corrupt
before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Gen 6:11).
Christ expands upon this theme in Matthew 24 when he says, “But
as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be”
(Matt. 24:37).
The rise in terrorist activities is not only creating jobs for software
developers and government agencies, it is also proclaiming from the hilltops
that our Master’s return is near. Let us pray that it may come soon.
George Rayner