COLOMBIANS SUFFERING OWN TYPE OF TERRORISM

Once again, a terrorist attack has shaken a nation.

Last Friday's bombing in BogotA , the capital of Colombia, killed more than
30 people and left at least 150 injured, prompting the newspaper El
Espectador to editorialize that the South American nation had just lived
through its own Sept. 11.

Although no one claimed responsibility for the explosion that gutted Club
Nogal, the nation's most exclusive social club, the attack appears to be
the work of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. The leftist
guerrillas, better known by their Spanish-language initials FARC, have
tormented Colombia for 39 years.

The FARC's goal is to oust the government and the upper class. Club Nogal,
a citadel of the elite, was its ideal target.

The world must realize that terrorism is not confined to al-Qaida and other
extremist Islamic organizations.

In Colombia, the FARC, the National Liberation Army, the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia and least two smaller groups - not to
mention drug cartels - have demonstrated extreme violence. That's why the
United States correctly has labeled them terrorists.

Although it may be hard to believe, for years the FARC enjoyed
international recognition in Mexico, the European Union and other nations.
But, like their counterparts, they are criminals who thrive on the drug
trade and kidnappings for ransom.

As Colombia's President Alvaro Uribe said after the deadly bombing, if drug
users understood the pain that the FARC and other terrorists have inflicted
on Colombians, perhaps they would stop buying narcotics, the rebels' main
source of income.