Tim McVeigh may not have been insane or otherwise mentally ill--probably wasn't--but if someone whose political philosophies are informed in large part from Star Wars (as well as from vile racist hate literature) decides that he is justified in the intentional murder of 168 fellow human beings who are posing no threat whatsoever to him, (which is just what happened here), that sure as hell is DELUDED behaviour. To put it mildly.

Don't know much about the Berenson case, but I do know that "posing as a journalist" and providing some unspecified general information to a group that is planning a (potentially violent) political action, is not in the same league as blowing up a building full of people. As it turned out, the main victims of the siege were the Tupac Amaru guerillas themselves, who were eventually slaughtered in a military assault on the compound which they had held for several months.

This is remarkably similar to the case of Spencer and Lamont, two Canadian activists who were imprisoned for several years in South America for their participation in a political kidnapping. As in the Berenson case, they admitted to renting the house (where the kidnap victim was held) but claimed not to know of the illegal side of their friends' activities. After several years of sympathetic coverage, a Canadian journalist actually dug a little deeper and guess what? They weren't such innocents abroad after all, despite the Canadian predisposition to believe that of them. Eventually they were returned to Canada, haven't admitted some guilt, under a deal that they would finish their sentences in Canadian prisons.

That's probably what Peru wants.

Giving Peru the finger wasn't such a clever legal strategy under the circumstances. I sympathise with her position though--let's face it, she's not likely to be getting much moral support from the current U.S. Administration.

Willie-O
Canadian, Not An American, Thank You Very Much.