Trading on the tragedy

Editorial

"Trade you four Ahmad Ibrahim Al-Mughassils for one Osama bin Laden." Sounds far-fetched, but one company has produced a selection of "terrorist" and "anti-terrorist" trading cards.

The cards depict the usual suspects, including Yasser Arafat and Mullah Mohammad Omar, but stretch the mind with cards dedicated to no less than 73 suspected terrorists with exotic names previously unknown to all but CIA officials and serious terrorism wonks.

But this is not just a depressing deck of evil-doers. There are also "Heroes of Freedom" cards, though only a mere four people made the cut (Donald Rumsfeld, George W. Bush, Colin Powell and Dick Cheney).

If the four heroes of freedom seem hopelessly outnumbered by the 73 terrorists, fear not. The "Defending Freedom" series shows 17 of the free world's toughest reinforcements against terror, including an F-14 Tomcat, the Seawolf SSN21 attack submarine and the B-2 bomber.

In comparison, the four-card series "The Weapons of Terrorism" (including mustard gas and anthrax) seem overwhelmed by such military superiority.

Perhaps most macabre of all is the series "Monuments to Liberty," which includes such notable skyline attractions as the Washington Monument, the Statue of Liberty and the White House - all are lovely pieces of architecture and indeed represent something truly worthy, but in the context of the series, it is hard not view them as targets in an all-too-real computer game.

We did, however, go to their Web site, which includes a message board. Many of the people who had contributed to the discussion were appalled by what appears to be efforts to profit from the misery of others. One reader replied that the cards do have factual information and that it is important to get information from sources other than official news organizations, but a quick perusal of the sources of information included on the cards is a litany of most major TV news outlets, such as NBC and CNN.

Whatever the content of the cards, it has to be seen as aggrandizing the evil-doers. It is true that reaction to the site has prompted a discussion about the morality of making money off such horrendous world events, but there are already many other places where such opinions can be submitted. The Web doesn't need yet another site where murderers are somehow valued, even if it is just on paper.

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