NO U.S. ATTACKS, PETE? WELL, THAT'S NOT QUITE RIGHT

Representative Peter King in today's New York Times, defending his past support for the Irish Republican Army on the eve of his hearings accusing people whose skin is less pink of having group sympathy for terrorism:

Of comparisons between the terrorism of the I.R.A. and that of Al Qaeda and its affiliates, Mr. King said: "I understand why people who are misinformed might see a parallel. The fact is, the I.R.A. never attacked the United States. And my loyalty is to the United States."

Well, actually, the IRA does seem to have attacked a target that was in the United States:

BRITAIN: The Troubles Spill Over
Monday, Sept. 10, 1973

Mrs. Nora Murray, 51, a career civil service worker in the British embassy in Washington, was opening the weekend's accumulation of mail early last Monday morning when she came across a manila envelope addressed to a former military attache.... When Mrs. Murray opened the envelope, a spring-loaded bomb blew off her left hand, sprayed pellets into her face and arms, and blasted out two windows from the chancery's sixth floor office.

Mrs. Murray was the third Briton injured in a rash of letter bombs and incendiary devices that have plagued Britain for the past two weeks. Police believe that the bombs, which have been discovered at department stores, embassies, Parliament and Prime Minister Edward Heath's official residence at No. 10 Downing Street, are part of a new terrorist campaign by sympathizers of the Irish Republican Army....

And as for attacks on Americans, well, not in my lifetime, or in King's, but back in the Second World War there was this (click to enlarge):

United States troops have been ordered to stay off the streets of Belfast tomorrow, it was announced officially today as tension mounted with a report that the outlawed Irish republican army was planning attacks on American and British troops in Northern Ireland....

Earlier in the day police reported that a great cache of arms and explosives captured near here Sunday night was to have been used by the I.R.A. in attacks on the American and British forces....