Hesham Mohamed Hadayat went to the El Al ticket counter at Los Angeles International Airport on July 4, 2002, and proceeded to open fire, killing two and injuring three others. He was shot down by a security guard. Despite the obvious connection between an Israeli airline and a Muslim killer, the government refused to call it a terrorist act. Hadayet was an immigrant from Egypt who lived here illegally for a time and was considered for deportation by the INS, but he later got lucky when his wife won a diversity visa. Not so lucky for his murder victims, however, one of whom was going to get an engagement ring from her boyfriend on the next day. Hadayet's widow apparently refused to accept his guilt for the crime, but if he did do it, then it was the fault of America. "He is a victim of injustice," she said. "In America, they hate Islam and Arabs after Sept. 11." FBI Update: Curiously, after numerous statements from the FBI and other national law enforcement organizations that Hadayat was not a terrorist, on April 12, 2003, the FBI and Justice Department issued a statement saying that the shooting at LAX fit "the definition of terrorism."
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