If the civilized world was genuinely opposed to terrorism and worked in concert to eradicate it, it could be done. But as long as some of our so-called "allies" wink at and coddle terrorists, the problem will continue. Little Green Footballs pointed out this interesting tidbit about a top European diplomat holding clandestine meetings with Palestinian terrorist groups.

This was revealed upon the release of transcripts of the meetings, which were seized by Israeli forces during anti-terror operations in Palestinian Authority compounds. The transcripts detail the secret meetings between Alistair Crooke, who was the security advisor to the EU's mideast pointman Miguel Moratinos (now the foreign minister of the Spanish socialist government that turned tail in Iraq after al Qaeda's train bombings), and both Hamas and Fatah's Tanzim.

While he was apparently completely dismissive of the suicide bombing and shooting attacks by Arab terrorists that killed over 1,000 Israelis just since 2000 and supportive of these terrorist groups, Crooke did have enough of a sense of the impropriety of his meetings to keep them quiet and unpublicized (perhaps he thought it would appear unseemly to legitimize cowardly Islamic suicide bombers, which is what he did). EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana even lied about the contacts to cover them up.

As for the substance of the talks, Crooke did nothing to dissuade Hamas and Tanzim from continuing with their campaign of violence.

Who bears responsibility for terrorists killing 21 teenagers at a disco or 29 participants in a Passover seder or a pregnant woman and her 4 daughters in an ambush?

"The main problem is the Israeli occupation"

But what about the problem of Palestinian terrorism?

"I hate that word. I've spent some time in my life with freedom fighters like in Colombia." (presumably, Hamas are "freedom fighters")

While Hamas explicitly claims that only the destruction of Israel will bring an end to the Arab terror, Crooke said that the EU "do not consider the political wing of Hamas to be a terrorist organization" (parsing between "political" and "military" wings of Hamas is a cop-out). By saying nothing to denounce terrorism and, by indulging them, only encouraged the Palestinians' murderous ways. When Europeans are serious about stopping terrorism and pursuing peace, it might happen. But as long as they play these games, in which they excuse and rationalize murder, it will never happen.

Here's a real document CBS might sink its teeth into with some investigative reporting. But, as usual, the MSM is silent.