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Suicide bombings were first used by the Shiite Muslim group Hezbollah
in Lebanon in 1982 and have been used widely throughout the Middle
East and Asia, the New York Times reported.
In the last decade, Palestinians have carried out more than 200
suicide attacks in Israel and the occupied territories. There
have been more than 500 suicide bombings in Iraq since the U.S.
invasion of 2003.
And while those who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001
died, they used a sophisticated plan involving hijackers and jetliners.
 But
the recent London attack is the first suicide bombing in the West.
Even the terrorist attacks in Madrid in March 2004, which killed
191 people, were done remotely.
And many believe that preventing suicide attacks will be very
difficult.
"A suicide attacker could be anyone," terrorist expert
Daniel Benjamin told the New York Times. "He doesn't have
to be trained, just indoctrinated. There's no profile; that's
what makes it so hard to defend against."
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said since the bombings
that he plans to explore new anti-terrorism laws.
"We will look urgently at how we strengthen the procedures
to exclude people from entering the UK who may incite hatred or
act contrary to the public good, and at how we deport such people,
if they come here, more easily," Blair said.
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Compiled by Annie Schleicher for NewsHour Extra
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The
suspected bombers were fans of the British game cricket; they
played soccer together once a week. One was an elementary school
mentor whose wife was expecting a second child. Three were British
nationals of Pakistani decent and one was a Jamaican-born British
resident. 
They
"are in the category of foot soldiers. So, therefore, what
we have got to find is who encouraged them, who trained them,
who is the chemist. Those are the things that we are now so interested
in," London police Commissioner Ian Blair said, the New York
Times reported.
Candidates should not let their desire to win the election interfere with their sense of right and wrong. Changing of opinions in general is not something that should necessarily be discouraged.
