Thomas Wictor

Today my Website was hacked by the Islamic State. In return I say to them, “May you live forever.”

It’s a line from 300, one of my favorite films. King Leonidas has been betrayed by Ephialtes of Trachis, who guided the Persians to the trail they used to encircle the Spartans and Thespians blocking the pass at Thermopylae. Ephialtes hoped to be rewarded by the Persians. He sold his soul for material and sensual gain.

For most of the day, my Website looked like this.

On the Chrome browser, this is how it appeared.

The Chinese characters are machine translated into “You have been invaded Wright you are invaded you been hacked.”

I reported the hacking to the FBI, who kept me on the phone for half an hour. This cyber attack tells them quite a bit. My hosting company and Web designer told me a lot more. That information will be forwarded to the FBI.

My assumption is that my site was hacked because people don’t like what I’m posting in defense of Israel.

Everything I post about Israel is true, and everything I post about the Palestinians is true. The only people telling lies here are the Palestinians.

Why would you have to lie if you have truth on your side?

Here is the truth of the Islamic State: It kills those who refuse to convert to its version of Islam. The Islamic State itself says this.

There’s no equivocation here. Do things our way, or we’ll wage war on you.

That’s fine. Billions of people refuse to do things your way, and they’re going to fight you. The better fighters will win.

Do you see me hacking Islamic State Websites? Have I desecrated your Koran or said anything insulting about Mohammed?

No. You hacked my site because you’re angry that I write truths. You want the truth hidden. Why? If you’re offering a truly magnificent way of life, why do you want the truth hidden?

Here’s some irony that you might find interesting. You used this symbol when you hacked my site.

The death’s head is supposed to show your fierceness, and the swords are what you use to cut off the heads of your helpless prisoners.

And yet those who hate Israel and accuse her of crimes against humanity send me this symbol.

Now the death’s head signifies evil, and the swords represent unjustifiable savagery.

Funny, isn’t it, how you use the image to illustrate your courage and prowess, while those who support you have taken the identical design and assigned it the characteristics of lawless cruelty and barbarism?

Freedom versus slavery

You have set the terms of this battle, demanding submission or death. In the video above, your commander said that you “advised” and “beseeched” the Yazidis to convert to Islam “first and foremost to save their souls from hellfire.”

For one thing, it’s none of your business what others believe or what religion they practice. For another, you “beseeched” at the point of a gun. A forced conversion is worthless. You’re making a mockery of your own religion, following the letter of the law but not its spirit.

You feel the duty to impose your beliefs on others by force. Others have the duty to respond to your force with their own force.

King Leonidas speaking in 300.

The world will know that free men stood against a tyrant, that few stood against many, and before this battle was over, that even a god-king can bleed.

Hacking my Website caused me inconvenience and cost me money, but what it also did was show that you’re afraid of what I write. I find that inconceivable. You’re currently fighting actual wars in Iraq and Syria. Soon you’ll meet US ground forces. Why are you spending even the tiniest fraction of your energy on me? These men are coming for you.

I love life, while you claim to love death. My love of life impels me to defend it. Today I spoke to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Los Angeles Country Sheriff’s Department. I’m also heavily armed.

The Internet is an arena of ideas. If you have to hack Websites and threaten people with death, what does that say about your ideas?

To those who hacked my Website, I repeat what King Leonidas said to Ephialtes of Trachis: “May you live forever.”

Death will come to me soon enough. I spent the entire year of 2013 experiencing death firsthand.

It taught me that free will is the currency of the human condition. Today a man told me that he must support stoning gay people to death because his holy book demands it.

I don’t care what any holy book says: Not only would I never participate in such a stoning, I’d do everything in my power to stop one if I saw it happening. Every choice I make is my own. In this life I answer only to myself. After I die I’ll answer to God. I’m not afraid. Not in the slightest.

The year 2013 brought me very close to God. I saw terror of death that lasted for months. The trauma and the necessity for me to accommodate it changed my perceptions of the world around me. That was a year of specialized training. Like any highly trained person, I can perceive things that are invisible to others. If you could see what I see, you wouldn’t do what you do.

My ill health and my life’s experiences have left me with one foot in the next world. The closer I come to my end, the more precious life becomes. I would never betray God by squandering His gift or stealing it from others simply because I had the power to do so.

My own faith guides me. I’ve been asked again and again, “How can you support Israel when so many others oppose her?”

Because supporting Israel is the right thing to do. I’m no traitor. In Greek, “ephialtes” now means “nightmare.” I would never choose to be a nightmare. No threat or promise of reward will turn me against my friends.

May you live forever. I, on the other hand, hope to someday enter Fiddler’s Green, where I’ll finally get to meet my brothers.

Update

Someone on Twitter told me that Israeli Mossad agents danced and flicked their lighters(?) in New York on September 11, 2001, as the World Trade Center collapsed.

I posted this in response.

We then had the following exchange.

May Larry live forever too.