The Globe & Mail whitewashes a terrorist...

There's a profile of the Lebanese terrorist Samir Kuntar that paints him as a changed man....

Mr. Kuntar left Lebanon as a Communist devoted to the Palestinian cause, which he saw in black and white. But the world has changed and so has he. The contrast between the ideologies he had when he left Lebanon and the knowledge he has gained over the years appears to have left him with many contradictions. On the one hand he says he doesn't regret making the attack, although he vociferously denies killing the six-year-old girl and calls her death a tragedy.

Well, if you can accept that he is innocent, then I guess you can believe he is a changed man.

Yet, here is what he said on release this week:

They laid wreaths and gave a military salute as supporters showered them with rice.

Mughniyeh, the second in command of the Lebanon-based guerilla organization Hezbollah, has been accused of masterminding terrorist bombings in the 1980s and 1990s. He was killed in a car bomb in neighboring Syria in February.

Hezbollah and its supporters regard him as a hero of almost mythical stature. The militant group dubbed Wednesday's prisoner exchange Radwan in reference to Mughniyeh's nom de guerre, Hajj Radwan.

"We swear by God to continue on your same path and not to retreat until we achieve the same stature that God bestowed on you," said Samir Kuntar, who had been the longest-held Lebanese prisoner in Israel until his release on Wednesday. Kuntar was convicted of murdering three Israelis in a 1979 terror attack in Nahariya.

Kuntar referred to Mughniyeh's martyrdom, saying "this is our great wish. We envy you and we will achieve it," God willing.

"This time yesterday I was in the hands of the enemy. But at this moment, I am yearning more than before to confront them," Kuntar said. "Hezbollah's weapons are a red line that no one should be allowed to cross," he told reporters.