MIAMI, Florida (AP) -- Small toys showing an airplane flying into the World Trade Center were packed inside more than 14,000 bags of candy and sent to small groceries around the country before being recalled. Lisy Corp., the wholesaler that distributed the candy, said Friday that the toys were purchased in bulk from a Miami-based import company.

The toys came in an assortment purchased sight unseen from L&M Import in Miami and included the toys depicting the attacks on the World Trade Center of September 11, 2001, along with whistles and other small toys, said Luis Pedron, Lisy's national sales manager. The invoice described the toy as a plastic swing set. "I hate to blame the importer. He probably did not know what he was getting. He brings them in 40-foot containers. But whoever made it knew exactly what they were making," Pedron said.

Pedron said Lisy did not notice the small plastic figurines until two people complained, but there is no mistaking what the toys represent: At the bottom of each is the product number 9011.

I would almost - almost - be willing to chalk up the toy's design to unfortunate coincidence, were it not for the product number ("9011") and fact that there is an "antenna" on only one of the towers. Was the manufacturer trying to be funny? "Rub in" the fact of tragedy, or something more sinister? Who knows. But I do know that many of the nations that manufacture these kinds of cheap import toys aren't on the America's political page, if you get my drift, and this sort of tastelessness would get through 'quality control' without a hitch.

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