Saturday, July 14, 2007

TimesOnline: "Carlos the Jackal sneers at Al-Qaeda’s ‘amateur’ killers"

Despite The Times' catchy title for this item, we learn little about Carlos Ilich Sanchez's fairly recent support for Al Qaeda. According to Amir Taheri, Sanchez's 2003 book "Revolutionary Islam"
urges "all revolutionaries, including those of the left, even atheists," to accept the leadership of Islamists such as Osama bin Laden and so help turn Afghanistan and Iraq into the "graveyards of American imperialism."
Taheri adds that "Carlos is wholly dedicated to inciting Muslims to hate the United States and not at all interested in inspiring them to change the regimes that oppress them." According to The Times:
In his first telephone interview with a newspaper, the Venezue-lan-born Vladimir Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, 57, said he was saddened by any loss of life in London, where he lived as a young man. He also attacked what he called a lack of professionalism in some cells linked to Al-Qaeda.
A number of paragraphs later the article again touches on the recent failed terror attacks:
He condemned Al-Qaeda followers without specific targets, saying: “They are not professionals. They’re not organised. They don’t even know how to make proper explosives or proper detonators.”

Sanchez was a self-styled “professional revolutionary” who studied in Moscow in the 1960s before signing up with a Palestinian guerrilla movement . . .
Again, the image of the professional sneering at amateurs is catchy, and the author does point out that Sanchez "showed no remorse" for his crimes, but is Sanchez still promoting the ideas in "Revolutionary Islam"? Inquiring minds want to know.

Crossposted on Soccer Dad

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