French journalist interviews executioners

The journalist, Sara Daniel, interviewed in Fallujah one Abu Rachid (the name was changed, says a footnote) of the Tawid wal Djihad (unification and holy war) who claims to have beheaded several hostages.

The news magazine starts by legitimizing its dialogue with the enemy:

Should we allow those responsible of the beheadings to speak? Aren't we risking, by letting them explain themselves, to appear to be legitimizing their criminal drift? Since the day horror exists and some men have been using it, everytime the intolerable arises, the question pops up. Similarly, the answer stands out. Horror does not belong to natural catastrophes. Human beings are responsible and one needs to know them. One needs to know who they are, what's motivating them, what's making them fanatical. And nothing is more dangerous than silence that never prevented the poison from spreading.

Apparently, Le Nouvel Obs has poetic writers. Poor little things have no idea what's motivating the terrorists though. So they wanted to know. And to inform us of course.

So we learn. She starts by informing us of her dismay. Not to be there, in Fallujah, among those men who would certainly rape and kill her shouldn't she represent their chance to be on the cover of an anti-American magazine, published in a western country that proved to be no ally of America, their "enemy."

Facing my dismay at the evocation of his actions [the beheading of several hostages] . . .

We're not buying it Sara. That's the very reason why you went there.

. . . Abu Rachid starts laughing: "Look twice in a row at the CD of Berg's beheading I gave you and you'll see, you'll get used to it," he advises, before offering me to attend the next one...

I had started to translate the entire interview, but not much is new here: the enemy is America. Unilateral America's allies become enemies too. They are Iraqis who will fight until Americans leave Iraq and the Islamic law is restaured.

After one man is silenced after voicing his true colors

You know, when we're beheading someone, we enjoy it

Abu Rachid, nicknamed the "man of steel" (no comment from the journalist, the previous "man of steel" in history certainly being one of the magazine's role models), explains:

We're not kidnapping people to scare them, he corrects, but to pressure countries that are helping or are about to help Americans.

Of course, we'll assume little Sara didn't know that. How could she?

What are those coming in an occupied country thinking about? They're dealing with the United States in the name of their commercial interests. But their contracts are stained by the blood of Iraqis. Should we do nothing while we are being assassinated? It isn't a good thing to behead. But the method works. During the fights, Americans are trembling. And look at the fair reaction of the Philippines. Thanks to their attitude, that enabled us to free our hostage, we were able to show the world that we too like peace and clemency... In fact, I tried to negotiate an exchange between Nick Berg and prisoners. Americans were the ones who refused. They are the ones responsible for his death.

Looks like Ms. Daniels found what she was looking for.

The article ends with the comments of an imam from Fallujah, sheikh Janabi. That's the part that really makes you realize it was worth talking to murderers, giving those freaks the attention they are so looking for.

According to sheikh Janabi, if Americans have invaded Iraq, it's only to launch their "crusade" against Fallujah, the most islamized town of Iraq... "Precisely here, they have destroyed the door of the mosque with dynamite, left their footprints on the Koran and watched our women with binoculars which is, for us, worse than death." And the sheikh describes the long suffering of the inhabitants of his town, until the "holy battle of Fallujah": "That's when angels on horseback descended from the sky, while weapons continued to fire during hours without us needing to reload them, and spiders with a nauseating smell attacked American soldiers, especially those who used their damned binoculars..."

Welcome back to civilization.

. . . "This day has arrived, the starting point for the decline of the American empire that is going to tear itself apart more durably than Iraq today. Allah's justice is arriving on earth. And it is knocking down dictators. Saddam then Bush and Americans. In Iraq, in the United States and wherever they are in the world, they will be tracked down and destroyed."

Time to join forces again with the right man, don't you think?

Posted by Carine at August 6, 2004 06:20 PM