21 March 2012

Mohammed Merah is the name. The rest is usual.

By now, using some tidbits of information, we are allowed a glimpse at the culprit.

France 24 quoted Merah as saying, "I will go to prison with my head held high or die with a smile. Nothing else."
The suspect claims to be linked to al-Qaeda...
He wanted revenge for the Palestinian children and he also wanted to take revenge on the French army because of its foreign interventions
Breaking news from Reuters: alleged gunman Mohammed Merah was previously arrested for planting bombs in Kandahar, Afghanistan, according to Ghulam Faruq, the director of prisons in Kandahar. He was sentenced to three years in prison but escaped in a mass jailbreak in 2008 orchestrated by the Taliban, Furuq told Reuters.
And, of course:
France's most senior Muslim leader says the gunman has acted against Islam. Mohammed Moussaoui, head of the French Muslim Council said:
These acts are in total contradiction with the foundations of this religion. France's Muslims are offended by this claim of belonging to this religion.
Save the indignation, please. How many days it will take for the vermin's name to start being hailed as a new martyr for the Islamic cause?

10 comments:

Dick Stanley said...

Well at least we can put the neo-Nazi canard to rest. First instincts are often correct, and the first one in this case was that the killer was a jihadi. Card-carrying or self-inspired makes no nevermind. 

SnoopyTheGoon said...

That one looks like a hard core case. Passed through a school in Afghanistan.

KatieNorcross said...

It is a shame that France gave up its death penalty.  He would be a perfect candidate for the guillotine.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

I do hear that French still keep one or two of their prison islands, where being dead is a vastly preferably option. Let him rot.

David All said...

A horrible terriorist atrocity. Despite everything that has happened since 9/11, a murderous attack like this can stilll shock. Guess that is a good thing shows that we have not been numbed into feeling nothing.
 
 Snoopy, hope you are right that France still has a prison somewhere that makes the death penalty seem like an act of mercy. Chilling that one man working alone could kill so many. It seems that the jihadists are adopting the lone wolf strategy of far-right American terror groups, where one person or single cell of three or four plan & commit terrorist murders on their own to cut down the possibilty  of government informers finding out about their plots ahead of time and stopping them. Like the very elderly neo-nazi terrorist who killed a security guard at the Holocaust Museum a few years ago and the horrendus Oklahoma City Bombing in 1975 that killed more than 160 people and which was the work of two people with help from a third person.

Yeah, the guy has the proper resume with time in Afghanistan.

David All said...

Take this for whatever you think it is worth. Fateh PM Fayad condemmed the attack and called on extremists to stop using the Palestinian cause to justify violence. Link to whole story at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4205954,00.html

(Hat tip to Iraqi Mojo for link) 

David All said...

The French police have stormed Merah's home after negotiations broke down. Link to it at http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4206231,00.html

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Al Qaeda nowadays is just an umbrella name for a lot of single maniacs and small cells. Of course, there still are a few larger groups, but the focus is on such acts of murder we have seen.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

Yes, I read it, thanks anyway.

SnoopyTheGoon said...

It was, probably, a false alarm. The stand-off is still going on while I write this, so it will take them some more time, probably.