Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Wishing you a very happy jihad
In Mohammed Atta's family, it's like son, like father (hat tip: John K):
In case you need reminding, Mohammed Atta was one of those marginalized and poverty-stricken sons of professional middle class, who was pre-emptively radicalized by the future American invasion of Iraq.
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Speaking to CNN producer Ayman Mohyeldin Tuesday in his apartment in the upper-middle-class Cairo suburb of Giza, Mohamed el-Amir said he would like to see more attacks like the July 7 bombings of three London subway trains and a bus that killed 52 people, plus the four bombers.That's a significant change in tune since three years ago, when El-Amir's son, far from being a "fighter", was just a patsy:
Displayed prominently in the apartment were pictures of el-Amir's son, Mohamed Atta, the man who is believed to have piloted American Airlines Flight 11 into the north tower of the World Trade Center as part of the attacks on the United States.
El-Amir said the attacks in the United States and the July 7 attacks in London were the beginning of what would be a 50-year religious war, in which there would be many more fighters like his son.
He declared that terror cells around the world were a "nuclear bomb that has now been activated and is ticking."
The man, who gave his age as "at least 70," said he had no sorrow for what happened in London, and said there was a double standard in the way the world viewed the victims in London and victims in the Islamic world.
"He is hiding in a secret place so as not to be murdered by the US secret services," Mohammed el-Amir Atta, 66, told the German newspaper Bild am Sonntag. He also vehemently denied that his son - believed to have flown the first plane into the World Trade Centre - had taken part in the atrocities, blaming them instead on "American Christians".In 2002, papa Atta was fearful that American would poison him; today, he's quite happy to ask the infidels for $5,000 per taped interview, so he can donate the proceeds towards another terror attack. CNN, presumably, declined.
The interview painted a picture of a tortured man who has not come to terms with his 33-year-old son's death or with the huge crime laid at his door. He said he feared the US would try to poison him.
Speaking from his Cairo home, Mr Atta described hearing about the attacks after returning from a holiday on the Red Sea on the evening of September 12. "My daughter called and said she was going to drop in. She stood at the door and said 'turn on the TV'," he said. Amid images of the jets crashing into the Twin Towers, he saw his son's passport photograph.
"As I saw the picture of my son," he said, "I knew that he hadn't done it. My son called me the day after the attacks on September 12 at around midday. We spoke for two minutes about this and that.
"He didn't tell me where he was calling from. At that time neither of us knew anything about the attacks."
In case you need reminding, Mohammed Atta was one of those marginalized and poverty-stricken sons of professional middle class, who was pre-emptively radicalized by the future American invasion of Iraq.
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