Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Don't you dare call it terrorism!

(cross-posted from Antiwar.com)

A Bosnian Muslim man was apprehended Monday as he tried to enter the U.S. embassy in Vienna, Austria with an explosive-laden backpack. Another Bosnian was arrested later Monday, suspected of being an accomplice.

It is nothing short of a miracle that the suspects were actually identified as “Bosnians” as opposed to “former Yugoslavs” or some such rubbish (as was the case with ethnic Albanians charged in the plot to attack Fort Dix earlier this year). Satisfied with this nod to the obvious, however, neither the Austrian government nor the media covering the event are willing to go any further. So the Austrians publicly state they “can’t say anything at the moment about a possible motive.” Indeed, Austria’s top cop (”general manager for public security”) Eric Buxbaum said “It is too early to speak of an Islamist background,” while Doris Edelbacher, identified by the AP as chief spokeswoman for Austria’s federal counterterrorism office, is said to have “played down speculation… that the thwarted attack may have been motivated by radical Islamic ideology.”

Because, you see, the wannabe-bomber and his handler were Bosnian Muslims, and that just can’t happen. The two suspects are Muslims? Check. There’s a jihadist imam in Graz, preaching jihad and murder of infidels? Check. The backpack bomb is the kind of device routinely used to blow up Israelis? Check. A Muslim prayer book is found in the backpack? Check. They are from where? Well, then, they can’t possibly be jihadists. Call off the search, boys, motive unknown.

What on earth could possibly be a motive for a jihad-style attack by a Muslim on a U.S. embassy? Jihad? Of course not! Out of the question! Never! Must be because… they didn’t process his visa request fast enough! That’s it! Perhaps he should sue the American government for causing him undue hardship; he wouldn’t be the first.

Already the mainstream press is saying that the main suspect has “sought psychiatric help” in the past, trying to suggest he was just a nutcase. Maybe there is something to it; but on the other hand, the fact that he panicked, threw the bomb away and tried to run, instead of blowing himself up, suggest that “Asim C.” is not mentally ill. I’m not so sure about those trying to spin his inept attempt at martyrdom as anything but.

3 comments:

Zlatan Vrabac said...

Well of course there are some Muslims from Bosnia who want to destroy western interests, Islam breeds lunatics after all. Though I don’t think Muslims in Bosnia as a whole are against the west. The last time I went to Bosnia, Bosnian ‘Muslims’ were trying their hardest to emulate the American ghetto lifestyle to the letter, though I am told that the Muslims in the cities tend to be moderate while the Muslims in the villages are the real fundamentalists. Well enough about my two cents.

The question I wanted to ask you is: have written about your experiences in Sarajevo during the war?

CubuCoko said...

Not as such, no. Most I've mentioned is in the post criticizing the "Canned beef monument" earlier this year. I may do that at some point, but it's not on the radar yet.

Anonymous said...

As it turns out, Asim Cejvanovic ("Asim C.") really is mentally ill.

The mastermind behind all of this was Mehmed Dzudzic (a 34-year-old Bosnian Muslim from Tuzla).

The two men met at the Tevhid mosque in Vienna (which is controlled by a radical Wahhabi cleric named Muhamed Porca).

Asim Cejvanovic did go to the U.S. embassy loaded with explosives, but it was Dzudzic's idea. (The Austrian police picked-up Dzudzic after Cejvanovic identified him as the brains of the operation).

The media is using Asim Cejvanovic's mental illness as a red herring to say that maybe this wasn't terrorism.

The truth of what happened is even worse than you think. Dzudzic is the terrorist, but he's a coward too. So rather than carrying out his own suicide attack -- he convinced the mentally ill Cejvanovic to go in his place.