Diary of an Al-Qaeda Operative…

Uh…WHAT?!?!?
From The Old Gray Lady’s web site:

Basic Books says it will soon publish what it calls the first inside account of life as an Al Qaeda operative.

“Inside the Jihad: My Life with Al Qaeda, A Spy’s Story,” by Omar Nasiri, is a first-person narrative of Mr. Nasiri’s time in an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan in the 1990′s, followed by a stint as a spy for a Western intelligence service.

The book, which is expected to be announced today and is scheduled to be published on Nov. 20, is a “detailed portrait of a complex man” with a “unique and chilling perspective,” the publisher said in a press release.

But promoting “Inside the Jihad” will be tricky. “It will not be a traditional book tour,” said David Steinberger, the chief executive of the Perseus Books Group, whose imprints include Basic Books, Da Capo Press and Running Press, among others. “There will be no author signings and no Oprah appearances and no morning shows.”

You don’t say? Could the fact that there won’t be a national book tour be directly related to the fact that the CIA and DHS would like to detain and interrogate this individual??
“Unique and chilling perspective?” His perspective is not unique. He’s a member of al-Qaeda who wants to kill us! The only thing that’s making him unique is that he’s going to take some time out of his jihad duties to publish a book!
About that…
Why on Earth would a publisher pay for a manuscript from a terrorist? It would seem to me that they’re just funding terror attacks by doing that. Call me crazy…
People want to understand al-Qaeda? OK. I’m down with that because we ought to understand the enemy. If you want to gain an understanding of someone in al-Qaeda, you need only do one thing:
Watch the archived footage of the events of September 11, 2001.
That, friends, speaks volumes as to what al-Qaeda is truly about. If you wanted to learn more, you could always watch any of the videos showing Americans being beheaded. Or, you could take a look at the aftermath of the public transit attacks in Europe. You could even look at photos in the hull of the U.S.S. Cole or the pile of rubble that used to be building 131 of the Khobar Towers.
Do you see the trend, here? Al-Qaeda is about one thing and one thing only.
We don’t need to be giving these zealots book deals and we certainly don’t need to be giving them money. Not only should this book be spiked, but the publisher should be the target of an investigation by the FBI with regard to (a) how they got this manuscript, (b) who was responsible for editing it and talking with the author and (c) how exactly they arranged payment.
In my opinion, this isn’t the publishing of a book. It’s a case for “aiding and abetting.”
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com