Over at Big Lizards, Sachi gives us some analysis of the op/ed piece by Mourad Benchellali, a former Gitmo detainee.

Mourad Benchellali describes the despair, the incomprehension, and the torture he suffered at the hands of the Americans:

In Guantánamo, I did see some people for whom jihad is life itself, people whose minds are distorted by extremism and whose souls are full of hatred. But the huge majority of the faces I remember -- the ones that haunt my nights -- are of desperation, suffering, incomprehension turned into silent madness.

But the magnanimous fellow has not allowed his dreadful ordeal to poison his own mind. Like Ann Frank, in spite of everything, he still believes that Americans are really good at heart:

I am a quiet Muslim — I've never waged war, let alone an asymmetrical one. I wasn't anti-American before and, miraculously, I haven't become anti-American since.

So how exactly does Mr. Benchellali account for having ended up in Gitmo in the first place? He explains it all very poignantly:

I was seized by the Pakistani Army while having tea at a mosque shortly after I managed to cross the border. A few days later I was delivered to the United States Army: although I didn't know it at the time, I was now labeled an "enemy combatant." It did not matter that I was no one's enemy and had never been on a battlefield, let alone fought or aimed a weapon at anyone.

After two weeks in the American military base in Kandahar, Afghanistan, I was sent to Guantánamo, where I spent two and a half years. I cannot describe in just a few lines the suffering and the torture; but the worst aspect of being at the camp was the despair, the feeling that whatever you say, it will never make a difference.

Mr. Benchellali is correct when he says he cannot describe his torture in "just a few lines." Of course, he cannot seem to describe it in an entire New York Times op-ed, either, as he does not mention even a single instance of torture. Naturally, he has written a book; I'm sure that in the pages of the book, where he has a chance to spread himself, he describes all manner of horrible tortures he endured.

The first point of interest is that, although he begins by saying "I was released from the United States military's prison camp at Guantánamo Bay," what he actually means is that he was released into French custody -- for he is to stand trial in France for attending an al-Qaeda training camp, which he does not deny (he says he went there by mistake, tricked by his brother into thinking it was an Afghan Club Med or somesuch).

So we have a guy here who tells us he was tortured and witnessed torture but does not describe a single instance of torture. That, as Sachi indicates, should be a clue that the claims of torture are just so much garbage. But of course, we then find that Benchellali is apparently guilty of being a student at an alQaeda training camp, and tha the evidence is so clear that even the weak-kneed French are willing to put him on trial for his terrorist involvement. (I'm surprised they didn't offer an unconditional surrender to Benchellali as he deplaned, given their history -- maybe there is still a French national spine). Clearly, we are not looking at an innocent.

But then Sachi makes a connection for us. It appears that the rest of the Benchellali family is either in prison or on trial in France for involvement in jihadi activity. This old NY Times article gives us some background on Daddy Jihadi and the rest of the clan.

When Chellali Benchellali moved to France 41 years ago his path seemed clear enough. Escaping the misery of his native Algeria, he hoped to get a job, marry, raise a family and blend into the French melting pot.

He got part way there. But for the last six months Mr. Benchellali has been in a high-security French prison along with his wife and two of his sons, all accused of helping to plot a chemical attack in the style of Al Qaeda in Europe. A third son has just been released from the American detention center at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, one of four Frenchmen handed over to the French authorities this week.

The family's journey from yearning immigrants to alleged Islamic militants - accused of harboring a makeshift laboratory in their suburban Lyon apartment, where one son was said to have been trying to make biological and chemical bombs - is an extreme but still emblematic manifestation of a quiet crisis spreading through Europe's growing Arab underclass.

So do you want to try to tell me that poor baby Mourad is just some innocent caught up in forces beyond his control? And given the extent of this family's involvement as foot-soldiers in the Jihadi War of Terror (as opposed to the West's War on Terror), do you put it past Mourad Benchellali to lie about his experiences at Gitmo in order to gain a propaganda victory?

Now as Sachi points out, the editors of the New York Times didn't bother telling their readers that this op/ed piece was written by a man that the paper had identified by the paper as a part of the web of jihadi terror less than two years ago. They didn't tell their readers that most of the family is somehow involved. And they didn't tell folks that one of the major witnesses agains the family is Mourad Benchellali's OWN MOTHER. I guess such details are irrelevant when they might reflect poorly on the anti-American slant of their pet jihadi -- and their editorial policy.

I'm curious -- did the NY Times publish op/eds by Nazis during WWII?

ADDENDUM: Sachi offers a big tip of the hat to John Noonan of News Busters. I think the first comment on the article raises a point that answers itself.

Let's see, I hope they give their own countrymen the opportunity to opine - like the Marines involved with the Haditha incident, or Karl Rove, or Scotter Libby, or perhaps Ann Coulter.....

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Posted by: Greg at 02:19 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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