It says something if the terrorists like your policies.
B
Washington Independent
January 22, 2009 Thursday 5:49 PM EST
455 words
Al Qaeda Theorist Urges Ceasefire Because of Obamas Executive Orders
Spencer Ackerman
Jan. 22, 2009 (Center for Independent Media <http://www.newjournalist.org/>
delivered by Newstex) -- One hesitates to say this will amount to anything,
but Marc Lynch notes
<http://lynch.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2009/01/22/unilateral_al_qaeda_ceasefi
re_with_the_us> that Mohammed Essam Derbala, a leader of Ayman Zawahiris
Egyptian terrorist group that merged with Al Qaeda in 1998, today urged his
former confederates to declare a unilateral ceasefire to test Barack Obamas
pledges to establish a new relationship with the Islamic world and to close
Guantanamo. Whos Derbala?Mohammed Essam Derbala is on the Shura Council of
al-Gamaa al-Islamiya, an extremist Islamist organization at the heart of the
brutal insurgency which roiled Egypt from 1992-97. He was arrested in 1981
following the assassination of Anwar Sadat. Back in 2002, while in prison,
Derbala authored
<http://books.google.com/books?id=vuCKqqF_LBcC&pg=PA214&lpg=PA214&dq=derbala
+jihad&source=bl&ots=5qRhPQsXG2&sig=bhcRUyY9x_wU7yqKeDU7MQSmJeA&hl=en&sa=X&o
i=book_result&resnum=1&ct=result> one of the first comprehensive critiques
of al-Qaeda on behalf of the Gamaa leadership. In November 2006
<http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2006/818/eg7.htm> , Derbala was finally released
<http://www.egyig.com/Public/articles/interview/6/56580870.shtml> after 15
years in prison, part of a larger project by the Egyptian government to
rehabilitate and release old Gamaa members. Hehas since
<http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2007/05/14/34450.html> continued to
criticize extremist ideology,has called upon al-Qaeda to renounce violence,
and has frequently
<http://www.egyig.com/Public/articles/interview/6/56580870.shtml>
criticized al-Qaeda.Lets be clear about a few things.
Derbala has no power to call for or enforce any Al Qaeda ceasefire. But
consider how overwhelmingly significant it is that a former terrorist of
such obvious credibility would say something like this. And whyd he say it?
Because President Obama just renounced torture. He put the United States on
a clear path to repudiating the detentions, interrogations and, just as
important, humiliations that Muslims consider the United States to have
inflicted not just on terrorists, but the entire Muslim world. Part of Al
Qaedas entire propagandistic message is that the United States is an
unchanging brutish entity determined to subjugate the Muslim world. What
Obama did today severely complicates that narrative. But its not enough for
us to consider the narrative to be complicated it takes Muslim figures of
credibility to say so. Thats what Derbala just did.This is what Carl
<http://washingtonindependent.com/26734/blair-on-interrogation-and-torture>
Levin was getting at earlier today when he said that renouncing torture
would have security benefits for the United States. Its, of course, unclear
what Al Qaeda would do. But in an important sense, Al Qaeda isnt the target
audience here. Its the pool of potential Al Qaeda recruits. In March, an Air
Force colonel in Iraq briefed
<http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=five_years_later> reporters on
what motivated foreign fighters to come to Iraq instead of remaining in
their home countries living a normal life. The answer was often an image
from Abu Ghraib. Thats what Obamas actions today have taken off the table
for Americas adversaries. Its importance shouldnt be underestimated. Newstex
ID: CFIM-0006-31209753
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