{"id":529,"date":"2005-01-22T15:01:13","date_gmt":"2005-01-22T21:01:13","guid":{"rendered":"\/?p=529"},"modified":"2005-01-22T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2005-01-22T21:02:08","slug":"victims-families-criticize-al-qaeda-reader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/?p=529","title":{"rendered":"Victims’ Families Criticize ‘Al Qaeda Reader’"},"content":{"rendered":"

It looks like Osama bin Laden’s personal version of Mein Kampf<\/em> is going to be made available to the U.S.<\/a><\/p>\n

The original thoughts of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders will be made available in English next year in a book, “The Al Qaeda Reader,” whose publisher says is intended to educate the American people.<\/p>\n

The book, which has been criticized by some who suffered in al Qaeda attacks, offers a history of the radical Muslim group, with interviews with bin Laden and his associates and a tract on Islamic struggle by his right-hand man Ayman al-Zawahri.<\/p>\n

A spokeswoman for publisher Doubleday said it was important for Americans to understand the mind of their enemy.<\/p>\n

“This gives a direct perspective on their philosophy,” Suzanne Herz said on Thursday.<\/p>\n

But some who lost loved ones in the September 11 hijacked plane attacks objected.<\/p>\n

“I do not want to give the terrorists any platform to forward their agenda,” said Jack Lynch, whose firefighter son Michael was killed at New York’s World Trade Center.<\/p>\n

“I fear this book could ignite the lunatic fringe in this country who are sympathetic to al Qaeda,” he said.<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

The book draws on two texts published in the Middle East in the 1990s — one from International Jihad Press, which has no known address, the other printed by a small imprint in Jordan.<\/p>\n

The first text is “The Battles of the Lion’s Den of the Arab Partisans in Afghanistan” — a compilation of interviews with bin Laden and his associates giving an oral history of al Qaeda.<\/p>\n

The second source is “Bitter Harvest,” a treatise on jihad penned by al-Zawahri.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The publisher stresses that all profits will go to charity. I see the concerns about the possible arousing of sympathizers legitimate; however, I would have to think that the lunatic fringe is already in the terrorists’ camp as much as they can be.<\/p>\n

Besides, there is value in knowing one’s enemy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It looks like Osama bin Laden’s personal version of Mein Kampf is going to be made available to the U.S. The original thoughts of Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders will be made available in English next year in a book, “The Al Qaeda Reader,” whose publisher says is intended to educate the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-middle-east","category-war-on-terror"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=529"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/targetcentermass.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}