Soccer Dad

Mugging a Suicide Bomber

I first discovered this story via Amish Tech Support via Baseball Crank. Of course Little Green Footballs carried it too. LGF asks this important question:

No mention in this story of the question I’m sure is on everyone’s mind: does he still get the virgins?

What's interesting is how this story was reported elsewhere. In the original story we read:

The robbers forced the bomber to lie on the ground and tried to steal the bomb, but the militant detonated it, killing all three. The other Hamas man and the guide escaped.

There have been cases of rival groups stealing each other’s explosives, but no group claimed the two gunmen, and their families did not go to the hospital to take the bodies, indicating that the two were not militants, who are revered in Palestinian society.

A Hamas official said that whatever their intention, the two should be considered agents of Israel.

“Anyone who tries to stop a fighter from doing his work is a collaborator,” he said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

I'm not surprised that a Hamas spokesman these day would prefer not to draw attention to himself. Here's how the Washington Post covered the story:

Also in Gaza, an unusual confrontation late Monday resulted in the deaths of three -- a Hamas militant and two armed men who tried to steal the militant's explosives, according to Hamas and Palestinian security officials.

The NY Times though seemed to use its own reporting:

In other developments, in central Gaza, three Palestinians were killed in a mysterious explosion late Monday night. The militant group Hamas claimed that one of its suicide bombers had blown himself up, killing two Palestinians who had confronted him and tried to prevent the attack.

"...confronted him and tried to prevent the attack?" Give me a break. The Hamas spokesman simply derided the robbers as "collaborators" because they prevented the terror attack; but there's no evidence that there was any noble intent here.
The other news of the day was about the demonstration for Gaza. The NY Times, to its credit, actually carried a story about the march and writes that the police estimated the crowd at 70,000. (or more than 1% of Israel's population.) The Washington Post to its discredit simply carried a wire report and mentioned that witnesses said, "more than 50,000 attended the rally".
Crossposted on Israpundit and Soccer Dad.

Posted by SoccerDad at April 28, 2004 2:04 PM