Report: Czech jihadis plotted to kidnap, incinerate “dozens of Jews”

posted at 10:19 pm on October 5, 2006 by Allahpundit

The old-fashioned European means aren’t available anymore, so they planned the next best thing: herd the hostages into a synagogue, then blow it up.

Call it the Oradour strategy.

Note well this detail:

The Czech Republic’s leading newspaper quoted unidentified sources close to intelligence agencies as saying the captives would have been held in a Prague synagogue while the captors made broad demands that they knew could not be fulfilled.

When those demands — which were not specified by the sources — were not met, the extremists would blow up the building, killing all who were inside, the paper added.

Why issue demands which you know won’t be met?

Because, that way, the useful idiots would have something to blame the Czech government for in the aftermath. They’d be partly to blame for the murder, you see, because they didn’t do enough to address the jihadis’ “grievances.”

That’s why.

Now then, let’s have a scavenger hunt. Find the non sequitur in the Reuters article. Go!

Blowback

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Ahhh makes me feel right at home in the Czech republic
Wonder why my grandfather (may he rest in peace) ever wanted to leave. Minus the fact that when he left and today sounds awfully similar.

Defector01 on October 5, 2006 at 10:25 PM

The Czech Republic has a small military unit in Afghanistan and military police instructors in Iraq.

Christoph on October 5, 2006 at 10:29 PM

The country’s once-flourishing Jewish community was decimated during World War Two.

Prague has not been a target of terrorist attacks in the past,

Decimating the Jewish community in WWII certainly sounds like terrorism to me.

Is this the non sequitur?

EFG on October 5, 2006 at 10:48 PM

Ah, missionaries from the religion of peace.

Iblis on October 5, 2006 at 10:50 PM

EFG; that was Naziism which is its own evil
but yeah my mother’s side of the family ran like hell from that place along with a small percentage of the jewish community there. The survivors mostly settled in the UK/US and had no interest in returning, the rest were murdered. Czech’s jewish population is 1/10 of what it was pre WWII

Defector01 on October 5, 2006 at 10:50 PM

Non sequitur (absurdism), a comment which is humorously absurd or has no relation to the comment it follows:

Prague has not been a target of terrorist attacks in the past, although strict security precautions were taken several years ago to protect the downtown headquarters of U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe.

DJ Dubya on October 5, 2006 at 11:09 PM

Christoph wins!

Allahpundit on October 5, 2006 at 11:14 PM

I respectfully disagree about the non-sequitir. Of course the presence of Czech troops in Afghanistan or Iraq is not justification for terror. However, a person reading the story might wonder whether the Czech Republic is participating in those areas. It seems to me like good journalistic practice to anticipate and answer the questions of readers.

mikeyboss on October 5, 2006 at 11:23 PM

Non sequitur: Reuters News Agency.

HerrMorgenholz on October 6, 2006 at 12:27 AM

mikeyboss: Someone reading the story might also wonder what’s for dinner, but you don’t see that in the article. If the terrorists didn’t state that their plan was in response to the presence of Czech troops in Afghanistan or Iraq, why should it be included? Because Reuters believes the “root causes” of terrorism are somehow the same as the West’s responses to terrorism (which requires the same “logic” that would blame a shoplifter’s crime on the fact that a policeman arrested him afterwards), and wants make sure the rest of the world sees it that way also.

When I read the article that paragraph stuck out like a sore thumb. Too bad Christoph beat me to it!

insomni on October 6, 2006 at 1:13 AM

Way to go, Christoph.

insomni – that blasted policeman, if only he would leave me alone, I would finally be able to steal that candy bar, and then I would never feel the urge to steal again.

theholyhermit on October 6, 2006 at 7:09 AM

theholyhermit: If only the policeman were more sensitive and understanding. After all, kleptomania is a disease (as Islamist terror is just part of a culture)! (It’s sad, but this metaphor may not work much longer the way our justice system is headed.)

insomni on October 6, 2006 at 9:20 AM

I was just surprised..nay, even shocked…to read the word “terririst” in a Reuters article.

I suppose that now, in some Reuters office, heads are rolling.

Blaise on October 6, 2006 at 9:47 AM

I was just surprised..nay, even shocked…to read the word “terririst” in a Reuters article.

I suppose that now, in some Reuters office, heads are rolling.

Blaise on October 6, 2006 at 9:47 AM

Yes, spell-checking is going straight to hell over at Reuters if they let “terririst” slip past their editors…

Sorry…

EFG on October 6, 2006 at 11:13 AM

Also, they only used the word “terrorist” to describe an attack, not the people responsible for it.

PRAGUE (Reuters) – Islamic extremists planned to kidnap dozens of Jews in Prague and hold them hostage before murdering them, the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes reported on Friday.

The Czech Republic’s leading newspaper quoted unidentified sources close to intelligence agencies as saying the captives would have been held in a Prague synagogue while the captors made broad demands that they knew could not be fulfilled.

When those demands — which were not specified by the sources — were not met, the extremists would blow up the building, killing all who were inside, the paper added.

The paper, which gave other few details, did not say whether any arrests were made and did not specify the identities of the extremists.

Only at the very end does the offensive word make it’s debut.

Prague has not been a target of terrorist attacks in the past, although strict security precautions were taken several years ago to protect the downtown headquarters of U.S. government-funded Radio Free Europe.

So this seems just like business as usual for Reuters.

EFG on October 6, 2006 at 11:18 AM

EFG, calling the people who planned to literally incinerate Jews all over again “extremists” several times before describing their plans as “terrorist” once is a big improvement over “miltants” and “militant actions”.

It’s a baby step. Maybe someone in Reuters decided to write something resembling the truth because he or she or they remembered that, yes, the Nazis were sonofabitches and that people emulating them can’t be very good.

Christoph on October 7, 2006 at 8:22 AM