Execution viewed as wedding

[Gerald Cohen]

   Last Friday I sent a message about executions sometimes being
viewed as a wedding. An offshoot theme is that the al Qaeda
terrorists regard their martyrdom-acts as a wedding.

     Clear evidence of this offshoot-theme is presented in the German
news magazine _Spiegel_, 27 May 2002, pp. 126-128, (title):
"Operation Große Hochzeit" (= Operation Big Wedding). Here's a
translation of a relevant paragraph, p. 127:
        "In spring of 2001 the Jordanian secret service had
intercepted [the message(s)] that al-Qaeda was preparing in the
U.S.the 'Operation al-Urus al Kabir,' Operation Big Wedding. It was
known that one or several airplanes were to be used for it.  The
warning to the American friends was lost ["ging unter" = sunk, was
submerged] in the maelstrom of news. Likewise the notification from a
Moroccan undercover agent that Osama Bin Laden's people wanted to
strike New York with a 'large scale operation'."

Gerald Cohen