PrintJanuary 19, 2009
The Plague of Al-Qaeda is Plagued
It's been a rough month to be a terrorist. First Hamas gets slapped around by the Israelis and now it's reported that the bubonic plague has infected a powerful Algerian Al-Qaeda cell. The UK Sun reports:
The killer bug, also known as the plague, swept through insurgents training at a forest camp in Algeria, North Africa. It came to light when security forces found a body by a roadside.The victim was a terrorist in AQLIM (al-Qaeda in the Land of the Islamic Maghreb), the largest and most powerful al-Qaeda group outside the Middle East.
The cause of death was diagnosed as the plague. Further investigation indicated that the plague had ravaged the local cell:
The al-Qaeda epidemic began in the cave hideouts of AQLIM in Tizi Ouzou province, 150km east of the capital Algiers. The group, led by wanted terror boss Abdelmalek Droudkal, was forced to turn its shelters in the Yakouren forest into mass graves and flee.
Here's where it gets interesting: the terrorists are reported to have scattered to Bejaia and Jijel provinces, hoping they can outrun the plague. The real dilemma rests now with the terrorist cells that have not been infected: do they accept the Algerians into their midst with the possibility of becoming infected themselves? Or do they risk the possibility that defecting members may surrender to obtain the medical treatment they need?
In either case it won't be pretty. Potentially infected North African Al-Qaeda members better pray to Allah for the merciful treatment administered in this vintage Monty Python plague skit titled "Bring out your dead:
It's likely to be much bloodier.
Ralph Alter blogs at Right on Target.
