Quote:
Originally Posted by Textcritic
Because this:
Originally Posted by John Simpson
I asked him what his father and mother would have thought about what he had become. Tears came to his eyes: he suddenly stopped being a terrorist. Now, he was just a kid who had upset his parents and didn’t know how to get home.
His IS minders took him to Baghdad, put him up at a safe house, and taught him how to use an explosive vest. He had to keep his thumb on the trigger of the bomb. Directly he raised it, the bomb would go off. And at that instant, they said, without needing to go through the process of having his life and actions judged, he would find himself in paradise. It might not have been particularly good theology, but it worked.
They gave him a pistol, in case the guards at the Shia mosque tried to stop him. He was to shoot them, then run over to where the crowd of worshippers was thickest and detonate the bomb.
You were fully prepared to kill women and children, as well as men? I asked.
“Yes, sir.”
His voice was scarcely audible now and the tears were running unchecked down his face. His eyes were fixed on his manacled hands and he spoke in whispers.
Why are you crying?
“Because I’m so sorry for all this.”
You’re ashamed of what you were going to do?
“Yes, sir.”
Before he could leave for his mission, the safe house was raided and he was captured. He wasn’t beaten or threatened; there was no need. The interrogators treated him kindly and showed him that Shia Muslims were much the same as the Sunnis he had grown up with. He’ll get a short prison sentence; after that, he’ll be free to make something of his dysfunctional life. If he can...
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That's a story about a local though–a kid who has spent his life in a country at war.
He's not some moron from a Canadian suburb who was convinced by youtube videos to travel across the world so he can join a bunch of crazies and kill people.
I'm not saying "revoke passports and let them deal with the consequences of their actions", but I'm not really saying don't do that either. Although I don't even know if that kind of thing is legal in Canada.
Someone like that is dangerous, easily duped and manipulated by criminals, and a serious threat if he's allowed to come back. Even if he does cry in the interrogation room.