AP Newsflash: Terrorist was Sad

You have got to be kidding me.

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - Internet postings purportedly written by a Nigerian charged with trying to bomb a U.S. airliner on Christmas Day suggest a fervently religious and lonely young man who fantasized about becoming a Muslim holy warrior.

Throughout more than 300 posts, a user named "Farouk1986" reflects on a growing alienation from his family, his shame over sexual urges and his hopes that a "great jihad" will take place across the world...

... Those posts, beginning in 2005, show a teenager looking for a new life outside his boarding school and wealthy Nigerian family.

Most of all, they paint a portrait of someone who seems lost and needs someone to hear him.

EVERY DAMN TEENAGER IN THE WORLD.

But guess what? A good number of them manage to avoid the temptation to wire bombs into their underwear in an attempt to kill hundreds of people. I don't really care about the guy's emotional state. Maybe instead of spending time reading the kid's sad, online mindthoughts, the Associated Press could use some of their crack reporters to examine...well...other factors that might have motivated his actions.

I'm sure with their multiple layers of fact checkers and stuff, they'll figure it out. Eventually.

posted by Slublog at 02:08 PM

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