Rising al-Qaeda star Abu Yehya al-Libi has just released a rather odd video focused on the Libyan "Bulgarian nurses" episode (the nurses were convicted of deliberately infecting 400 children with AIDS, despite abundant evidence to the contrary). Libi places the "crime" supposedly committed by the nurses (and Palestinian doctor) as a part of the "Crusader war" by the West against Islam.
Libi and al-Sahab Productions goes to great lengths to describe the incredible evil of the act, the infection of innocent children with the HIV virus, and to portray this as "the true face of the West." If it were true, it would indeed be horrifying. That there is overwhelming evidence that it is not true doesn't stop Libi from trying to use it as a galvanizing symbol against the West. What does America have to do with Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor, though? Libi anticipates the question: no Americans protested against the horrible crime, demonstrating their indifference to Muslim suffering and indifference ("instead they rushed to express sympathy with the murderous wolves"); and why, he asks, did America rush to demand their release, not even extradition for trial? Because "they are wolves just like them." Libi casts it as a prime exhibit of Western hypocrisy and double-standards, jumping from the Bulgarian nurses to Palestine without pausing for breath.
This is an interesting video. Some might read it as a sign of al-Qaeda's muddled message - why go on about the Libyan AIDS scandal rather than Iraq? Libi denounces Moammar Qadaffi ("the tyrant") viciously, accusing his regime of complicity in the crime (seizing on Sayf al-Islam's statement that the nurses will not be executed as evidence) - and he may well have a personal stake in Libya given his background. But the framing does fit well into the overarching al-Qaeda grand narrative of a clash of civilizations: double-standards, hypocrisy, and indifference to Muslim suffering as the true face of the Est. "Don't be fooled by their shiny words," Libi says, because "your lives, your blood and your children are worthless to them." This may well resonate with an audience conditioned to distrust official Arab media and regimes and willing to believe the worst about America. At any rate, this is al-Qaeda's latest intervention - and, once again, Libi is far more charismatic than Zawahiri and is an emerging force in their campaign.
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