Al-Shayea said his group of 12 met an al-Qaida leader who had direct links with Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the al-Qaida chief in Iraq who was later killed by a U.S. airstrike. He took the men's money and gave each $100.So they sent him on a "combat mission" and blew him up, having paid $1500 for the privilege. He survived, and has since soured, to say the least, on al-Q.
"Then he asked us a question: 'Those who want to carry out martyrdom (suicide attacks, raise your hands,'" said al-Shayea. "No one did."
The founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the group that killed Anwar Sadat, also repents. A conversion which must be affecting things, because Zawahiri has taken the time to rebut it. Interestingly, both conversions come as the result of anti-jihad programs run by the Saudi & Egyptian governments, respectively.
Curtsy: Michael Ledeen
