June 18, 2008
An Interview With an Insurgent
Evan Kohlmann has an interview with Ahmad Said al-Hamad, a spokesperson for HAMAS in Iraq, a group that routinely posts videos on the internet of IEDs hitting U.S. and Iraqi forces. If you read the whole interview I think it becomes clear just how evasive al-Hamad was to the questions.
For instance, questions on political goals and the role of sharia within the movement are pretty vague. They claim to want something they call 'moderate sharia' but they also downplay the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in their ranks as well as of Baathists known to be part of the group.
That's quite a disconnect in philosophies there. The secular Baath nationalists are a far cry from the Islamists of the Muslim Brotherhood. It's probably more likely that this is a group of former Saddam loyalists who, like the Baath party of the Iraqi regime, expropriated the terminology of jihad to support their own immediate aims.
HAMAS actually broke off of the 1920s Revolutionary Brigade when the latter group joined the Anbar Awakening and began to work with U.S. forces.
Anyway, you can read the interview here in PDF form.
UPDATE: I didn't notice before, but he also scored an interview with a spokesman for the al-Rashadeen Army. Also very elusive about goals.
I hope if Evan talks to these two douches again, that he asks them about how they feel about us PWNING both their websites?
And yes, we know about their OTHER website they jointly run. Bide your time, my precious, bide your time.
