"The Most Brutal and Bankrupt of Movements"

UPDATE, February 20, 2008: US: Bombers didn't have Down syndrome

The U.S. military said Wednesday that two women used as suicide bombers in attacks earlier this month had undergone psychiatric treatment but there is no indication they had Down syndrome as Iraqi and U.S. officials initially had claimed.

In my opinion, that doesn't make al Qaeda any less brutal or bankrupt.
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This is absolutely barbaric.

BAGHDAD -- Two mentally retarded women strapped with remote-control explosives — and possibly used as unwitting suicide bombers — brought carnage Friday to two pet bazaars, killing at 73 people in the deadliest day since Washington flooded the capital with extra troops last spring.

The coordinated blasts — coming 20 minutes apart in different parts of the city — appeared to reinforce U.S. claims al-Qaida in Iraq may be increasingly desperate and running short of able-bodied men willing or available for such missions.

But they also served as a reminder that Iraqi insurgents are constantly shifting their strategies in attempts to unravel recent security gains around the country. Women have been used in ever greater frequency in suicide attacks.

The twin attacks at the pet markets, however, could mark a disturbing use of unknowing agents of death.

Brig. Gen. Qassim al-Moussawi, Iraq's chief military spokesman in Baghdad, said the women had Down syndrome and may not have known they were on suicide missions. He said the bombs were detonated by remote control.

In Washington, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the bombings prove al-Qaida is "the most brutal and bankrupt of movements" and will strengthen Iraqi resolve to reject terrorism.

...The U.S. ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, said the bombings showed that a resilient al-Qaida has "found a different, deadly way" to try to destabilize Iraq.

"There is nothing they won't do if they think it will work in creating carnage and the political fallout that comes from that," he told The Associated Press in an interview at the State Department.

Rather than voting to condemn the United States Marine Corps, the Berkeley City Council should pass resolutions to condemn al Qaeda.

Using women with Down syndrome as suicide bombers?

If that's not worthy of condemnation, I don't know what is.
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