In Arabic Only (but only $2 on the streets of Ramallah)

A street corner book seller in Ramallah sells copies of "The Death Engineers," a new booklet written by imprisoned Hamas militant Mohammed Irman. The book's cover reads "The Engineers of Death: Detailed information revealed for the first time about the most dangerous Qassam cell that operated in the West Bank during the Second Aqsa Intifada."

McClatchy via Smooth Stone

RAMALLAH, West Bank - The first time the "Engineers of Death" tried to attack an Israeli army checkpoint, they accidentally set off their roadside bomb while laying the trap. Undaunted, they devised a new plan, to kill an Israeli police officer. This time, the car bomb's detonator failed.

The failures so depressed one would-be militant that he gave one of the leaders a box of chocolates and quit.

But the cell kept trying, and by the time the group was tracked down in August 2002, it had become one of Hamas' deadliest terror cells, killing at least 35 people in major attacks that included the bombings of the Frank Sinatra cafeteria at Hebrew University...

photos courtesty of Jacob Richman: We Should Not Forget

and the Cafe Moment near the prime minister's home.

Before being captured, members of the group laid plans to kill the son of then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and to fire rockets at Jewish settlements.

Now, in an effort to cement the group's place in the Palestinian pantheon, one of the imprisoned cell leaders has written a history of the group's actions, revealing previously unknown details about some of the region's best-known attacks.

Bluntly titled "The Engineers of Death," the 80-page booklet by Hamas militant Mohammed Irman offers a remarkable window into the evolution of Hamas strategy as the group tried to demoralize Israel, derail regional peace talks and establish itself as the dominant Palestinian political movement....

The glossy red booklet with gruesome images of suicide bombings on the cover is being sold for two dollars by street-corner booksellers in Ramallah, alongside books on traditional herbal medicine and Islam. The book is available only in Arabic; McClatchy Newspapers translated it in full in preparing this article.

PDF | Excerpt 1: Founding a terror cell
PDF | Excerpt 2: The cell fails its first mission
PDF | Excerpt 3, Suicide attack on Cafe Moment
PDF | Exceprt 4, The Israelis break up the cell

Comments

[Yoram Cohen- Cafe' Moment]

Amazing to read all of this, now- from a five years perspective, back to that terrible night. I often had tried to walk the path, that was taken by this young man, who came to my cafe' that night, and killed so many people. I often think- what was he feeling while coming toward my life? How can he do this, to so many good people, some who are very attentive and empathic to his own situation? Cafe' Moment was mine, and I was in it that night. My life has changed that night- forever, but I become even a stronger advocat for peace.

[Yoram Cohen- Cafe' Moment]

Amazing to read all of this, now- from a five years perspective, back to that terrible night. I often had tried to walk the path, that was taken by this young man, who came to my cafe' that night, and killed so many people. I often think- what was he feeling while coming toward my life? How can he do this, to so many good people, some who are very attentive and empathic to his own situation? Cafe' Moment was mine, and I was in it that night. My life has changed that night- forever, but I become even a stronger advocat for peace.