Several of my colleagues have the great good fortune (in my opinion) of monitoring open source intelligence sources as part of their paid, full-time job. One passes along a heart-rending story that somehow never appeared in major mainstream media (MSM), although elements of the basic story have been reported elsewhere.

The story passed on to me was reported by Integrated Regional Information Networks (IRIN). According to their website, “IRIN is part of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, but its services are editorially independent. Its reports do not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations and its agencies, not its member states.” I admit to being astounded that a UN-associated entity is publicizing this story. I would be even more astonished if human rights organizations like Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International ever paid any attention to crimes of this kind.

So what does IRIN convey in its report that could break your heart? That al Qaeda intentionally targets handicapped children and their families to use as fodder for their terrorism. Nothing the MILBLOGGERS haven’t heard before, but about as far away from the image conveyed by the MSM for how cruel and inhuman are the enemies of a free Iraq.

Suffice it to say that AQ resembles nothing more completely than the monsters in Nazi Germany who dreamed up the Final Solution as a means of ridding their Ideal society of undesirables and the “impure.” (There’s a very good reason many of us call them Islamofascists, after all.)

This should capture the monstrous nature of our enemies in a few short paragraphs:

BAGHDAD, 10 April 2007 (IRIN) - The dreams 13-year-old Barak Muhammad (not his real name) had of leading a normal teenage life were dashed when his father sold him to al-Qaeda militants. Being mentally handicapped, he said he was considered a burden by his family and was told he would be better off sacrificing his life for his country.
“I don’t have a mother and never went to school. I was dreaming of a day that I would go to school like my other brothers, but I was considered different. My father was always telling me that I was a mistake in his life, a boy that was just bringing expenses and problems,” Barak said.
Barak's father sold him to al-Qaeda in Iraq for US $10,000 to support his remaining five children. Now, Barak is in training to fight US and Iraqi troops.
“Today, I help some men who say they are from al-Qaeda group. They fight people who are occupying Iraq and they said that if I do my work well, God will protect me and make me be a healthy boy,” Barak said, adding that fighters promised him that he would soon join his mother in heaven.
Carrying a Kalashnikov assault rifle, Barak said he accompanies insurgents during night time raids and when needed acts as a decoy to divert the attention of US or Iraqi forces in the run-up to an attack.

Abu Ahmed, who claims to be a spokesman for al-Qaeda in Iraq and Barak's trainer, said they were giving him a better life.
“We're doing a favour to Barak. We're giving him the chance to be useful and not suffer daily beatings from his father. Here, with us, he gets Islamic lessons and is soon going to be a good fighter and maybe one day even become a suicide bomber in the name of God,” Abu Ahmed said.

The Taliban, Al Qaeda, Saddam, Stalin, Mao, Hitler. All of a piece. Those considered inferior, or a threat to the ideal, or resistant to the enforced betterment of society, must be eliminated. If you can gain some benefit from their elimination – think medical experimentation, forced organ donations, soap- or lampshade-making, or human bombs – then that’s just a terror two-fer.

You really have to read the whole thing.