I met Flemming Rose, the editor at Jyllands-Posten who commissioned the Mohammed cartoons, in London last year, so I was interested to know the kind of people who want to kill him:
Two men from Chicago who went to military school in Pakistan face terrorism charges for allegedly targeting the Jyllands-Posten newspaper, which outraged hardline Muslims by publishing the 12 cartoons in 2005.
The men allegedly planned to kill Flemming Rose, the cultural editor, and Kurt Westergaard, the cartoonist..
David Headley, 49, a US citizen who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, was arrested at O’Hare International airport, Chicago, on October 3… Mr Headley is charged with conspiracy to commit terrorist acts involving murder and maiming outside the US, which carries a life sentence.
While in Denmark he allegedly posed as a potential advertiser on behalf of a Chicago business, First World Immigration Services, run by Tahawwur Hussain Rana. Court papers indicate that Mr Headley and Mr Rana, 48, a Pakistani-born Canadian citizen, who is reported to be a former Pakistani army captain, went to the same military school in Hasan Abdal, Pakistan.
Mr Rana, who was arrested in Chicago on October 18, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted of lending material support to a terrorist conspiracy.
Two U.S. residents, one an American citizen, one a Canadian citizen, educated and assimilated, and enjoying a nice enough living to be able to afford to fly to Denmark to kill a couple of guys over a cartoon. In the long run, Afghan cave-dwellers and Waziristani goatherds are less of a threat than fellows like Messrs Headley and Rana. The company name — “First World Immigration Services” — is a rather droll jest.