Andy posted an important FT article earlier today about a terrorist who killed a senior judge in Turkey, the key information being this:
One of Turkey’s most senior judges was killed on Wednesday and four others were injured after a gunman shouting religious slogans burst into a court building in an attack that officials linked to a recent judicial decision on the wearing of the Muslim headscarf.Mustafa Ozbilgin, aged 64 and a member of the Danistay or council of state, was shot in the head by the gunman, who shouted “God is great” and “I am a soldier of Allah” after he stormed into a judges’ meeting at the court building in central Ankara at about 10am. Mr Ozbilgin died a few hours later.
I knew Mustafa, back in the early eighties when I did some counter-terrorism work in the Pentagon. He was an extraordinary man. At that time, he presided over the most important terrorist cases, of which there were many. He had no security, and did not carry a gun. His salary was miniscule, even by the standards of an American worker, yet he took enormous pride in his work, as he should have. It always struck me as outrageous that such a fine man, with the ideal judicial temperament and a lot of wisdom, should be so grossly underpaid and underprotected. Everybody knew he was a target, he expected to be attacked, and I rather expect that when the disgusting animal opened fire, Mustafa thought to himself, “ah, there you are, my dear assassin, I have been expecting you for a long time.”If we continue to dither along as we are at present, the day will come when some disgusting animals shouting “God is great” burst into our courtrooms and kill our judges, and the deranged elite of this country will wonder what terrible things we have done to provoke such carnage. They will have it backwards. Mustafa was killed because he was a fine man and an outstanding judge. People of the sort that killed him do it precisely because they want such fine people dead or dominated.But we’re negotiating.