Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan: toast his burning carcass

The aftermath of the Paradise Hotel bombing. I was there

That dude – Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan – is the al-Qaeda terrorist killed in an airstrike Monday. “Toast his burning carcass” is how my brother aptly summed up his death.  Seem a little harsh? Not really. Nabhan masterminded the al-Qaeda attack on 200 Israelis at  the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa Kenya, on November 28, 2002. I was there, at the time, on a junket from The Jerusalem Post. I was the only English-speaking journalist there at the time so I did a slew of on the spot interviews with every major news outlet worldwide.

Wanna read about my horrific ordeal? There’s a myriad of places you can. I wrote so many articles about this I went a bit gaga after a while.  This one is my most personal piece, though. You can read it here.

So,  after hearing about this sorry excuse for a human being’s death yesterday, I found it difficult to pigeonhole the emotions I went through. I landed up writing an article – an Op-Ed that I have submitted to the New York Times. I have to wait three days to see if they’ll accept it. Only then can I submit it elsewhere. So, until the NYT accepts or declines my piece, I’m keeping it under wraps. I promise to post it on this blog though, whatever the outcome. If not the NYT, then I’ll head to the other major outlets and of course, the Jewish ones. But for now, I’ll let my brother’s words ring in my ears. “Toast his burning carcass!”