Disgraceful

The Washington Post should be absolutely ashamed of its editorial/op-ed page today.

As Don Surber points out, the WaPo editorial staff decides to honor the cause of the Butcher of Beslan, Shamil Basayev.

Like all terrorists, Shamil Basayev had his grievances, and in that he was aided by Russia's inglorious history of atrocities, murders, rapes, ethnic cleansing and officially sanctioned mayhem in largely Muslim Chechnya. Like Osama bin Laden, he nurtured a personality cult fed by his messianic ruthlessness, his uncanny knack for evading capture and his self-proclaimed role as an avenger of a people with a deep sense of historical oppression. And like Osama bin Laden, he seemed to relish playing the part of Public Enemy No. 1 in a country scarred and brutalized by terrorism. If his ambitions were less vainglorious than Osama bin Laden's -- Shamil Basayev's beef was with Russia, not the West writ large, and his rather more narrow cause was independence for Chechnya -- he was just as fanatically addicted to killing.

Yes, that's right, he was an idealistic guy who went too far by killing more than 1,500 people, including hundreds of kids in Beslan School No. 1. Blowing up buses, planes, buildings, hospitals, government buildings, schools, and taking hundreds more hostage in a Moscow theater isn't the sign of having a cause. It's a sign of being a mass-murdering cold-blooded killer.

But if that editorial didn't turn your stomach, this one should. The WaPo gives the leader of the terrorist group Hamas, Ismail Haniyeh an open forum to rail about Israel's right to defend itself from the terrorist attacks perpetrated largely by Hamas - including the invasion of Israel through a 300 foot long tunnel, attacked an Israeli post, killing two soldiers and capturing Gilad Shalit in the process. All the while, Hamas and the other Palestinian terrorists seek to kill more Israelis via kassam rocket attacks, plan suicide bombing missions, car bombs, and other attacks against Israel.

Haniyeh wants to blame the US for this mess - by providing Israel with the tools for Israel's defense of its national security from the terrorists who operate out of Gaza - where Hamas dominates the political landscape, such as it is.

And the Washington Post believes that they should publish such propaganda? Would they carry an opus by Osama bin Laden in the same way? I wonder.

UPDATE:
Others noting the terrorist agitprop published by today's Washington Post: Carl in Jerusalem, LGF, Ed Morrissey, Blue Crab Boulevard, and Powerline. Again, it's curious that the Left doesn't seem to have a problem with the media publishing terrorist revisionist histories. Where is the outrage over having a known terrorist getting their work published in a major newspaper?