Boy scout foils dastardly plot

Posted By Joshua Keating Monday, January 14, 2008 - 3:20 PM Share

~~Shame on Fox News for missing this one.~~ An apparent assassination attempt on the president of the Maldives by an Islamic militant was foiled by a 15-year old boy scout last Tuesday. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was shaking hands at a rally when a bearded man unwrapped a kitchen knife from a Maldives flag and lunged for the president shouting "Allahu Akbar." It was then that uniformed boy scout Mohammed Jaisham Ibrahim stepped in front of the man and deflected the blow, getting stabbed in the hand in the process. The boy told reporters, "The scouts' saying is be prepared. I was prepared."

Ibrahim is recovering from his injury and enjoying his new-found fame. The assailant and four others have been arrested. Maldivians, who apparently have little love for their autocratic ruler, have mostly responded to the incident with mockery. The president's security detail is understandably embarrassed. My favorite though, is the Sri Lankan blogger who mocked the entire country for having militant fanatics who are, like... totally weak:

Coming from a country with a raging internal conflict, personally, I am used to slightly more specialized weaponry. Like a suicide bombing. Or a Claymore mine. Or an AK-47. I find it difficult to comprehend a political assassination with a sharp pointed object first invented in the paleolithic era. It was not even a sword, a machete, or a rambo knife that was used; it was a kitchen knife, presumably stolen from a mother or a wife in the middle of cooking a tuna curry. How quaint, how homegrown…

All in all, it wasn't the global jihad's proudest moment.

Correction: Fox News did actually run the AP story on their website. Apologies for the premature snark.

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