 |
(STR/ AFP/ Getty Images) |
Globe Editorial
Mehmet Ali Agca, the petty gangster and hit man who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981, walked out of a Turkish prison last week a free man. Whenever it suits his needs, Agca has acted crazy, and he was running true to form when he announced, “in the name of God almighty,’’ that the end of the world is coming and that he is “Christ eternal.’’ Having once said, and later denied, that he shot the Pope on behalf of Bulgarian security services and their Soviet masters, Agca is now offering to sell the true story of his assassination attempt for millions of dollars. Which raises a couple of disquieting questions: Who is more deranged, the self-proclaimed messiah or the gullible souls who would pay for his version of history?
And is it really news that a terrorist - whether working for Soviet communists, Turkish nationalists, or Islamist extremists - could merely pretend to be crazy in a calculated attempt to further ideas that are quite crazy?
Agca’s reappearance on the stage of history should teach an opportune lesson - that although rational methods must be brought to bear in the fight against terrorism, the mentality of today’s terrorists is no less insane than Hitler’s, Stalin’s, or Pol Pot’s.
© Copyright 2010 Globe Newspaper Company.
