A Little Help Please

The Post has an article about this case where the Italians are up in arms because they claim the CIA snatched an Islamic extremist for rendition to Egypt even though they themselves were about to grab the guy. (Point of order: they say both that they had him under careful surveillence and they we sent them on a wild snipe hunt looking for him in the Balkans when he disappeared. If they were really watching him that carefully, wouldn't they have known he'd been grabbed? But I digress.)

Here's where I need the help. In describing said snatchee, the Post reports:

Nasr was wanted by the Egyptian authorities for his involvement in Jemaah Islamiah, a network of Islamic extremists that had sought the overthrow of the government. The network was dispersed during a government crackdown in the early 1990s, and many leaders escaped abroad to avoid arrest. (My emph.)

As far as I know, JI is strictly a Southeast Asian outfit, primarily active in Indonesia. I couldn't find anything this morning (admittedly with only quick searching) that said otherwise.

Is this a Post error, or am I missing something here?

Comments

[Athena]

From what I've read Montasser Zayyat is Nasr's lawyer, and even though he's an Islamist and defends many of these detainees, he has an excellent book out on Zawahiri that delves into ideology and history of Gamaat Islamiya and Egyptian Islamic Jihad.

Montasser Zayyat normally defends members of these two groups, and I believe the Post has it wrong: Nasr was a member of Gamaat Islamiya, although much of it was was disbanded after the Luxor incident. As for EIJ, a bulk of them followed Zawahiri to Afghanistan and Sudan.

The safest bet would be Gamaat Islamiya, but I'll check to see if I can find anything.

[Athena]

Oh! I know what it is!

"J"emaah Islamiyah is the same as "G"amaat Islamiya --- In Egyptian Arabic, J's are pronounced as G's.

But the Post should really be more careful than that, the Egyptian group is never referred to with a "J" and I would think the writers would be at least somewhat knowleadgeable of terrorism that they would know forgetting this transliteration would cause major confusion.

[John Burgess]

What Athena said.... "Jim" v "Gim" and confusion in the process.

[dauber]

Much appreciated, folks.