x Interviewer: What is your full name? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar: Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar. Interviewer: Where are you from, Basem? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar:Saudi Arabia. Interviewer: Where in Saudi Arabia? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar:Mecca. Interviewer: How did you enter Iraq, from where? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar: Via Syria. Interviewer: And how did you get to Syria? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar:By plane. Interviewer: With your own passport? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar:Yes. Interviewer: How old are you, Basem? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar:18 Years old. Interviewer: What made you decide to go to Iraq? Basem Saleh Jamil Kassar: Allah is my witness that I came purely to support our Iraqi brothers. Allah is my witness, and I will face Allah on Judgment Day. The reason was that the image we had in our heads was different than what we see now. We saw the Americans massacring the Iraqis. We saw the siege on Najaf, We saw that Imam Al-Sistani issued a fatwa calling for Jihad. Those were the things that made us come here. I'm not sure whether it was Imam Al-Sistani or [Muqtada] Al-Sader… These were the reasons. We saw the pictures of the Abu Ghureib violations, a naked woman violated by an American soldier. We saw our brothers, the prisoners, naked. |