Who Said Terror Doesn't Pay?

The Islamists must be doubled over with laughter with this news out of Algeria. Not only do Islamic terrorists for the most part walk free, but now they may be financially compensated.

You can't make this stuff up.

Algerian authorities are considering paying financial compensation to more than 13,000 people with links to an Islamist revolt under an amnesty aimed at ending civil strife, state media said on Sunday.

The oil-exporting country started implementing a charter for peace and reconciliation in 2006 in a drive by President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to end Islamist-linked violence that cost the lives of up to 200,000 people since the early 1990s.

"13,014 compensation requests from the victims of the national tragedy have been accepted (for consideration) under the implementation of the charter for peace and national reconciliation," National Solidarity Minister Djamal Ould Abbes was quoted by the official news agency APS as saying.

The minister said 23,396 people had applied for compensation for losses incurred during the intense political violence of the 1990s when tens of thousands of Islamist guerrillas fought the army to try to set up Islamic rule.

Officials have said a decision on how many requests would be approved is expected in coming months.

A 2006 reconciliation law offers Islamic guerrillas still fighting the authorities a pardon if they lay down their weapons provided they were not responsible for massacres, rapes and bombings of public places.

It also provides compensation to families who fell into poverty due to the absence or death of relatives who joined the rebellion, and to people who were dismissed from their jobs for links to the rebellion -- the two main categories of applicant referred to by Ould Abbes.

The law also offers compensation to families whose loved ones were killed by rebels and to families whose relatives disappeared and were believed killed by the security forces.

Authorities have not disclosed how many compensation requests have been received under those categories.

I can understand rewarding families affected by the rebels, but it's insane to remunerate anyone related to the rebels themselves.