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| Statement Warns of Attacks on U.S. |
| 2002-11-17 |
| A statement attributed to al-Qaida threatened more attacks in New York and Washington unless America stops supporting Israel and converts to Islam, an Arab TV reporter who received the unsigned document said. If such attacks come off and I get killed — I work in the D.C. suburbs — you can put on my headstone that I'd rather be in the ground, decomposing, than convert to Islam... Yosri Fouda, correspondent for the satellite station Al-Jazeera, told The Associated Press on Saturday that he received the six-page document Wednesday. That was a day after the TV station broadcast an audiotape purportedly made by Osama bin Laden. Fouda, who is known for good contacts within al-Qaida, would only say that the statement came from his sources with the group. But he insisted he was certain it came from the terrorist movement's leadership. Fouda, speaking by telephone from London, said the statement called on Americans to stop supporting Israel and other governments that "oppress" Muslims or face more attacks. The statement also called on Americans to convert to Islam, he said. Does the phrase "in a pig's ass" mean anything to you? Fouda is a prominent Arab television journalist who has broken several important stories about al-Qaida. In September, Al-Jazeera broadcast Fouda's interviews with two top al-Qaida operatives hiding in Pakistan, Ramzi Binalshibh and Khaled Sheik Mohammed. He's al-Jazeera'a ace terrorism reporter. Here's hoping he's also under surveillance 64 ways. Given the way Ramzi was snagged, he might be... Fouda said the statement also referred to the crisis between the United States and Iraq as one more reason to attack Americans. "You are placing Muslims under siege in Iraq, where children die every day. Oh, how weird that you don't care for 1.5 million Iraqi children who died under siege, but when 3,000 of your compatriots died, the whole world was shaken," Fouda quoted the statement as saying. That's because Iraq has a government — a secular government, we might add — that could have disarmed and gone back to being just another Middle Eastern petroleum kleptocracy. Instead, Sammy wanted to keep his collection of weapons. If he'd done what he said he would do, the sanctions would have ended in due course. The alternative to sanctions, if you think back, was war. So don't blame us for his problems. That does emphasize, first of all, the solicitude the religious-based al-Qaeda thugs have for Sammy's brand of murderous authoritarianism. I don't think that's so much because they love Sammy, but because he's an Arab, a member of the Master Race. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |