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| Middle East |
| Yasser tells Binny to butt out... |
| 2002-12-14 |
| Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has ordered al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden to stop exploiting the Palestinian cause to further his own interests. "Yeah. Go find your own pustule. This one's taken!" In an interview with Britain's Sunday Times newspaper, Arafat said he believed bin Laden and his al Qaeda network were using the Palestinian campaign for independence to gain support in the Islamic world. "Why is bin Laden talking about Palestine now? ...He never helped us. He was working in another, completely different area and against our interests," Arafat told the paper. "I'm telling him directly not to hide behind the Palestinian cause." And if he ignores you? Everyone else does, y'know... Arafat gave the interview after a purported al Qaeda statement was posted on the Islamist Web site www.azfalrasa.com, claiming responsibility for last month's bomb attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, that killed 16 people. Nobody home at that address. Guess the site's already been yanked... "The operations send the message to the Jews that their corruption on earth, the occupation of our sanctities, the crimes against our Palestinian people... will not go unanswered and will be met many fold," said the statement, signed by the "Political Office of Qaeda al-Jihad." That statement was followed by a notice posted on a pro-al Qaeda Web site, www.mojahedoon.net, announcing the launch of an "Islamic al Qaeda Organization in Palestine," which would "serve as a powerful basis for restoring the rights of our Arab and Islamic people in Palestine." Ummm... Yeah. Yasser needs that... "We declare that the squadrons of our martyrs will strike with all their might the Zionist and American arrogance in the region and that the blood of our men in Palestine, Afghanistan and Kashmir will not go unavenged," it added. Uhuh. Vows of dire revenge. Sounds Islamist all right... U.S. intelligence officials told Reuters they monitored that Web site but could not say how credible the reports were. Really-truly Bad Guys? Or a 15-year-old with acne and an ego? Arafat said that al Qaeda had tried to justify attacks by claiming they were part of a campaign to seize control of Palestinian territories from Israel. He also dismissed as "big, big lies" claims by Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that al Qaeda had established a presence in the Palestinian-ruled areas of the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon. "Sharon wants to cover his military attacks against the Palestinian people with a new face. He knows that there are no relations between al Qaeda and Palestine." Except that the Qaeda bully boys are trying to climb aboard the bandwagon that the Paleo bully boys have been driving into Arab hearts and, uh... minds. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #1 Nice try, Yasser, but you'll never convince us that you and Binny aren't on the same side. I still remember all the Paleostinians celebrating on 9/11. |
| Posted by: Mike 2002-12-15 07:17:09 |