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| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Leader of Lebanon's al-Qaeda cell pledges to strike America again |
| 2007-03-25 |
| DEEP in a violent and lawless slum just north of the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs. In unison, they lunged in one direction, turned and lunged in another. "Allah-u akbar," the men shouted in praise to God as they fired their machine guns into a wall. The men belong to a new militant Islamic organisation called Fatah al Islam. Its leader, fugitive Palestinian Shakir al-Abssi, has set up operations in a refugee camp where he trains fighters and spreads the ideology of al-Qaeda. He has solid terrorist credentials. A former associate of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq who was killed last summer, Abssi was sentenced to death in absentia along with al-Zarqawi over the 2002 assassination of a US diplomat in Jordan, Laurence Foley. Just four months after arriving in Lebanon from Syria, Abssi has a militia that intelligence officials estimate at 150 men and an arsenal of explosives, rockets and even an anti-aircraft gun. During a recent interview, Abssi displayed his makeshift training facility and his strident message that America needed to be punished for its presence in the Islamic world. "The only way to achieve our rights is by force," he said. "This is the way America deals with us. So when the Americans feel that their lives and their economy are threatened they will know that they should leave." Abssi's organisation is the image of what intelligence officials have warned is the re-emergence of al-Qaeda. Shattered after 2001, the organisation founded by Osama bin Laden is now reforming as an alliance of small groups around the world that share a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam but have developed their own independent terror capabilities, these officials have said. If Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who has acknowledged directing the September 11 attacks and a string of other terror plots, represents the previous generation of al-Qaeda leaders, Abssi and others like him represent the new generation. US and Middle Eastern intelligence officials say Abssi is viewed as a dangerous militant who can assemble small teams of operatives with acute military skill. "Guys like Abssi have the capability on the ground that al-Qaeda has lost and is looking to tap into," a US intelligence source said. Abssi has shown himself to be a canny operator. Despite being on terrorism watch lists around the world, he has set himself up in a Palestinian refugee camp where, because of Lebanese politics, he is largely shielded from the government. The camp also gives him ready access to a pool of recruits, young Palestinians whose militant vision has evolved from the struggle against Israel to a larger Islamic cause. Intelligence officials in Beirut says he has also exploited another source of manpower - it estimates that he has 50 militants from Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries fresh from fighting with the insurgency in Iraq. Officials say they fear he is seeking to establish himself as a terror leader on the scale of al-Zarqawi. "He is trying to fill a void and in a high-profile manner that will attract the attention of supporters," the US intelligence source said. Yeah, yeah, yeah... same shitski, different dayski. More at link.... |
| Posted by:Dave D. |
| #3 C'mon over guys. Let's start the party. You'll find out why the Russians were afraid to invade this country. We have guns too, and we take direct attacks on our citizenry in any form extremely seriously although you wouldn't know that from what our politicians say and do these days. But don't listen to them. When the shit gets down to the grass roots, that's when the real America comes out to party. |
| Posted by: FOTSGreg 2007-03-25 19:30 |
| #2 This is why we still need a couple of battleships. One salvo, and that "training ground" will be a series of VERY large craters, and the men "drilling" there will become one with the terrain. Battleship salvos have an accuracy from a stationary point of less than half a meter. The only collateral damage will be to mud huts and squalling "palestinians". |
| Posted by: Old Patriot 2007-03-25 14:21 |
| #1 DEEP in a violent and lawless slum just north of the Lebanese coastal city of Tripoli, 12 men whose faces were shrouded by scarves drilled with Kalashnikovs. Hold me, I'm scared. |
| Posted by: xbalanke 2007-03-25 13:18 |