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| Middle East |
| Palestinians arrest al-Qaeda ’poseurs’ |
| 2002-12-07 |
| Palestinian security forces have arrested a group of Palestinians for collaborating with Israel and posing as operatives of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network, a senior official said yesterday. The arrests come two days after Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon charged al-Qaeda militants were operating in Gaza and in Lebanon. Sounds like the PA doesn't want al-Qaeda to give them an even worse name, so they arrest them and after a few hours with the men with truncheons they admit working for the evil zionists "The Palestinian Authority arrested a group of collaborators who confessed they were working for Israel, posing as al-Qaeda operatives in the Palestinian territories," said the official, on condition of anonymity. He said the alleged collaborators sought to "discredit the Palestinian people, justify every Israeli crime and provide reasons to carry out a new (military) aggression in the Gaza Strip." The official did not say how many suspects had been arrested, nor where or when they were nabbed. Sharon's announcement marked the first time Israel officially claimed that al-Qaeda, held responsible for the September 11, 2001 attacks in the United States, was operating in the Palestinian territories. It was considered a surprise because the Gaza Strip is virtually sealed off by Israeli troops. That is a bit odd, although Debka claims they ahve been infiltrating in through the mediteranean by small boats, plus there are plenty of tunnels along the border with Egypt The hardline Israeli leader also charged other members of the terror group were cooperating with Lebanon's Shi'ite militia Hizbollah. It's possible, but I don't think the Iranians and Syrians let their proxies get involved in something that might rebound on them The Palestinians slammed the allegation as "totally absurd" and accused Sharon of trying to piggyback on the US-led "war against terrorism" to strengthen his military operations against militants in the territories. Both the Lebanese government and Hizbollah made similar statements. |
| Posted by:Paul |