| Submit your comments on this article |
| Syria-Lebanon-Iran |
| Achile Lauro Hijacker at Nahr al-Bared refugee camp |
| 2007-05-27 |
| A Palestinian who escaped from Italy while on parole for the 1985 hijacking of cruise ship Achille Lauro is holed up in the Lebanon refugee camp where the army is besieging Islamist militants. Bassam al-Ashker, now 39, told Agence France Presse by telephone that he is now a militiaman for the mainstream Fatah faction of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and saw it as his duty to brave the fighting to help the thousands of trapped civilians. Thanks, Italy! Ashker was just 17 when he took part in the assault on the Achille Lauro by commandos of the Palestine Liberation Front of Abu Abbas in which some 450 passengers were held hostage for several days and a wheelchair-bound U.S. tourist was killed. He told AFP he had retained his radical anti-Western politics and, after fleeing Italy in 1991 following his release on parole from nearly six years in jail, spent 14 years in Iraq before moving to Lebanon's Nahr al-Bared refugee camp. "I organize the training of young Palestinian recruits who we send to fight the Americans alongside the Iraqi resistance," Ashker told AFP. "I have even fought them myself in Fallujah and Ramadi," two rebel bastions west of Baghdad. And Saddam Hussein harbored American-killing terrorists. Despite his anti-Western views, Ashker insisted he had no link with the Islamist fighters of fringe militant group Fatah al-Islam who are under siege by the Lebanese army and stand accused of using camp residents as human shields. "They have certainly proved their military prowess," he said referring to the fighting of the past week in which 33 Lebanese soldiers but only 25 of the group's fighters were among the 78 dead. "If they had used it to fight Israel, I would have been the first to join them, but they are fanatics who believe only in religion and have no regard of the consequences of their actions on civilians," he said. "Not along time ago, Muslim clerics reminded them that it was wrong to attack Palestinians or Lebanese but they retorted that their religion took primacy over everything else." Despite his disdain for the Fatah al-Islam fighters, Ashker insisted he had no intention of leaving the Nahr al-Bared camp, where living conditions have been deteriorating amid chronic shortages of water, food and power. "It is shameful for a young man to leave the camp -- we need all the help we can get," he said. "My men are organizing food and drink for trapped civilians, notably by going up on the rooftops to get water from the cisterns there, which is dangerous because of sniper fire. We're also organizing patrols to prevent burglaries from the homes of residents who have fled."(AFP) Yeah, right. Now the US has a reason to MOAB that roach trap. |
| Posted by:mrp |
| #15 I wonder how to arrange it so his air runs out just as his head implodes from the pressure? I am but a lowly civil engineer; this would be more of a physics experiment, no? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2007-05-27 21:58 |
| #14 Bomb the entire camp, all the other camps, the Gaza strip, and West Bank until nothing is alive, there is no hope for these people. |
| Posted by: Cyber Sarge 2007-05-27 21:15 |
| #13 Despite his anti-Western views, Ashker insisted he had no link with the Islamist fighters of fringe militant group Fatah al-Islam who are under siege by the Lebanese army and stand accused of using camp residents as human shields. So he's just your garden-variety terrorist beloved by the Left, instead of a religious fanatic-type terrorist. Hopefully he'll meet a bullet soon. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2007-05-27 20:41 |
| #12 Give him the John Clark hyperbaric treatment |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-05-27 20:36 |
| #11 Sorry guys, small error there, he'd die quickly from pressure, only provide a ten minute air supply if you leave off the cinderblocks so he sinks slowly. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2007-05-27 20:18 |
| #10 I was just kidding, btw. For adequate torque and speed you should use a hard-wired drill |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-05-27 20:08 |
| #9 guess I'll put my cordless drill away Bah! Always room for one more, Frank. We know how it is with you engineers and your power tools. We'll leave the kneecaps just for you. Gotta let this maggot have a good excuse to be in a wheelchair before we give him the heave ho. |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-27 20:05 |
| #8 Actually, I think it might be better if while clearing out the Fatah al-Islam guys, the Lebanese army emptied that "refugee" camp entirely, bulldozing it flat. Think of how entertaining it might get to deport them to Gaza. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2007-05-27 18:09 |
| #7 boy, I thought I was harsh.... guess I'll put my cordless drill away... |
| Posted by: Frank G 2007-05-27 18:00 |
| #6 Baptise him with pig fat first, to guarantee his Allah's devils heap burning coals in his belly instead of the houris feeding his many lusts afterward, and you've got a deal, Rob. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2007-05-27 17:58 |
| #5 I'd prefer an empty grave in Lebanon. Strap him into a wheelchair, tie some cinder blocks to it, give him one of those emergency air tanks divers use, and chuck him over the side of a ship in the middle of the Med. Why give him air? So he lives for ten minutes or so, thinking about his fate. |
| Posted by: Rob Crawford 2007-05-27 17:01 |
| #4 It is shameful for a young man to leave the camp Atta boy, don't leave your |
| Posted by: Zenster 2007-05-27 16:14 |
| #3 an empty cell available in GITMO for this guy I'd prefer an empty grave in Lebanon. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2007-05-27 15:17 |
| #2 Bassam al-Ashker, now 39, told Agence France Presse by telephone that he is now a militiaman for the mainstream Fatah faction One a no good rotten low down mother*uckin scum always a no good rotten low down mother*uckin scum. |
| Posted by: Glaimble Protector of the Apes4393 2007-05-27 15:16 |
| #1 If there isn't an empty cell available in GITMO for this guy, give one of the hardcore guys back his belt, a piece of paper and a black crayon so that he can express some sentiments as he checks out. |
| Posted by: Super Hose 2007-05-27 15:13 |