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| Middle East |
| Islamic Jihad: Won't Target Americans |
| 2003-02-23 |
| Islamic Jihad said Friday it will not attack American targets to retaliate for the U.S. arrest of four alleged members and the indictment of four others on terrorism-related charges. Abdallah Shami, the Gaza leader of the Palestinian group, condemned the arrests but said Islamic Jihad will continue to focus on its fight against Israel. "We are not going to open any new fronts," Shami said. Islamic Jihad is small, compared to Hamas or Fatah, and the IDF virtually wiped it out in the West Bank over the summer. They're probably too busy trying to rebuild to have the resources to devote to dire revenge™ against us — right now... A 50-count indictment was unsealed Thursday in Washington against eight alleged members of Islamic Jihad, including computer engineering professor Sami Al-Arian, the alleged U.S. leader of the group who is on paid leave from the University of South Florida. Four of the eight, including Al-Arian, were arrested in the United States. Four others are abroad, including Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Shallah, who is in Damascus, and Abd Al Aziz Awda, 52, a founder of the group, who lives in the Gaza town of Beit Lahia. Awda was not available for comment Friday. Shami said Awda left the group a decade ago after falling out with other members, and that he has withdrawn from public life. Awda is a member of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinians' parliament-in-exile, and in 1997 voted in favor of revoking sections of the PLO founding charter that call for Israel's destruction. Let him turn himself in, then, and explain it all. Dontcha hate it when all the people you killed when you were young haunt you when you're old? Another Islamic Jihad leader, Khaled Batsh, said that of the eight men indicted, all except Shallah "either left the movement or the movement froze their membership more than 10 years ago." "Oh, yeah. Sure. They're all innocent now. Just a youthful indiscretion." The indictment says Al-Arian directed the audit of all the group's money and property throughout the world from his home and workplace in Tampa. Al-Arian has denied he has ties to terrorism. Only to its finances... Shami, in a speech to about 800 Islamic Jihad supporters in Gaza City, dismissed the U.S. indictment as "a big lie" but not a provocation for attacking American interests. "Lies! All lies! We should, uhhh... not do anything." "We raise our voice in protesting this American measure but our operations will continue against the Israeli occupation only," he said. Ely Karmon, an Israeli counterterrorism expert, said he believed Shami. Karmon said Iran, which provides major funding for the group, would be unlikely to support attacks on U.S. targets. "They (Islamic Jihad leaders) know that Iran is today cautious in its policies ... because they know the United States will pressure Iran very hard after Iraq," he said. "I don't think Iran will permit the Palestinian Islamic Jihad at this moment to do anything against the United States." That saves them for later and prevents any last minute changes of target... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 Pooor Al Arian...after all his hard work! Leaving him high and dry, they are. I guess they only loved him for his money. |
| Posted by: becky 2003-02-23 13:08:30 |
| #1 Smart thing, doing nothing. Responding to the arrests would only strengthen the case against their captured members. |
| Posted by: Ptah 2003-02-23 13:05:34 |