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Israel-Palestine
Hamas Chief Backs Off Threats Against U.S.
2004-03-24
Hamas has no plans to attack American targets, the group's new leader in Gaza said Wednesday, hastily backing off earlier threats against Washington following Israel's assassination of its founder. Abdel Aziz Rantissi told reporters in Gaza that his group's militant activities are aimed solely at Israel. "We are inside Palestinian land and acting only inside Palestinian land. We are resisting the occupation, nothing else," Rantisi said. "Our resistance will continue just inside our border here inside our country."
"So you don't have to send any B52's to flatten me, okay?"
Hamas had issued veiled threats against the United States — something it occasionally rarely does — after the death of its spiritual leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, in an Israeli air strike on Monday. It issued a statement saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible. "All the Muslims of the world will be honored to join in on the retaliation for this crime," Hamas said in a statement.
We'll be equally honored to kill all who do.
President Bush said after the statement that the United States takes the threat seriously.
Rantissi's toast.
Rantisi was named the new leader of Hamas in its Gaza Strip stronghold on Tuesday. The group's overall leader, Khaled Mashal, heads its political bureau in Damascus, Syria.
... where he gets his orders.
Posted by:Fred

#15  LH, I can follow that lin of reasoning.
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL   2004-03-24 5:42:35 PM  

#14  Debka speculates theyre divided on this. In fact Debka implies that creating divisions within Hamas was largely the reason for offing Yassin in the first place. Sounds reasonable to me.
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2004-03-24 5:03:37 PM  

#13  the 'no American assissination' policy may have came from Damascus where the 'political' leader of Hamas has his 'office'
Posted by: mhw   2004-03-24 4:12:53 PM  

#12  I wonder: would Rantisi like to see a Tomahawk up close? As in sailing through his front door?
Posted by: Bomb-a-rama   2004-03-24 2:33:03 PM  

#11  It really doesn't matter what they say. Does anyone believe them? They'll hit any target they can. Reasons? We don't need not stinking reasons!
Posted by: Spot   2004-03-24 2:08:04 PM  

#10  i read this to say that they will let the other groups attack the US - but indications are that they are encouraging those groups to do so.
Posted by: rkb   2004-3-24 11:32:51 AM  

#9  Woot! Woot! That's both welcome and extraordinary news, EV! Very cool... Thx, UK! wish they would do this to every known terrorist asshole in the world. Yesterday. RantSissy's beyond obvious, so even the timid can follow suit.

Thx for the post, EV! All this good news is, uh, unusual!
Posted by: .com   2004-3-24 10:24:19 AM  

#8  "UK Chancellor of Exchequer Brown announces assets frozen for five senior Hamas members, calls on rest of Europe to follow suit. Brown heads international task force on terror financing."

And the Debka-Files
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL   2004-3-24 10:19:03 AM  

#7  Bwahahahahahaha:
"17:02 U.K. orders Bank of England to freeze assets of five senior Hamas members, including new leader Rantisi"
From Haaretz-flash
Posted by: Evert Visser in NL   2004-3-24 10:16:49 AM  

#6  Rantsissy (lol) has no plans to attack American targets. Oh.. that's nice. Does your 2nd in command feel the same way? Could you tell us who that would be, please??

Posted by: B   2004-3-24 9:58:18 AM  

#5  Believe me, Badanov, it don't matter to me, either. Hamas is dead meat, and I suspect at this point the only reason we don't go in there ourselves and clear them out is that Israel, having decided the job needs doing, is more than capable of doing it itself.

Looks to me like the Israelis have decided, en masse, to give up any hope that there will be any "negotiated settlement" that's worth a crap, and to act accordingly.

And so, it appears, have we. It's about time.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-3-24 9:55:15 AM  

#4  Yup - youse guys are right - too late, RantSissy. You're a deader and oh sooo deserving! Eat a Mav, mofo.
Posted by: .com   2004-3-24 8:58:20 AM  

#3  Buck-buck-braaawwwk!
Posted by: Mike   2004-3-24 8:54:48 AM  

#2  Hamas musta shit their collective pants when Dubya said he would take all terrorism seriously.

Dave D: Fuck 'em. They issued a threat. Doesn't matter to me if they stop threatening or not.

Hamas is in the crosshairs.

If Islamists' past history is any indicator, there are already plans in the works for attacks from these folks. It is time to hit Hamas and put these folks out of our misery.
Posted by: badanov   2004-3-24 8:14:29 AM  

#1  "It issued a statement saying America's backing of Israel made the assassination possible."

Sounds like someone gave him a clue: if he wants to find out first-hand what real American backing of an assassination looks like, just keep threatening us.
Posted by: Dave D.   2004-3-24 7:56:22 AM  

00:00