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| International |
| Lebanon says U.S. terror charges are campaign talk |
| 2002-07-10 |
| Accusations by U.S. senators that Lebanon harbored extremists' training camps were a "cheap" bid to whip up U.S. votes with anti-terror rhetoric, a government minister said on Wednesday. Senate Intelligence Committee chief Bob Graham said the U.S. war on terror could extend to Hezbollah, which he called "the most vicious and effective terrorist organization in the world." Lebanese Information Minister Ghazi al-Aridi dismissed Graham's comments as baseless, and said they seemed intended for the ears of U.S. voters ahead of mid-term elections in November. "He never raised the issue here, nor spoke about it," Aridi told Reuters. "This is a cheap campaign orchestrated at our expense." "Y'see, what matters isn't what's actually happening. What matters is why he said what he said. That has nothin' to do with whether or not Beqaa Valley is full of gunnies and thugs, or Hezbollah's a loose cannon terror organization dedicated to mindless violence..." |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |