Sunday, November 05, 2006

Ye Shall Know Them By The Company They Keep


Hamas Condemns Sentence

Sunday 05 November 2006: The ruling Palestinian movement Hamas has condemned the death sentence handed down to Saddam Hussein, recalling the help the deposed Iraqi leader gave to the Palestinian people.

"We as the Palestinian people support whoever supports our people and president Saddam Hussein was one of those," Fawzi Barhum, Hamas spokesman, said.

Highly popular in the Palestinian territories, Saddam gave money to the families of people killed by Israeli forces and relatives of bombers when the intifada, or uprising, broke out in September 2000, until he was toppled by the US-led invasion in 2003.

6 comments:

Mark said...

But, but, but... there's no connection between terrorists and , um, like Saddam was SECULAR and stuff.

~BECAUSE OF THE TRUTHINESS OF THE CARTOON!!!!!

Lips Mahoney said...

Had anyone noticed Saddam entering the courtroom with a copy of the Quran, an obvious prop?

Something else I took curious notice of after sentencing was his lawyer’s statements, telling the press that Saddam didn't want the sectarian violence to continue and that no one should seek to take revenge against occupying US soldiers.

I figure this had the purposes of an 11th hour calculated gambit. If this appeal to the Iraqi people worked and had the general effect of subduing the sectarian violence, this might have lent an empowered Saddam a reprieve from the death sentence, being worth more alive as a “peace maker”.

Shucks.

Lips Mahoney said...

Comments from Strategy page:

November 6, 2006: American troops have a wanted list of Shia Arab militia leaders, and they are picking these guys up. The "most wanted list" was the result of a compromise between the government and the Shia Arab political leadership. The wanted men are those who lead the most aggressive Shia Arab death squads. These fellows have been killing lots of Sunni Arabs, sometimes working from lists of Saddam era "war criminals," at other times indiscriminately. These deaths have kept many Sunni Arabs motivated to continue supporting the terror attacks against the government, and Shia Arab civilians.

Mark said...

And what of Chalabi? There's a piece in the New York Times Mag. about him which is quite lengthy.

Ah, here it is....

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/05/magazine/05CHALABI.html?pagewanted=print

Lips Mahoney said...

Great news:

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas' military wing called Wednesday on Muslims around the world to attack American targets following reports that an Israeli
tank strike killed 18 people in the Gaza Strip town of Beit Hanoun.

I wonder what kind of activities these anonymous “people” were involved in? It wouldn’t happen to be rocket attacks into Israel, would it? Or perhaps arms smuggling over the border from Egypt?

Let me get this straight. Palestinians are upset about the “occupation”, yet Israel withdrew from Gaza and Palestinian extremists continue to shell Israel from across the border. Palestinians are then upset that Israel has to come back into Gaza to try and stop those who are shelling their citizens. Huh?

"America is offering political, financial and logistic cover for the Zionist occupation crimes, and it is responsible for the Beit Hanoun massacre. Therefore, the people and the nation all over the globe are required to teach the American enemy tough lessons," Hamas' military wing said in a statement sent to The
Associated Press. But Ghazi Hamad, spokesman for the Hamas-led Palestinian government, said the group had no intention of attacking American targets.

Thank god for that clarification. For a second there I thought they were supporting terrorism. Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal said Wednesday that a truce with Israel is finished and his group's militants can resume fighting following an Israeli tank attack that killed 18 Palestinians. Militants will answer the deaths with "deeds, not words," Mashaal told a news conference in the Syrian capital.

That’s interesting. So Hamas considers all those rockets and suicide bombing attempts during this “truce” to be the equivalent of what, hate mail?

What a farce.

Anonymous said...

Hezbollah’s missiles back in Lebanon
Uzi Mahnaimi, Tel Aviv

FOUR months after Israel launched its onslaught against Hezbollah, the Lebanese guerrillas are back in south Lebanon stronger than ever and armed with more rockets than they had before the conflict, according to Israeli intelligence.
During the month-long war, which began on July 12, Hezbollah fired 200 to 250 rockets a day into Israel, killing 43 civilians and terrorising much of the north of the country.



“Since the ceasefire, additional rockets, weapons and military equipment have reached Hezbollah,” said an Israeli intelligence officer. “We assume they now have about 20,000 rockets of all ranges — a bit more than they had before July 12.”

Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of Hezbollah, has confirmed the Israeli estimate. In a recent interview with al-Manar, the Hezbollah television station, he claimed his organisation had restocked its arsenal and now held at least 30,000 rockets, sufficient for five months of war.

Israeli military intelligence has warned the government that renewed fighting with Hezbollah, which it regards as a terrorist organisation, should be expected as early as next spring.