Excerpts: Vacation exiles.Saudi provides TV instructions to bomb
building.Western Muslim scholars.Arafat's suicide Brigades continues 24 May
2002
+++JORDAN TIMES 24 May '02: "Palestinian exiles insist on right to return"
QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"a member of Palestinian security services... trained by the US central
Intelligence Agency (CIA) fcor bodyfuard duties."
"the 13 would have a status `temporaey refugee' for 6-to-12 months, and
be entitled to reunite with their families at a latter date."
"two exiles in Athens were completely free and would lead a quiet and
normal life at the expense of Greece."
"they wanted to do computer courses and hoped to receive visits from
their families"
====================================================
EXCERPTS:
ATHENS (AFP) - Two Palestinians exiled after the Israeli siege of
Bethlehem's Church of the Nativity insisted Thursday on their right to
return home... .
. . .
Mohammad Mouhanna, 21, one of two exiles in Athens, stressed his right to
return home.
"The EU's Middle East regional representative, Miguel Angel Moratinos said
our stay would be provisional and that he hoped we would be able to return
in a year," he said.
Mouhanna described himself as a member of Palestinian security services ...
trained by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for bodyguard duties.
The Palestinian diplomatic representative in Athens Abdullah Abdullah,
hosting the press conference, also spoke of "the EU commitment to guarantee
their right of return."
"When? That will depend on conditions," he said. An official statement by
Spain ...said the 13 would have a status of "temporary refugee" for
six-to-12 months, and be entitled to reunite with their families at a later
date.
"Each country will apply its own laws should the Palestinians request
asylum," the statement said. "If Israel seeks to extradite any of them, all
the governments of the EU will adopt a common position on the matter."
The second exile in Athens, Mamdouh Al Wardiyane, 23, declined to confirm or
deny he was a member of the Palestinian resistance group Hamas, as claimed
by Israel. "We hope we won't be here too long," he said.
. . .
... Abdullah said the two exiles in Athens were completely free and would
lead a quiet and normal life at the expense of Greece, which was also
responsible for their security. The two are lodged in a suburban hotel.
Abdullah said they had dined in a restaurant Wednesday, did some shopping
Thursday and were planning to learn Greek.
"They are free to leave Greece but would thereby lose their protection
...They are not heroes, but neither are they terrorists,"... .
Mouhanna and Al Wardiyane said they wanted to do computer courses and hoped
to receive visits from their families in due course.
. . .
Three ...who arrived in Rome would not for the time being ask their families
not join them ... .
+++JORDAN TIMES 24 May '02: "Five Arab Israelis indicted for building
bomb from TV instructions"
QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"assembled bombs based on instructions taken from a Saudi TV programme."
"had a finger blown off in April when he tried to build another bomb"
========================================================
EXCERPTS:
TEL AVIV (AP) - Five Arab Israelis were indicted Thursday on charges they
assembled bombs based on instructions taken from a Saudi TV programme.
. . .
Nader Ben Issam Salima, 26, told his wife to write down the instructions
given by masked men on the television programme, who explained in detail how
to build a bomb from readily available materials, the indictment said.
Salima and a friend then purchased sulfur and built the explosive, the
indictment said. Along with another friend, they put the sulfur into a pipe
and threw it into a cave where it exploded, according to the court document.
Salima had a finger blown off in April while he tried to build another bomb,
the indictment said. The five were indicted in the Nazareth district court.
+++JORDAN TIMES 24 May '02: "Letter:Projecting the right image" by Mousa
Saleem Feery
QUOTE FROM TEXT:
"I would like to call on Muslim scholars, especially those living in the
US and the West, to launch a campaign trying to project the right image of
Islam."
EXCERPTS:
ON MAY 25, Jordan, along with the Arab and Islamic worlds, marks Prophet
Mohammad's birthday. On this occasion, I would like to call on Muslim
scholars, especially those living in the US and the West, to launch a
campaign trying to project the right image of Islam.
[IMRA: Quotations from Muslim officials, such as Arafat's Mufti of
Jerusalem contribute to the image the letter-writer would change. Why
Western Muslim scholars? Those in the Middle East have power.]
Especially recently, the Zionists have been concentrating on distorting the
image of Islam and Muslims by connecting Islam to terrorism and terrorists.
Furthermore, after the Sept. 11 attacks, the very strong influence of the
Zionist lobby, especially in the US, has made many jump to wrong conclusions
and consider Muslims the terrorists of the world.
+++JORDAN TIMES 24 May '02 "Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades strike Israel,
defying Arafat" By Sophie Claudet
Agence France-Presse
QUOTES FROM TEXT:
"The offshoot of the Palestinian leader's own Fateh movement claimed the
attack Wednesday night in Rishon Letsion ... which killed two other peope
and wounded dozens"
"Palestinian National Authority `does nothing to stop the attacks and
contents itself with flabby condemnations that are interpreted by the
Palestinians as a green light to pursue terrorism' "
" `The Brigades are the most important development Fateh has seen at the
military level in the past 25 years.' "
====================================================
EXCERPTS:
OCCUPIED JERUSALEM - With its latest suicide bombing, Al Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades has shown its continued readiness to take on Israel, but also to
defy a demand by President Yasser Arafat that resistance fighters halt their
attacks.
The offshoot of the Palestinian leader's own Fateh movement claimed the
attack Wednesday night in Rishon Letsion ... which killed two other people
and wounded dozens of others.
Their bomber walked into a group of people playing cards and chess, many of
them elderly immigrants from Russia ... ..
. . .
The Brigades, formed after the Palestinian uprising against Israeli
occupation erupted in September 2000, had gone along with Arafat's previous
ceasefire orders. [IMRA:Simply not so.]
. . .
Palestinian National Authority "does nothing to stop the attacks and
contents itself with flabby condemnations that are interpreted by the
Palestinians as a green light to pursue terrorism," said Israeli Foreign
Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon.
. . .
In mid-February, a statement purporting to represent the group said the
Brigades were to disband, but it was soon followed by another fax, also
apparently from the group, denying the rumour.
Arafat had personally accused his West Bank preventive security chief Jibril
Rajoub of spreading rumours on the imminent dismantling of the Brigades.
Israeli military authorities also accuse West Bank Fatah chief Marwan
Barghouthi of being behind the group's emergence.
Barghouthi, who is considered one of the leading figures of the Intifada,
denied the allegation, but regularly hailed operations carried out by the
Brigades before he was arrested by the occupation army last month.
"The Brigades are the most important development Fateh has seen at the
military level in the past 25 years. They will exist as long as occupation
continues," he told AFP in late February.
Israel claimed that the jailed activist had confessed to Arafat's financing
the Brigades' attacks ... saying he required the Palestinian leader's person
al authorisation on all the payments. The Palestinian leadership flatly
denied the report, ... .
Other documents produced by the Israeli occupation army in April, which it
said it found in Arafat's Ramallah headquarters during a month-long siege,
allegedly show a direct financial link between the Palestinian leader and
the Brigades. Arafat admitted to financing the group to CNN two weeks ago,
but said the aid was destined for poor Palestinians. [IMRA: Always an
"explanation".]
Dr. Joseph Lerner, Co-Director IMRA
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