Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
"Smoking them out of their holes"? "Wanted dead or alive"?
President Bush says that he wants justice, but the United States
seems close to sanctioning hit squads and liquidation. A new
policy for America, maybe – but it's an old policy in the Middle
East where assassination, kidnapping and murder squads have
been a normal part of local "justice" for decades.
Iran, Israel, Libya and Iraq have all employed killer squads to
hunt down their enemies overseas. The Iranians twice sent
teams to murder the Shah's last prime minister, Shahpour
Bakhtiar, in Paris on the basis that he was planning a "terrorist"
coup d'étât. The first gang killed a policeman and an elderly
lady, but the second group, who were armed with knives,
almost severed his head from his body.
Colonel Gaddafi openly admitted his determination to hunt
down and kill the "terrorist stray dogs" of the Libyan opposition
abroad, his gunmen murdering the most prominent of his
opponents in Rome. Israel arranged the murder of the
Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader, Fathi Shkaki, shot dead by
motorcyclists in Malta, and the assassination of Abu Jihad,
Yasser Arafat's military commander, in Tunis.
But the policy has its devastating failures. In Norway, an Israeli
murder squad hunting a leader of the Black September
movement shot down an innocent Moroccan waiter. Some of
the murderers were found hiding in the home of an Israeli
diplomat in Oslo.
When Israeli agents tried to kill a Hamas leader in the streets of
Amman by injecting him with poison, the victim was saved when
King Hussein of Jordan telephoned President Clinton to warn
that he would break off diplomatic relations with Israel unless
the Israelis provided the antidote. Sheikh Yassin, the Hamas
leader, was released from an Israeli prison by Benjamin
Netanyahu, then Prime Minister, to express regret to the king.
Today, Israel's policy of murdering its militant opponents in the
West Bank and Gaza – "targeted killings" in Israel's own
exclusive lexicon – is in full swing. Telephone bombs,
booby-trapped cars, helicopter gunships and murder squads
have liquidated at least 60 Palestinian "activists" and bombers,
with the usual crop of innocent children and women. Palestinians
have privately threatened prominent Israeli agents with the same
tactics and one was murdered by his own collaborator contact.
During Lebanon's 16-year civil war, there were many successful
attempts to assassinate heads of state and others. The Druze
leader, Kemal Jumblatt, the Prime Minister, Rashid Karami, the
President, Rene Mouawad, and the Christian Maronite
politician Dany Chamoun were all murdered by gunmen; in
Jumblatt's case, many Lebanese blamed Syrian agents for the
assassination, while the others may have been killed by
right-wing Christian organisations.
Egypt has sent police death squads into the Nile valley south of
Assiout, where Islamist followers were later shot dead,
according to their families, in front of their homes. Syria – faced
with an Islamic uprising in the city of Hama in 1982 – did, quite
literally, "smoke out" its Muslim enemies. In medieval tunnels
beneath the city, presidential Defence Brig-ades fired smoke
grenades at insurgents, forcing them to emerge through drain
covers, where they were gunned down with civilians hiding in
nearby homes. The Muslim Brotherhood of Syria was referred
to by Hafiz al-Assad, then the President, as "terrorists" – the
same word used by President Mubarak about Egyptian
militants, and by the Algerian government about the Islamists
whom it has been fighting for a decade.
In Algeria's case, there is growing evidence of government
involvement in death squads and mass slaughter. Throughout the
Middle East, the policy of liquidation – seeking enemies "dead
or alive" – has always been accompanied by torture, human
rights violations and the killing of large numbers of innocents. In
almost every case, state-sponsored murders were justified by
governments on the basis that many civilians had died at the
hands of the insurgents/militants/guerrillas/terrorists, and that
shoot-to-kill policy was "the only language they understand".
Almost all Middle East governments adopting these methods have used the same language. The former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin spoke of "rooting out the evil weed of terrorism" in Lebanon. Mr Mubarak used similar words after Islamist gunmen murdered western tourists in Egypt (and tried to kill Mr Mubarak as well). The Syrians, the Egyptians, the Algerians – even the Iranians when confronting their own "mujahedin kalq" opposition – have all spoken of "victory over terrorism". Only the Syrians appear to have been successful. Their campaign cost the lives of up to 20,000 Syrians.
Fortunately, *we* can do it the right way. Thoughtfully.
was-salaam,
ankaboot
1 Posted on 09/19/2001 15:48:57 PDT by ankaboot (muslims@earthlink.net)
I am so incredibly sick of reading Robert Fisk's shit.
2 Posted on 09/19/2001 15:51:19 PDT by Lizzy W
September 18, 2001, 07:38 AM AMMAN (AFP)
- Israeli tanks fired at a Jordanian company's US-financed construction site in the West Bank town of Jenin on Monday, wounding two Palestinians and causing heavy damage, the company said. "The worksite, where Jordanian flags are clearly visible, was shelled by Israeli tanks for almost 20 minutes," Luay Omaish, a vice president of Site Group, told AFP.
The firm carries out hydraulic projects in the West Bank financed by the US Agency for International Development (USAID).
"Eighteen workers were at the site, which is surrounded by barbed wire, when the shelling took place. They (the Israelis) fired directly at the caravans and the equipment," charged Omaish, who is based in Amman.
3 Posted on 09/19/2001 15:55:14 PDT by Samaritan
SMOKE 'EM OUT!!
4 Posted on 09/19/2001 16:00:00 PDT by overseas_patriot
Has this guy slept since 9/11, or has he spent every moment propagandizing on behalf of mass murderers?
5 Posted on 09/19/2001 16:04:56 PDT by BurkeanCyclist
I guess it's typical of Fiske that he prefers the random homicides of the Palestinians to the targeted actions of the Israelis. The Israelis try to minimize any collateral damage, while the Pals maximize the destruction.
6 Posted on 09/19/2001 16:09:26 PDT by JAWs
My swan song.
Last night I posted a transcript of a thoughtful interview with Noam Chomsky about the relationship of America and the Muslim world and the perils of our President's chosen course in response to the terrorist attack.
All trace of that posting is now gone from here.
I can not abide by this kind of blatant un-American censorship by anyone and will no longer contribute to FreeRepublic. If you are listening, Big Brother, you can now revoke my worthless posting privileges thank you.
7 Posted on 09/19/2001 16:24:17 PDT by virgil123
If you are more concerned with Israel than the US at this point... comfort yourself and check out their random attacks beginning in 1925.
8 Posted on 09/19/2001 16:28:52 PDT by Samaritan
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
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