Palestinian group say US assassinated Abul Abbas

Palestinian group says U.S. assassinated Abul Abbas; his widow holds America responsible
by Hussein Dakroub -- Associated Press
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
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A Palestinian guerrilla group accused the United States of assassinating its leader, Abul Abbas, and his widow said Wednesday that America must account for his death since he was in its custody.
(...)
Abbas, 56, died Monday in U.S. detention in Iraq. He was the mastermind of the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro passenger ship, during which a wheelchair-bound Jewish American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, was thrown overboard after being shot.
(...)
"The assassination of commander Abul Abbas by the U.S. occupation forces in Iraq after arresting him without any legal justification since the first days of their occupation of Iraq confirms beyond any doubt their absolute hostility to our people and exposes their designs which conform with the Zionist entity," the statement said.
Other Palestinian officials also blamed the United States.
"I think that when the Americans arrested him and he died now in their jail, it's a crime and the Americans are responsible for the death of Abul Abbas," said Jibril Rajoub, security adviser to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
(...)
His widow, Reem Nimer, said she wanted the Americans to explain how he died.
"Abul Abbas was in their detention centers. Since he was detained by them (U.S. forces), they are directly responsible for him," Nimer said in an interview with Associated Press Television News.
"They know how Abul Abbas died a martyr. Was he deprived of a medicine which led to a deterioration of his health? Or did he suffer a sudden stroke? Or was he tortured? We have the right to ask all these questions and they (Americans) must answer them," Nimer said, tears in her eyes.
"The Americans are responsible for him -- morally and physically. They are the only ones who know how Abul Abbas died," she added.
(...)
"The Zionist and American propaganda accused him of being a terrorist while he was a patriotic man committed to his national cause," Nimer said. "He was not a terrorist. He was a fighter who struggled for the liberation of his country."
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Read the rest here.
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Note to mods: I modified the headline to fit.

off a ship into the water is juuuust fine.

This speaks for itself.

I wonder if his widow, Reem Nimer, ever gave a rats ass
about Leon Klinghoffer.

Lord knows her soon-to-be maggot infested dead husband
didnt give a shit.

If my GOVERMENT kills someone I am more horrified than if say Citizen X does - Citizen X is not paid for or voted into power by me, the government is.

But we were supposed to be a nation of laws. As most everyone knows by now, the nation of laws thing is out the window. Now we're run by a government of terrorists.

If Abbas was tortured to death or executed by the US, we're just as guilty for that death as he was for the Achille Lauro. There's no real wiggle room.

Summary executions and torture are wrong...they're wrong when applied to good people and they're wrong when applied to bad people.

That's why we have an entire branch of the government called the judiciary.

I did qualify with an "if", because I don't know one way or another, although I have my suspicions, due to our recent track record.

But what information do you have that let's you know he died of natural causes?

And you know this...how?

is that Abbas was "neglected" in prison, and that they didn't give him hi medication for a heart condition, leading to his death. He was in contact by mail with his supporters in the PA.

How is his death so important to them, I am wondering. This terrorist is getting full attention from all over the Middle East Muslim nations. He hi-jacked a ship and terrorized all the passengers, murdering at least one. That is he was the mastermind behind the hi-jacking of the ship. He wasn't actually on the ship. He is more important than all the Hamas activists in Jenin or anywhere else. Maybe as important as Arafat.

He traveled freely to the occupied territories the last decade before being captured in Iraq.

that was an agreement with the US, not Israel.

As Abbas was not responsible for the death of Israelis, directly, he was not sought after by Israel.

Abbas has been sentenced to five life terms in absentia in Italy on 1986, and was also wanted by the United States.

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/16/sprj.irq.abbas.arrested/

Erakat pointed to the Oslo accords, signed by Israel and the PLO and witnessed by the United States, Russia, Jordan, Egypt, Norway and the European Union, of which Italy is a member.
Ibid

Israel was a signer of the accord. The us, with the other nations was a witness. The US can indict him, on the basis of that information. (there may be other parts to the agreement, but that is what was reported a year ago.)

But his last recorded act of terruh (sic) was almost 20 years ago.

Now, some here say Rachel Corrie acted foolishly and deserved to die because she was so confrontational. Others view her as a hero and victim, but some equate her with a terrorist deserving death.

In the spirit of the recent anti-Corrie comments, since reports confirmed that Klinghoffer ran his mouth off at the Palestinians on the Achille Largo, he was being confrontational and deserved what happened to him.

Also, in the spirit of the *splat* comments about Corrie:

Blub...blub...blub, Leon. Take a deep breath and try to float. Swim with your arms.

LOL.

at best, making fun of a drowned crippled old man really helps the pancake.

Why not just "old wheel-chair bound guy". Does the victim's religion make it more abhorrent ?

It's a hate crime, so that does make it worse.

killing a Jew.

But killing a Moslem civilian or two or a thousand is just part of the war on terruh.

I understand that a hate crime occurs when someone is attacked because he is a member of a group. But when that group is more or less at war with the attacker's group, I'm inclined to view the situation differently. If a neo-Nazi here in America were to attack a Jew, I'd put that in the hate crime category, because the Jews of America have not evicted neo-Nazis from their homeland (wherever that might be).
But when there's a war going on, I don't think the hate crime concept applies. I have sympathy for all wheelchair-bound people who are thrown into the sea, and I leave it at that.

n/t

Yeah, executing prisoners without a trial is good work indeed.

Good riddance.

Was he convicted of terrorism?

Once he was in US custody, he should have been tried. There is no need for extra-judicial assasination unless there is no other choice.

I....I....I....forget it.

I'm physically dizzy.

and sentenced to life in absentia.

Abbas has been sentenced to five life terms in absentia in Italy on 1986, and was also wanted by the United States.
http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/04/16/sprj.irq.abbas.arrested/

Palestinian militants under Abbas' command stormed the Achille Lauro in October 1985.

The Achille Lauro was an Italian cruise ship. No Israelis were on board, apparently. Klinghoffer was used as an example to scare the other passengers into submission, most likely. He may have been more outspoken, as they claim he made trouble, and most likely he knew more about his captors than the others did.

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No matter what, a defenseless person should not be murdered. Rachel Corrie at least had a choice to stay clear of the bulldozer.

While Klinghoffer should have remained silent for his own sake, his murder was undeniably intentional.

Handicapped people have the right to be on a cruise ship, an airplane or a bus.

So what if the US never convicted him? He should serve out 5 life sentences before being released. The agreement was that Israel would not prosecute for the PLO crimes, not the US. Italy didn't want him in their country, but justice should be served.

On edit: corrected a word.

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Mock the drowning of an innocent man in a wheelchair. Please!

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the death of Rachel Corrie, only the notions of those less pragmatic that glorify her and believe she was murdered.

I must note this is the first time I have seen the deliberate murder of an innocent being disregarded. I will leave it at that.

Hey, maybe they thought Klinghoffer knew how to swim. :)

I'm just be a pragmatist here, like you.

the murder of an innocent man. I am repulsed.

He might have ran over Abbas's foot with his wheelchair or farted in his general direction.

What's the matter? You don't care for my hyperbole?

If you want to know my actual feelings, I think Klinghoffer deserved death as much as Corrie deserved death--and neither of them deserved death.

-

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between the deliberate murder of an innocent and an accident stemming from an operation against killers. Very sad for you.

Accident, my ass. You don't accidentally run over someone in an orange vest with a bulldozer.

While you may not charge Abbas with the crime of murder in this case, as he wasn't on ship and didn't order the murder (apparently) he was still the master mind of a major highjacking, and so should be gotten for that crime, as the Italian court did.

While the Italians hadn't asked for extradition before his death, there was still time to consider returning him to Italy to serve his sentence.

As Klinghoffer was American, and there were other American passenger aboard, the US could also prosecute, it seems obvious. I don't read anything in this report by the New York Times saying that the US couldn't hold him for that crime, even if he was pardoned during Oslo.

Mr. Abbas was said to renounce terrorism after the Oslo accords between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization. He was granted amnesty under an Oslo-related deal in 1996 and left Baghdad, where had been living, to return to his home in the Gaza Strip.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/10/politics/10ABBA.html


That hijacking was less than 20 years ago, 18 years to the time of his arrest. The conviction in Italy would be valid, in any account.

About Klinghoffer, he says:

"Of course, it wasn't my fault," he said during the interview. "I didn't shoot the man. But he was a civilian, and I ask myself, `What was his fault?' It is no different whoever the civilian who is killed may be — whether you drop an atomic bomb on Hiroshima or Nagasaki or you kill some innocent person who is walking down a road."
Ibid.

Except that it was intentional, not accidental.

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wouldn't you say? I don't see how his murder could be called collateral damage.

Do you think Klinghoffer was paying for the crimes of the US?

Collateral damage occurs during an intentional military strike at a military target. Neither Klinghoffer or the Achille Laura were military targets.

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The logic of terrorists is that they have the right or even obligation to kill innocent people who belong to a cultural group that they oppose. There may in fact be no actual crime committed by the group, but they perceive it to be so. The existence of the group is enough. OBL and Islamic terrorists do not kill to establish a form of justice other than that the injustice is their perceived humiliation in the eyes of their opponents.


Did Hirohito attack the US and kill innocent people? Yes, we all know that Pearl Harbor was the beginning of WWII for the US.

"I see the "Jewish mafia" has been alerting my posts. And I thought the "Gay mafia" was bad!!!"

memorable

.

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good luck.

but I don't see a death sentence in there.

Once he was in captivity, there was no reason to kill him.

So was Sharon. And Begin. And Peres. Or, if you prefer, we can call them war criminals.

I know Shamir and Begin were terrorists and Sharon supported a massacre of Palestinians but what has Peres done?

Oh yeah, he's the "good cop" who surrounded himself with the bad cops like Shamir, Begin, Rabin, etc...

Moshe Sharett on Shimon Peres: "I have stated that I totally and utterly reject (Shimon) Peres and consider his rise to prominence a malignant, immoral disgrace. I will rend my clothes in mourning for the State if I see him become a minister in the Israeli government."

Ouch.

n/t

Don't you Canucks wish you lived here rather than in Canada (America Junior?)

Hey, maybe the Royal Canadian Mounted Police should start executing terrorists without a trial. Though, doesn't Canada have some law prohibiting the assasination of other leaders like Ariel Sharon?

Who wishes I lived in Canada.:)