The Saudi Arabian government provides cash
payments of $5,333 to each family of "martyrs"
killed while trying to murder Israelis, and a
telethon on Saudi Arabian government-
controlled television in April 2002 has been
"raising money for the Palestinian uprising"--and
it has raised $100-million so far.
A poem by a prominent Saudi Arabian
diplomat praising terrorists aroused international
criticism in April 2002. The poem, titled "The
Martyrs," was authored by the Saudi Arabian
ambassador to Great Britain, Ghazi Algosaibi
and appeared in the London-based Arab
newspaper Al Hayat on April 13. It read, in part:
Allah is witness that you are martyrs / The
prophets are witness ... and the holy men / You
died to honor My God's word / In lands where
the dearest are prisoners ... Ayat, the bride of
loftiness [18 year-old Palestinian Arab suicide
bomber Ayat Akhras] / She embraced death with
a smile while the leaders are running away from
death / Doors of heaven are opened for her ...
We complained to the idols of a White House
whose heart is filled with darkness.1
Although such blatant glorification of terrorists
is repulsive and merited the criticism it received,
the critics should not have been surprised.
Ambassador Algosaibi's sentiments are
completely consistent with the Saudi Arabian
government's long-standing support --political as
well as financial-- for anti-Israeli and anti-
American terrorist groups.
The Saudi Arabian government's refusal to fire
the ambassador, or to reprimand him, or even to
dissociate itself from the pro-terrorist poem
speaks volumes about the Saudi leadership's own
attitude towards terrorism.
zoa.org
I see no calls by the shrubbies to swing an invasion into Saudi Arabia for the exact claim made as a compelling, irrefutable, unavoidable reason to invade Iraq. |
