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Politics : Idea Of The Day -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (40879)	10/7/2001 10:12:05 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 50167

The 100th suicide bomber By Amos Harel Ahmed abd al-Muneim Daraghmeh, 17, an Islamic Jihad activist who carried out the attack at Kibbutz Shluhot yesterday, killing Yair Mordechai, has the dubious "honor" of being the one-hundredth Palestinian suicide bomber, according to Israeli security sources. Thirty of these suicide attacks have come within the past year. This number of suicide attacks, beginning in 1993, is unprecedented in its scope. The model was imported indirectly from Iran, where suicide missions were used during its war against Iraq. But the phenomenon of suicide attacks reached its highest level of operational effectiveness in Lebanon after the Israeli invasion in 1982. The major thrust was provided by the Hezbollah, soon after the Shiite organization was formed, following the suicide attacks against French and American troops in Beirut (killing more than 300 people) and the attack against IDF forces in Tyre. Still, compared to the Palestinians, there were relatively few volunteers in Lebanon for suicide missions - during its 17-year struggle against Israel, Hezbollah dispatched only 10 suicide bombers. The number of Palestinian terrorists prepared to sacrifice their lives in order to blow up Israeli citizens, including women and children, has won the admiration of Hezbollah leaders and stirred a wave of support in the Arab world. A year into the intifada, there has been a great increase in the number of Palestinians who now identify with these suicide missions. (Some 75 percent of the Palestinians expressed support for suicide attacks in the latest surveys.) It may be that the Palestinian suicide bombers were also a source of inspiration and model for Osama bin Laden's followers, who perpetrated the most dramatic suicide attack of all - in New York and Washington. Here are the main statistics on the 100 Palestinian suicide bombers: l Of the 100 suicide bombers, 75 were killed while perpetrating 67 different missions. (In several attacks, like the one at Beit Lid in 1995, several suicide bombers participated in the same mission.) The other 25 bombers were either intercepted by security forces before carrying out their attack or were captured after their explosives failed to detonate. Seven of the 30 suicide bombers sent on missions during the past year were arrested. l 66 belonged to Hamas, 34 were members of Islamic Jihad l 67 were between the ages of 17 to 23 and most of the others were also under the age of 30. l 54 came from Gaza, 45 from the West Bank and one was an Israeli Arab. (The Israeli Arab, who carried out the attack in Nahariya last month, was also an exception in his advanced age - 53.) l 23 had elementary education; 31 were high school graduates and 46 had higher education l 86 were bachelors and 14 were married Despite the steep rise in the number of attacks during the past year, the profile of the suicide bombers has largely remained the same, with the average age of 21. But the Islamic Jihad has lately begun sending teenagers on suicide missions. At least four of the bombers dispatched by the Jenin branch of the organization in recent months were aged 17. One of the four was Daraghmeh, the suicide bomber at Kibbutz Shluhot. The three others were arrested on their way to blow themselves up in Afula, Haifa and Tel Teumim (in the Beit She'an Valley). The interrogation of the three apprehended Islamic Jihad bombers revealed that they had received little training and were supplied with faulty bombs. Indeed, the organization has few "successes" to its credit. Many of the bombing missions during the past year ended with the Islamic Jihad terrorist killing himself without managing to injure a single Israelis. Hamas operatives are generally better prepared for their missions. As a result, their attacks are usually more "effective" and deadly. Still, despite their great readiness to die in missions to kill Jews, there remains a gaping difference between the Palestinian suicide bombers and bin Laden's bombers, who demonstrated much greater planning and sophistication in their attacks in New York and Washington last month. Israeli security forces are concerned that the inspiration and model for emulation may now work in the opposite direction: Palestinian or Lebanese organizations may try to bring to their fight against Israel the type of sophisticated preparations and methods employed by bin Laden in America.

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (40879)	10/7/2001 10:57:14 PM
From: sandeep	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 50167

Are you also proud of the pakistani terrorists who go into Kashmir and kill hundreds of innocent people?

To: IQBAL LATIF who wrote (40879)	10/8/2001 2:31:16 AM
From: BubbaFred	Respond to of 50167

Look at this, Ike. I am not surprised, but just wonder what took them so long to show their true color? "ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Some of Pakistan's most influential clerics swiftly denounced U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan's capital Sunday, calling them an attack against Islam and grounds for holy war. One organization summoned Muslims to ``extend full support to their Afghan brothers.'' "After Sunday's attacks, the influential Afghan Defense Council, based in the eastern Pakistani city of Lahore, issued a call for holy war." dailynews.netscape.com We in the United States are so fortunate that our founding fathers had the foresight, and made sure there is separation of State and Church. Thus allowing US policies mainly in the middle grounds with only short periods of mild extremist paths. There is a built-in process for self corrections. It is a pitty that the people in some regions of the world, Pakistan is one such case, is under such religious cleric control. They sure know how to use religion (in this case Islam) for population control, and to ensure the status quo will remain in perpetuity. Under such system progress and well being of the population tend to be intentionally suppressed. The ruling elite wants to make sure that 95% of population's reason of existence is to support the livelihood of the other 5%. The elites typically consist of the highly influential large landowners and the Muslim clerics. How else, in such society, can Benazir Bhutto (a woman) become the Prime Minister and there may be progress for women's role in the society that is limited in the Karachi area but nowhere else? The rest of the country, including Lahore, Peshawar and Islamabad are still under religious cleric influence. No wonder there is such a huge disconnect and it has been and will continue to be such an impossibly arduous task for any type of transformation that can benefit the whole country. Yet, I should mention the 150 million population that probably need such system to maintain adequate social control. Nevertheless, it is much much worse in Afghanistan. On the lighter side, I recall several years ago when fundamental clerics in Indonesia wanted to prohibit alcohol consumption in that country. The Moslem clerics there do not weild adequate power, and their proposal was laughed out of the assembly. The reason for dismissing the proposal: Several of Indonesia's most favorite foods, that have existed before Islam arrived to that country, are produced by fermentation process that results in nice cooling effect to the palate and body during hot afternoons. In anothre case, just a few years ago there was a proposal to bring English to the public education system in Pakistan. That was snuffed out under "traditional values and potential lost of traditional language". That was such a farce because the government exams beyond peons levels are given in English. Hence only the priviledged few (i.e. 5%) can afford to send their children to private schools taught predominantly in English.