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Politics : WAR on Terror. Will it engulf the Entire Middle East? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: David Alon who wrote (5589)	11/22/2002 4:12:21 PM
From: Haim R. Branisteanu	Respond to of 32591

Lebanese police say American missionary's slaying possibly linked to anti-US sentiments Nov. 22, 2002 BEIRUT, Lebanon - Lebanese investigators were on Friday examining a possible link between the killing of an American missionary and the rising anti-US sentiments in the Middle East. A Palestinian guerrilla official, meanwhile, said her murder was caused by her Christian evangelist activity in a Muslim town. The US Embassy, however, said it was too early to speculate on the motive behind the first killing of an American in Lebanon in over a decade. Bonnie Penner, 31, an American woman who worked as a nurse at a missionary clinic caring for needy Lebanese and Palestinians, was shot to death Thursday in the southern port city of Sidon. Investigators believe a lone gunman knocked at the door of the clinic and shot Penner with a 7mm pistol. Her body was found lying in a pool of blood with three gunshot wounds in the head, police officers said. "Investigators are concentrating on the possibility that the killing of the American lady came as a result of the mounting anti-American sentiments in the Middle East," a Lebanese security official said Friday on condition of anonymity. Anger has been rising among Arabs over US support for Israel in its conflict with Palestinians and Washington's threat to wage war on Iraq. The Unity Center where Penner worked also has been criticized in Sidon, a predominantly Muslim city, for trying to convert young Muslims to Christianity. Penner, whose body was still in a Sidon hospital for an autopsy, was married to Briton Gary Witherall. She was a missionary for the Christian and Missionary Alliance in Lebanon. Penner was originally from California but grew up in Washington state. She took a degree in international ministries from Moody Bible College in Chicago, where she met Witherall. Witherall said in an interview with London's The Times newspaper that he forgave his wife's killer. "God led us to Lebanon, and we knew that we might die," Witherall, 36, said in the interview published Friday. "I forgive anyone who did that. It doesn't take the pain. It's a costly forgiveness ... it cost my wife," he said, adding that the couple didn't care about politics and wanted to help the poor in southern Lebanon. Penner's killing was the first of an American in more than 10 years in Lebanon, which saw many attacks against Americans in the 1980s during the country's sectarian civil war. On Nov. 12, amid rising anti-US sentiment, small bombs exploded outside three American fast-food restaurants in Lebanon, causing damage but no casualties. A senior Palestinian guerrilla official denied Friday that the Ein el-Hilweh Palestinian refugee camp near Sidon, where anti-US extremist groups have taken shelter, had anything to do with the killing. He linked the slaying to the Unity Center's Christian activities. "The killing was the result of a hostile Muslim reaction in Sidon to the preaching and indoctrination lessons the center was giving to Muslim youths," the official said, also speaking on condition of anonymity. Among the Muslim extremist Palestinian factions in Ein el-Hilweh, Lebanon's largest refugee camp, is Asbat al-Ansar, which is on the US State Department's list of terrorist organizations. "It's too early in the investigation to speculate" on the motive behind the killing, Candace Putnam, the US Embassy's public affairs officer, said Friday. The US Embassy also issued a warning on its web site asking Americans - estimated to number about 10,000 but who are mostly of Lebanese origin - "to remain vigilant with regard to their personal security and to exercise caution."