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Terrorism

Al Qaeda joins the party in Hamastan

Abbas admits Osama bin Laden's group active in PA areas


By Ryan Jones
March 02, 2006

Not wanting to miss out on all the fun, Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist network has set up camp in the Gaza Strip and possibly Judea and Samaria in order to better participate in the local anti-Jewish orgy of violence, admitted PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas in remarks published Thursday.

Speaking to the London-based Arabic daily al-Hayat Abbas said:

"We have indications about a presence of Al-Qaida in Gaza and the (West) Bank. This is intelligence information. We have not yet reached the point of arrests."

Considering the long failure of both Abbas and his predecessor, Yasser Arafat, to put away members of groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the incarceration of the newly arrived killers is not expected anytime soon.

To the contrary, local Al Qaeda cells are likely to find themselves operating with little or no hindrance after Abbas transfers control of the "Palestinian" security forces - all of them - to Hamas sometime later this month.

Confirming the worst fears of Israel and its allies in Washington, Abbas stated:

"We'll grant Hamas authority over the Palestinians' national security because we need to have one body controling the situation to ensure security. I don't intend to deprive Hamas of what I demanded in the past from Yasser Arafat."

Following Israel's retreat from the Gaza last summer, defense officials warned Al Qaeda was making use of the ensuing anarchy along the Sinai border to infilatrate the Strip. At the time Abbas and his regime, which had pledged to control the border, vehemently denied the claim.

In October 2005, Al Qaeda's "Palestine branch" published a pamphlet announcing its presence and spelling out its aims in the area.

The Palestinian Arabs have had a long love affair with the chief enemies of Israel and America, most notably former Iraqi dictator Sadadam Hussein, who publicly compensated the families of "suicide" bombers, and bin Laden's Al Qaeda.

As the towers of the World Trade Center collapsed and the Pentagon burned on September 11, 2002, residents of PA localities from Jenin to Ramallah to Hebron to Gaza erupted in massive street celebrations to mark the slaughter of more than 3,000 Americans.

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