Posted on 10/09/2004 6:22:47 PM PDT by FairOpinion
CLARE SHORT, the former cabinet minister, has provoked outrage by describing the cause behind Osama Bin Laden’s terrorism as “just”. In an interview with a Dubai newspaper, the MP, who resigned from the cabinet after the Iraq invasion last year, makes a fierce attack on the prime minister.
However, her most contentious remarks were those in support of Bin Laden’s cause.
In the interview with the English-language Gulf News, Short said she had been reading a book by a US intelligence analyst that painted a sympathetic picture of the Al-Qaeda chief.
“The author says Osama Bin Laden considers it a war, a defensive jihad, because the people in the Middle East are being crushed and destroyed and their resources, their oil, misused and they have got to defend their civilisation and their religion,” she said.
“So I think the killing of civilians is always wrong, all the Prophet Muhammad’s teachings said it was wrong, but I think the cause is just.”
Short saw little difference between the actions of British and US troops and terrorists, claiming allied forces had deliberately killed innocent people. “I think all of us should criticise the immoral message of targeting innocent civilians and it’s clear the coalition has done that to innocent civilians in Iraq as well,” she said.
Parts of the interview, in which Short compares Iraqi insurgents to French resistance fighters in the second world war, appeared last week. However, The Sunday Times has now obtained a copy of the full interview.
Short makes a strident attack on Tony Blair. “The mood of the cabinet in the build-up to the Iraq war was very worried. People kept saying we must go through the UN and Blair kept saying, yes of course, yes. He gave us a whole series of half-truths and deceptions . . . He gave his word to support (George) Bush and at the same time he misled his party, his cabinet, parliament and country into thinking that he wanted to avoid war.”
Her comments have been denounced by the Tories, who accused her of encouraging more terrorist attacks.
Short was unavailable for comment yesterday.
Britain’s Muslim community is bracing itself for a growing backlash from right-wing extremists after the murder of Ken Bigley, writes Abul Taher. Despite its efforts to save Bigley’s life by sending representatives to Baghdad, the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB), the country’s biggest Islamic organisation, has received hundreds of abusive e-mails. In Birmingham, police have been investigating several bomb threats to the city’s central mosque.
Iqbal Sacranie, the council’s general secretary, and other senior officials have received death threats. An MCB spokesman said: “Some were from individuals who have cryptic e-mail addresses, and you can tell that others are orchestrated by organisations because all use similar phrases and words.”
Despite such threats, Muslim leaders in Liverpool feel the crisis has strengthened links between the mainstream Islamic and Christian communities. Prayers were said yesterday for Bigley and his family at the city’s two mosques.
How can anyone say that the terrorists have a "just cause"?!
"Short saw little difference between the actions of British and US troops and terrorists, claiming allied forces had deliberately killed innocent people."
She and the Democrats have a lot in common.
So now Short is justifying the 9/11 attack. She has absolutely gone off the deep end.
Is it any wonder Lefties are openly voicing support for Al Qaeda?
I think I predicted this would happen on or about 9-13-2001.
It must be her maternal instincts coming out.
The world has turned on the liberals all over ..... they are coming out of the cracks and holes in the wall.... between Bush and Howard..... they can see their lives changing ...... they are SCARED........ the more you see of this nonsense the more we have them on the run.....
i love it ..... smell the fear........ its delicious...
Uh Ohhhh! Did anyone check the oil voucher list for the name Clare Short? Seems here is a gal who loves sheikhs.
yeah, well, i don't suppose any of those middle eastern people are SELLING the oil, are they? it's just those who are BUYING who are at fault! geez.
These people are absolutely insane. Twisted with hate and a totally perverted sense of right and wrong.
This is stupid writing.
The author she refers to is merely pointing out that OBL considers his cause to be just, a no doubt true statement, and one I agree with.
That doesn't mean the author of this nameless book agrees with OBL that his cause is just.
Ray McGovern: The CIA According to Anonymous
... By RAY McGOVERN. The book has an apt title: "Imperial Hubris: Why the West is Losing
the War on Terror." And the author spells out "why." We are losing because ...
www.counterpunch.org/mcgovern06292004.html - 101k - Oct 9, 2004 - Cached - Similar pages
It only is "their oil" because we gave it to them. We discovered it, we drilled for it, we invented how to use, and we gave them control over it because that's what our laws called for us to do.
They have no moral right whatsoever to the wealth generated from the oil. They haven't earned or created it.
3000 lives on her head.
Nah. she could run for office in Washington State.
The liberal mind is astonishing. What good is their oil if left in the ground? They control the price and we pay their price. How is that "misusing" their oil?
It appears Baghdad Annie here overlooks that the prime oppressors and abusers of the people of the Middle East are those peoples' own governments...Is there any Middle Eastern government (save, perhaps, Israel) that is not corrupt, dictatorial, and completely apathetic about improving the lives of their average citizens? Dubai, maybe...?
Spoken like a true Objectivist.
Clare Short is a vile woman who needs to join her hero, Osama Bin Laden, in Hell.
Lubricating prophylactics?
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