Posted on 11/13/2005 9:38:07 AM PST by 1066AD
Back to Story - Help Woman bomber makes confession By Suleiman al-Khalidi 12 minutes ago
An Iraqi woman in Jordanian custody said in a televised confession on Sunday she had tried to blow herself up alongside her husband in an Amman hotel last week, one of three attacks that killed more than 50 people.
"We went into the hotel. He (my husband) took a corner and I took another. There was a wedding in the hotel. There were women and children," the woman, who police identified as Sajida al-Rishawi, said on Jordan's state-run television.
"My husband executed the attack. I tried to detonate and it failed. People started running and I ran with them," Rishawi, wearing a white headscarf, black gown and what looked like a bomb strapped to her body said during a brief recorded television appearance.
Three suicide bombers belonging to al Qaeda in Iraq killed more than 50 people at three luxury Amman hotels on Wednesday, in one of Jordan's worst attacks.
Officials said Rishawi's husband was a bomber who died in one of three simultaneous attacks at the Hyatt, Radisson and Days Inn hotels.
It was not clear under which circumstances Rishawi gave her confession. She spoke with an Iraqi accent and said she came from the Iraqi city of Ramadi.
International human rights groups say Jordanian police extract confessions from detainees under duress, but the woman spoke calmly. At one point she was shown standing up and modeling with what looked like a bomb strapped to her body.
Officials said Rishawi is the sister of Samir Mubarak Atrous al-Rishawi, a now-dead former senior aide to Jordanian-born al Qaeda in Iraq leader, Abu Musab al Zarqawi. Al Qaeda in Iraq has claimed responsibility for the bombings.
Al Qaeda in Iraq said in an Internet statement that a married couple and two other men -- all Iraqis -- had carried out the bombings at hotels frequented by Western security contractors who operate out of Iraq and by diplomats.
Most of those who died were Jordanians attending weddings.
Jordanian Deputy Prime Minister Marwan al-Muasher told reporters all four bombers were from Iraq's western desert province of Anbar, a Sunni guerrilla stronghold bordering Jordan. Ramadi is the capital of Anbar province.
He said the attackers entered Jordan four days before the blasts, rented an apartment at a middle-class neighborhood in Amman and used suicide belts packed with 5-10 kg (11-22 lbs) of explosives.
Muasher named the three dead bombers as Safar Mohammed Ali, Rawad Jasim Mohammed Abid and Rishawi's husband as Ali Hussein al-Shimeri. He played down any Jordanian involvement.
ANTI-TERROR LEGISLATION
Hundreds of anti-riot police beefed up security at hotels and shopping malls across Amman. Interior Minister Awni Yarfas said the government would tighten anti-terrorist laws.
"We are speeding up passing an anti-terror law soon to indict anyone who supports terror either through advocacy and incitement either by word or action," he told Reuters.
Jordan, a close U.S. ally and one of two Arab nations to have peace treaties with Israel, had previously been spared al Qaeda-linked attacks that have hit other countries.
But authorities had warned that Zarqawi, who has a $25 million bounty on his head, had sent jihadists to strike targets outside Iraq, including Jordan.
Jordan is home to a large exiled Iraqi community, many of whom fled the war and its aftermath to settle here, creating a real estate boom that has boosted Jordan's aid-dependant economy. It is also a hub for Iraq's reconstruction efforts.
But Amman's support for the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq has angered some Jordanians, many of whom are of Palestinian origin and are against U.S. policies in the region.
The blasts have sparked outrage in this small kingdom of about five million people. A few thousand people held a candle-light vigil outside the Hyatt on Saturday and chanted support for the King.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is touring the Middle East and Asia, was expected to make a previously unscheduled stopover in Jordan on Monday.
(Additional reporting by Ibon Villelabeitia and Dina Wakeel)
Torture the bitch.
Is that the terrorist group who took Israeli hostages at the 1972 Olympics? I assume they're big-time heroes in the Islamic world.
"Would a woman martyr get 72 men virgins?"
She gets to be one of the virgins the male suicide bomber's are promised.
Yeh, the Jordanians are not real nice to traitors. Good for them.
....real professional looking isn't it????
At the very least, insert one large stick of explosives up her butt with a long fuse lite her up she can talk to Islamic gods while trying to outrun the blast.
The great majority of the world doesn't have any air conditioning. Our own U.S. military goes weeks (or months) at a time in very hot or cold conditions. That hardly qualifies as "torture," unless the word has no meaning.
No
It represents the iron fist response of the former King Hussein of Jordan to Palestinian terrorist attempts to take over Jordan in 1970. He killed thousands of them and expelled them to Lebanon.
King Hussein held a press conference and declared that there was now "absolute quiet" in the kingdom. Seventy-two Palestinians who were afraid of the Jordanian soldiers chose to undertake the most humiliating action possible for them: They fled to the West Bank and surrendered to IDF soldiers.
You are way too late.
You do realize that our troops put up with quite a bit of physical and mental discomfort, as do their families. So does most football players at practice. There is nothing inherently wrong with discomfort.
We should not torture for the sake of revenge on our enemies, or as an act of retribution,
Of course we shouldn't do it for revenge-- we should do what it takes to get information about who else is trying to kill us next.
Yeah! Let John McCain question her...Bet she would talk up a breeze...not.
As "they" say "looks may be deceiving". 3 out of 4 went off as planned. I don't think there are that many Americans who could get a bunch of malleable explosive, pack it, wire it, hook up the triggering device and set it off.
I'd bet a lot of kids growing up in the 40-50's could because they used to make their own "fireworks" with caps, black cats and M-80's... it's the trigger that might confuse somebody and kill them as they hooked it up.
at least that's what I've heard. ;-)
I'm sure it was said while getting the Shiite beaten out of her, which is something naughty Americans must never do to terrorists/s
In another Post I just read the woman was blown up whats going on?
What about screws and nails? Also, did the ball bearings have any hepatitis infected blood on them?
Why should Americans do that when we can outsource it.
"Why did you run? You were supposed to blow yourself up and die too, you coward!"
While I doubt that she will ever read your words, I believe that we should do all we can to support failed suicide bombers and to try to rehabilitate them. This will eventually lead to more of them defecting to our side.
If they did "profiling" I guess they have to turn her loose.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.