Posted on 03/24/2002 5:48:20 PM PST by Imal
LONDON (March 25) - The suicide bombers of the Aksa Martyrs' Brigade are educated, middle-class, and led by a second-year university student in international relations, according to Lebanese Muslim writer Hala Jaber, who recently spent four days with the group.
In an article published in the London Sunday Times yesterday, Jaber, author of a book on Hizbullah, provided a unique insight into the profile, recruitment, and mind-set of the killers.
She described traveling to Gaza, where she was blindfolded and driven for 20 minutes to a secret location for her meeting with brigade leader Abu Fatah and a group of brigade members, two of whom have been selected for the next suicide attacks.
When she arrived and the blindfold was removed, she found herself in a room strewn with cushions and loosely covered sponge mattresses. Pictures of the Aksa Mosque adorned the walls, and heavy floral curtains blocked the windows.
Shortly afterward, a group of brigade members arrived - all masked, dressed in military fatigues, and carrying Kalashnikov rifles - and sat on the cushions around an oil lamp that illuminated the room.
Abu Fatah said the Aksa Martyrs' Brigade, which is loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat, has no shortage of volunteers.
He said a specialist unit is responsible for selecting candidates; another unit is responsible for selecting targets.
Anyone younger than 18 is disqualified, as are married men with children and anyone without a sibling who may be a family's sole breadwinner. Only those who "excel militarily and show steely composure in stressful situations" are likely to be chosen, Abu Fatah said.
The young men must be reasonably religious and understand the meaning of "martyrdom and jihad." They should also be of a build and shape that will enable them to mingle with Israelis, disguised if necessary in a kippa and wig with payot(side curls), as they wait for the moment to strike.
Abu Fatah observes candidates over several days as they go about their business in public and at home. If his assessment is "positive," he informs them of their selection.
This is followed by an intense 20-day period of religious study and discussion between Abu Fatah and each candidate, as verses from the Koran about a martyr's attainment of paradise are constantly recited.
"The candidate," wrote Jaber, "is reminded of the good fortune that awaits him in the presence of prophets and saints, of the unimaginable beauty of the houri, or beautiful young woman, who will welcome him, and of the chance he will have to intercede on behalf of 70 loved ones on doomsday. Not least, he is told of the service he will perform for his fellow countrymen with his sacrifice."
"Of course, I am deeply saddened when I have to use a suicide attacker," Abu Fatah said. "I am very emotional and at times I cry when I say good-bye to them. These are educated men who... would have had the potential of being constructive members of society."
When the bomber's preparations are complete, another member of the unit arrives to accompany him on the final journey to his target.
While his fate has been well-established, the suicide bomber is told the precise nature of the attack only minutes before the operation - whether he will be a bomber or whether he will attack a target with grenades and guns until he is shot dead.
If he is to be a suicide bomber, he straps on a hand-tailored vest filled with about 10 kilos of explosive and five kilos of nails and metal about 15 minutes before being dropped off at his target. At that stage, he is then given his final instructions about the precise point at which he should detonate himself.
"The later he knows, the better for the martyr, since he will not have much time to think of the target nor to experience doubts," Abu Fatah said.
Jaber noted Abu Fatah's tone hardened when asked whether the recent killings of young civilians by suicide bombers in cafes and restaurants could be condoned.
"Do you think when an Israeli tank shells a house, it considers whether there are children at home?" he snapped. "There are ugly consequences for both sides in a war."
Religion, wrote Jaber, was a constant topic of conversation throughout the time she spent with the cell. They also watched videos of past "martyrs," analyzing the attacks that had been carried out.
She was introduced to Yunis, 27, an arts graduate, who is next in line to conduct a suicide attack.
"His face was covered by a keffiyeh to conceal his identity," she wrote. "Yunis spoke first about the paintings of Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Picasso, then abruptly changed the subject and described - with equal passion - his urge to become a martyr."
"We are educated strugglers," he said. "We are not terrorists, and the world should recognize that our acts are not intended to be pure, cold-blooded murder."
Until the day of his mission, Yunis said he would remain engrossed in study of the Koran. He is convinced he has no choice but to follow the path assigned to him, and nothing could sway him from it.
"At the moment of executing my mission, it will not be purely to kill Israelis," he said. "The killing is not my ultimate goal, though it is part of the equation. My act will carry a message beyond to those responsible and the world at large that the ugliest thing is for a human being to be forced to live without freedom."
Ahmed, 27, the second suicide attacker she met, had no reservations about his mission. A student from the Gaza Strip, he said he carried the deeds and keys to the family house in Jaffa from which his grandmother was expelled in 1948.
"My grandmother represented the history of the Palestinian people," said Ahmed, one of eight children who lives with his mother. "She spoke to us of Jaffa, its grape vines and the seaside. She instilled in us a love for the home we did not know, and over many tears recounted old stories of life once upon a time in Palestine."
He was 12 when the first intifada began and he became determined to fight for "dignity." "I did not join Fatah to kill," he said. "My aim was to try to provide security, if only to my immediate family. Were it not for the occupation, I would not have become a Fatah member in the first place.
"I let go of my dreams of Jaffa and of ever reclaiming my grandmother's house. I was never a person who sought to annihilate the Israelis. I gave them the land that originally belonged to me, but instead of accepting it graciously, I found them still seeking to deprive me of the right to live freely and peacefully in my tiny few square meters... How can I live in a state without sovereignty, where I am forced to show an identity card at an Israeli checkpoint for permission to move? They control our electricity and water supply and our lives, and people still ask why we are rising up."
A band of fighters gathering around him as he spoke nodded in agreement. "I am committed to carry out a martyr's mission to show my rejection of being forced to live under this oppression," he said.
"I and many others like me are now prepared and waiting to carry out spectacular attacks against the enemy. We are not afraid and will not cease until they withdraw totally from our areas. You can call us terrorists all you like, but we have faith that justice is on our side and that victory will be ours."
Imal
Hardly. More like, "anybody who won't crap in their pants" are likely to be chosen.
The only message this poor child is carrying is that he has allowed himself to become the lowest of the low, a common murderer. This act, which is intended to elicite pity is merely repugnant.
The Palestinian people are being used by their own leaders as cannon fodder, their leaders find them so worthless that they willingly sacrifice them. THAT is the sorrow of all this.
I think it is high time for us to stop sending the 100 million a year we give the Palestinians for "text books". (That works out to $75 a year for grandma, grandpa, kids, men woman and child)
Funny, 97% of Palestinians are under Arafats complete control, why does he still have camps eight years later?
So it's not a bunch of poor, destitute, desperate people lashing out in the only way they can. It's a bunch of middle-class punks (like most terrorists) and a suicide bomber factory. And their targets are chosen in advance, precisely. So it's not an accident when a bomb goes off in a restaurant owned by Arabs, or duing a Passover Seder. They were deliberately targeted.
They have a lot of voluntees, they can afford to choose only the best.
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