Posted on 12/02/2001 6:03:07 PM PST by Protect the Bill of Rights
Hillary Clinton takes aim at Arafat
By VERENA DOBNIK
The Associated Press
12/2/01 9:11 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton warned on Sunday that the United States would "root out" any terrorist elements in Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Authority -- just as the Taliban became a U.S. target for harboring al-Qaida.
"The same message must be sent to the Palestinian Authority and to Chairman Arafat: Anyone who harbors or turns a blind eye to terror in their midst will be held accountable," said the senator.
She spoke after a series of weekend suicide bombings against Israel killed 25 people and wounded nearly 200, prompting Arafat to order dozens of Islamic militants arrested.
But Clinton was skeptical, blaming the Palestinian leader for the violence.
"This rests squarely on the shoulders of Yasser Arafat," she said, adding that he has continually refused to round up and imprison terrorists.
"No one is safe because the leadership of the Palestinian Authority refuses to take responsibility for the acts of terror that have occurred with increasing frequency," Clinton told reporters at Manhattan's Pierre Hotel, where she was honored for her work in education by the American Organization for Rehabilitation Through Training.
The non-governmental ORT runs schools in Israel; three of this weekend's victims attended one of the schools, ORT officials said.
Clinton said Americans' outrage at the attacks is deeper since the Sept. 11 terrorism on their own soil.
She likened the Palestinian Authority to the Taliban as a protector of terrorists.
"The United States, with the president's leadership, has made clear that we will root out the al-Qaida network, and therefore had to root out the Taliban because of the comfort and support that they gave to the al-Qaida terrorist network," the senator said.
She was flanked by Malcolm Hoenlein, executive director of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, who also attended the dinner.
"What the president declared for Osama bin Laden in going thousands of miles away to fight, Israel will have to do just a few miles away," Hoenlein said.
He said many of the attacks against Israelis have been carried out by terrorists from organizations financed and supported by Arafat. The American Jewish official said more than half the attacks were perpetrated by members of the Palestinian leader's security and police forces.
The United States, Clinton said, would target any state or power "that does not bring about law and order in the territories that it controls and does not take the necessary steps that are required to imprison and prevent terror across their borders."
Copyright 2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Narcissistic, myopic demintia, in real time, on your computer.
Well gee isn't that special .. Hilda warns ... Excuse me .. But could someone .. anyone please explain to her .. that she doesn't live in the White House anymore ..
Oh and while you're at it .. tell her she is a WORTHLESS PIECE OF CRAP!!!
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