In article ,
"Yama" wrote:

"Chad Irby" wrote in message
. com...

He was *certainly* an operational leader. Broad strategy for sure, and
he was the man behind most of the suicide bombers over the last couple
of decades.

Not really. He was in Israeli prison until 1997 where from he could hardly
plan any operations. After that he has spent considerable time in house
arrest placed by Palestinian authorities.

"House arrest," in Palestinian terms, means "paid his bills and gave him
bodyguards, but didn't stop him from working." When you're in house
arrest, you don't get a steady string of visitors, and you don't get to
make public statements about how nice it is to kill Jews.

If Israeli really thought he was anything more than a figurehead, they would
have killed him years ago.

They were too busy trying to placate Hamas. They finally decided that
was a stupid game.

He certainly was a supporter of suicide bombings. That said, it seems that
many Western countries are more or less condemning this move - including UK.
BBC: UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has condemned the Israeli missile
attack on Ahmed Yassin as "unlawful".

Well, Jack Straw is entitled to his opinions. A lot of people have said
similar things at similar times. After the small spate of attacks that
are sure to come, we'll see how it works out in the long run.

Note that were were told that the whole Mideast would erupt in flames
when we took down Saddam, and how that didn't happen.

One telling thing: a Palestinian official was being interviewed on Fox
this morning, and after the first reference to Yassin as a "spiritual"
leader, he kept calling him a "political leader."

--
cirby at cfl.rr.com

Remember: Objects in rearview mirror may be hallucinations.
Slam on brakes accordingly.