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Iraqis Call Shuttle Disaster God's Vengeance![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ''We are happy that it broke up,'' government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi said Immediate popular reaction in Baghdad on Saturday to the loss of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia and its seven-member crew -- including the first Israeli in space -- was that it was God's retribution. "We are happy that it broke up," government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi said. "God wants to show that his might is greater than the Americans. They have encroached on our country. God is avenging us," he said. Iraqis Call Shuttle Disaster God's Vengeance "We are happy that it broke up," government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi said. "God wants to show that his might is greater than the Americans. They have encroached on our country. God is avenging us," he said. Iraqis are braced for a possible U.S.-led war to rid their country of any chemical, biological or nuclear weapons it may possess. Iraq denies it has such weapons. Car mechanic Mohammed Jaber al-Tamini noted Israeli air force Colonel Ilan Ramon was among the dead when the shuttle broke up over the southwestern United States 16 minutes before its scheduled landing. The 48-year-old Israeli astronaut was a fighter pilot in the Israeli air force. He was the youngest pilot in a team that bombed Iraq's nuclear reactor in 1981. Israel said the reactor was intended to develop nuclear weapons. "Israel launched an aggression on us when it raided our nuclear reactor without any reason, now time has come and God has retaliated to their aggression," Tamini said. There were no such signs of jubilation over the shuttle disaster in any of the Palestinian territories. The official response from the Palestinians was one of condolence. "President (Yasser) Arafat and the Palestinian Authority offer their condolences to the six American families and the Israeli family who lost their loved ones in the catastrophe," Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian official and spokesman, told Reuters. Erekat said Arafat had sent President Bush a message of condolences over the loss of the NASA space agency's shuttle. The United States, Israel's closest ally, is the chief Middle East peace broker. http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=2152926 |
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Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4 5Columbia's loss "Allah's revenge," says Iraq
Japan Today
Sunday, February 2, 2003 at 08:00 JST
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=248030
BAGHDAD — Officials at Iraq's Information Ministry on Saturday showed an icy attitude toward the midair disintegration of the U.S. space shuttle Columbia, with one of them describing it as "Allah's revenge."
With a possible U.S.-led war looming over Iraq, the Information Ministry was teaming with foreign reporters when news of the Columbia's disaster was reported on the U.S. CNN network.
A few Iraqi officials were watching the TV program, and words soon spread that Illan Ramon, the first Israeli astronaut and one of the seven Columbia crew members, was an Israeli officer who took part it the bombing of an Iraqi nuclear power plant in 1981.
"It was the Allah's revenge," one government employee said when asked for comment.
Iraq's official media have not reported the Columbia loss as of late Saturday. (Kyodo News)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=8&id=248030
I'm sure you anarchosocialist pricks are even more thrilled about this than the Baghdad thugs. A question: what turns you on more, the deaths of several Americans, or the incineration of a Jew carrying Holocaust memorabilia?
First you post those two articles about Iraq's reaction, and then use this to smear humanitarians on the left. Just the sort of scum post from a war hawk that I've come to expect.
Shame on you!
The shuttle was to high up for Osama or Saddam to get at, but the propaganda machine will pin it on someone or die tryin... So it was God who did it prbably paid off by wealthy saudis and supplied with missiles by the U.S. nobodys hands are clean these days????
The death of an IDF Colonel is always to be welcomed. I wonder how many refugee camps he bombed?