Sheik Ahmed Yassin, spiritual leader of the Palestinian Islamic terrorist group Hamas, has called for Muslims to attack American and Western interests if the United States attacks Iraq.
From the New York Times, February 7, 2003:
In an open letter released today, the Hamas leader, Sheik Ahmed Yassin, wrote, “Muslims should threaten Western interests and strike them everywhere.” Hamas leaders had previously said they would not widen their conflict with Israel to focus on Americans and other Westerners.
Sheik Ahmed Yassin has declared himself to be the sponsor of a terrorist campaign against America. Until now, it has been a matter of Israel’s judgment of whether and when to act against Hamas. This is no longer the case. Hamas now aspires to be a “terrorist group of global reach.” On September 20, 2001, President George W. Bush declared that such groups would be found, stopped and defeated. Hamas is easily found. They must now be stopped and defeated. It is time for Sheik Yassin “to cease to be a problem for us,” as President Bush phrased it in the State of the Union Address. It is time for him to die at the hands of the military force of the United States. And it is crucial for American national security that it be the United States military that solves the problem directly, because he has now threatened the United States directly.
There is a precedent here that must be established. Much of the world regards Hamas as a political party rather than a terrorist group, or as some mixture of the two, and so action against Hamas is restrained. No leader of any group should be able to call for terrorist action while enjoying the status and protection accorded to a political party leader. The appropriate penalty for inciting terrorist actions is death by Tomahawk or Hellfire missile.
Some will argue that this course of action is irresponsible. After all, Hamas has not carried out attacks to date outside Israel. Perhaps the Hamas statement is simply empty verbiage, posturing and lies with no capability to back it up. Perhaps yes, perhaps no. I do not have access to intelligence files on Hamas capabilities. It is sufficient that Hamas, an established terrorist group, has threatened a declaration of war on the United States. If the statement is related to a real capability, then killing Shiek Yassin is surely justified. If the statement is empty bluster, and Shiek Yassin is killed, then a valuable lesson will be taught about threatening the United States lightly.
