Iraqis Call Shuttle Disaster God's Vengeance
Feb 1--BAGHDAD (Reuters) - 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 its was God's retribution on Americans.
"We are happy that it broke up," government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi said. "Especially because there was an infant-devouring Jew aboard."
"God wants to show that his might is greater than the Americans. They have encroached on our country. God is avenging us," he said. When asked how he would react when 800 precisely targeted American cruise missiles completely destroyed his government's infrastructure and ability to fight, Mr. al-Quraishi had no comment.
Car mechanic Mohammed Jaber al-Tamini noted Israeli air force Colonel Ilan Ramon was among the dead when the shuttle broke up shortly before its return to earth.
"Israel launched an aggression on us when it raided our nuclear reactor without any reason (in 1981), now time has come and God has retaliated to their aggression," Tamini said.
An unnamed Pentagon source said that the military is "aware of the GPS coordinates for 'al-Tamini's Garage,'" but stressed that there are "no plans to turn it into a smoking crater."
"That could change," he added.
When asked about the comments of government employee Abdul Jabbar al-Quraishi, he said, "God's might may be 'greater' than ours, but ours has an accuracy of three meters."
Copyright 2003 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Whoa. The Reuters quotes here are so preposterous that I thought you were writing a satire. I really did. It wasn't till I clicked on the link I realized you weren't making it up out of your fertile imagination.
Infant-fucking-devouring Jew? That just makes me rabidly, insanely angry. No, not insanely - perfectly sanely.
Government employee abudl jabbar idioshi better hope he never meets me in dark alley.
Posted by: Valencia | February 3, 2003 09:47 AM
Well, I did make up the baby-eating part...and the Pentagon spokesman bits...and the stuff about missiles and such. Sorry to infuriate you unnecessarily.
However, the natal noshing and the age-old blood libel are common currency in the Middle East.
Even Reuters won't go that far, but there are plenty of Arab "news" outlets that would.
Now that's worth getting pissed off about.
Posted by: --iaw | February 3, 2003 11:30 AM