Israel says 2 Arab citizens helped al-Qaida

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_al_qaida

JERUSALEM - Two Israeli Arabs have been arrested on suspicion they gave strategic information to al-Qaida, Israel's Shin Bet security agency said Wednesday, the first time Israel has accused any citizens of cooperating with the global terror network.
ADVERTISEMENT

The Bedouin Arabs from southern Israel transferred information about strategic sites including army bases, skyscrapers and an international airport near Tel Aviv and other crowded places that could be targets in attacks, the Shin Bet said in a statement.

The two were charged on Wednesday with membership in a terror organization, aiding an enemy and transferring information to an enemy with the intent to harm state security, the agency said.

One of the suspects, Taher Abu Sakut, developed ties with fundamentalist Muslims in 2006 after he grew more religious, the release said. In that year, Abu Sakut began going into Web sites associated with al-Qaida and other extremist groups that call for the destruction of the state of Israel.

Abu Sakut later agreed to join al-Qaida activities and relayed the strategic information that included hidden routes to enter Israel from the West Bank, the Shin Bet said. At one point, Abu Sakut asked his contacts to connect him with fighters in Iraq and Saudi Arabia with the plan of getting them to carry out attacks in Israel, the release said.

The men were arrested at the end of May and beginning of June, the statement said.

Security affairs analyst Yossi Melman said the arrests highlights a rising radicalism within Israel's Bedouin population.

"The fact that this is occurring among Bedouins shouldn't surprise anyone," Melman said. "There is a growing tendency of fundamentalism among them, at least partially because of the neglect and the attitude of the Israeli government toward them."

The New York-based Human Rights Watch group said in a report earlier this year that Israel discriminates against its Bedouin Arab citizens in allocating housing, land and infrastructure in the Negev, a desert that makes up much of Israel's territory, where most of the country's Bedouins live.

There's no known al-Qaida presence in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, though Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have both expressed concern about the group trying to enter the Palestinian areas.

Yoram Schweitzer, a terrorism expert at Tel Aviv's Institute for National Security Studies, said that two Palestinians, one from the Gaza Strip and one from the West Bank, were arrested several years ago by Israel on their way back from training in Afghanistan, where they were allegedly approached by al-Qaida operatives.

While there are several hardline Muslim groups in the Gaza Strip that have claimed responsibility for attacking Christians, bombing coffee shops and internet cafes because of their perceived Western influence, they do not belong to the global extremist network.

The groups say they are influenced by al-Qaida. They wear similar dress, use the same hardline rhetoric and Islamic verses in their videos. But the global network has not acknowledged that the Gaza groups are a part of their extremist movement — a key sign that they do not belong to al-Qaida.

Abbas has insisted that there are al-Qaida groups in the Gaza Strip, ruled by his rivals, Muslim group Hamas. But Abbas has never presented any evidence to back up his claim.
_________________
"The conversion of the entire population to Islam and the extinction of every form of dissent is the ideal of the Muslim State - This is Islamic Peace"

A moderate Moslem is one who sends others blow themselves up.