In an interview, Jordanian-Palestinian writer Yasser Al-Za'atra discussed the Yemen packages bomb plot and said, "It is clear that Obama wants to gain the sympathy of the Jews, most of whom are inclined towards the Republicans in the midterm elections."
The interview aired on Al-Jazeera TV on October 30, 2010.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memri.org/legacy/clip/0/0/0/0/0/0/2663.
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Interviewer: "Within a few hours, even before the completion of any lab analysis, there seemed to be an urgent need to link Al-Qaeda [to the bomb plot]. It was right from the start. What is your take on this?"
Yasser Al-Za'atra: "There is certainly an American need to inflate the issue of terrorism. This issue pertains not only to the Obama administration, but also to the military and security establishment, which has a vested interest in justifying the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, and the convoys of the dead who continue to be sent back to the U.S., especially in the past year, with the rise in the number of dead and wounded, and in human and material losses.
"There is an American need to reiterate that its military presence in Afghanistan is necessary to prevent the so-called 'terrorist attacks' within the U.S.. Obama participates in this, along with the security and military establishment.
"It is, therefore, necessary to say that Al-Qaeda, and none other, is responsible for this attack.
"This entire story looks like an Indian movie – with U.S. President Obama delivering a speech merely because of two packages, which were supposedly addressed to two Jewish synagogues – as if at the Jewish synagogue they would open packages coming from Yemen. Everybody knows that all the Jewish institutions in the U.S. take unimaginable security measures – not only in the U.S., but all over the world. How could anyone with half a brain even imagine that someone in a synagogue would open a bomb or a printer, coming from Yemen, en route to the U.S.? [...]
"It is clear that Obama wants to gain the sympathy of the Jews, most of whom are inclined towards the Republicans in the midterm elections. They are the ones behind the smear campaign against him. In my view, this issue is not detached from the will of the U.S...
"There are three possibilities with regard to this operation. It may be a fabrication by the FBI, with the goal of mobilizing [public opinion] in support of the situation in Afghanistan, with the involvement of the U.S. [intelligence] apparatus. Alternatively, it may have been arranged by the Yemeni regime, which has a great interest in inflating the danger of Al-Qaeda in Yemen, in order to obtain more Western aid. There is a third possibility, which may be the most obvious in this context – that this operation was the work of the so-called 'Internet mujahideen,' which is the third generation of Al-Qaeda." [...]
