The Inside Story of Fatah al-Islam's leader by Sami Haddad for the website Ya Libnan
Beirut, Lebanon - A look at the history behind Lebanon's leading face of terror - Shaker al-Absi. After starting out his professional life as a pilot of Russian MIG fighter planes, he switched to training revolutionaries with all types of weapons.
Born in 1955 in the Ain Sultan refugee camp near the city of Ariha (Jericho), in the Palestinian West Bank and in 1967 he emigrated to Jordan following the six day war which led to the Israeli occupation.
His brother Abdel Razzak el-Absi, a surgeon in Amman, Jordan, recently revealed telling details of Shaker al-Absi (pictured right). According to Abdel Razzak, Shaker excelled in school and moved to Tunisia to join the medical school, but the medical field was not really what he aspired to. Instead he wanted to get involved in liberating Palestine, one way or the other.
Shaker al-Absi then joined the Fatah organization of Yasser Arafat, which sent him to Libya to study and train to become a pilot. He succeeded in this and piloted MIG 23 fighter planes when Libya attacked Chad.
Shaker visited his brother Abdel Razzak in 1980, who was studying at a medical school in Cuba, on his way to Nicaragua where he intended to help the Sandanistas. He remained with the Sandanistas for 4 to 5 months his brother recalls.
In 1982 when Israel invaded Lebanon Shaker fought in the Bekaa valley area of Lebanon with Fatah, because the organization did not own any fighter planes. Then from Lebanon he returned to Libya and from there he went to Yemen and then to Damascus, Syria where he finally settled.
In 2002 Syria arrested Shaker and sent him to jail for his activities with a restricted Islamist organization and accused him of plotting against the Syrian regime. Shaker remained in jail for 3 years, during which he was sentenced to death in absentia by Jordan for participating in planning and executing the murder in 2002 of Lawrence Folly the US ambassador to Jordan at the time.
In 2005 Shaker was set free by Syria and moved to Lebanon to head up Fatah el-Intifada, a Syrian Intelligence-backed splinter group of the mainstream Fatah movement based out of the Shatila Palestinian refugee camp in Beirut.
Few months later Shaker decided to join a strict Islamist group of about 100 other members and settled at the Nahr el-Bared refugee camp. There he formed the Fatah al-Islam extremist Islamist movement.
Blind Extremism
In march 2007, Shaker told the New York Times newspaper that he believes in and fully supports the ideas of al-Qaida leader Osama Bin Laden, adding he is not afraid of being called a terrorist.
Shaker added that he ”has the right to target American and Israeli civilians anyplace in the world."
He continued, “doesn’t America come here to kill our innocents and children. We have the right to attack them at their homes just like they attack us in our homes.”
His brother Abdel Razzak said: “My brother has chosen the strict Islamic way because he was desperate and depressed."
He added “we were all raised as Muslims like everyone else . We are also believers, but Shaker adopted the strict and extremist Islamic way after losing hope.“
Abdel Razzak went on to justify his brothers actions, “After 60 years of Israeli occupation what happened to the Palestinians? Nothing. The Palestinians adopted various ideologies in their attempts to liberate Palestine, as nationalists, Marxists, Leninists etc...but what did they accomplish? Nothing... only more despair.”
“My brother is one of those people who think extremist Islam has all the answers and could lead to liberating his country. Everything else failed, so he things this is the only road left,” Abdel Razzak added.
Denial, Denial, Denial
Abdel Razzak did not mention the fact that his brother Shaker is killing Lebanese soldiers in Nahr el Bared. He and his group started the conflict by attacking and slaughtering 27 soldiers during their sleep.
Abdel Razzak did not also mention that the Lebanese people have endured and protected the Palestinians for 60 years, despite the Israeli invasions of Lebanon.
Abdel Razzak did not mention that the whole problem with his brother started when his organization Fatah al-Islam bombed 2 busses and killed 3 innocent Lebanese and wounded another 20 in the Ain Alaq town of the northern Metn province in Mount Lebanon.
Abdel Razzak did not mention the fact that Fatah al-Islam robbed a Lebanese bank the night before the conflict started and stole $125,000.
Abdel Razzak did not say that the road to Palestine is not Nahr el Bared, nor is it by killing Lebanese soldiers. If any Palestinian wants to fight for Palestine, the place is Palestine and not Lebanon.
Shaker al-Absi's past is a telling account of the making of a terrorist, and unfortunately how peaceful countries like Lebanon have to suffer the consequences. Obviously al-Absi is severely misguided. Instead of saying thank you to a country that adopted him, he is killing those same people that protected him - the Lebanese soldiers and the innocent Lebanese people.
Al-Absi is the story of a sick mind that blames his own failures on others.
Al-Absi is the story of a coward, who is dangerously manipulating Islam and the Palestinian cause to achieve his own evil ambition.
