Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's offer of 25,000 dollars to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers shows the viciousness of his regime, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said Wednesday.
"Think of it. Here is an individual who is the head of a country, Iraq, who has proudly, publicly made a decision to go out and actively promote and finance human sacrifice for families that will have their youngsters kill innocent men, women and children," Rumsfeld said.
"That is an example of what it is we're dealing with," he expressed. "I am simply trying to let the people of Iraq understand what their leadership is doing, to let the people of the Middle East and the rest of the world...It is a particularly vicious thing to do."
Moreover, Rumsfeld said he had recently learned that the payments were 25,000 and not 10,000 as he had said Monday, citing news reports of the payments as an example of how Iraq finances “terrorism,” AFP reported.
A high-ranking official of the Arab Liberation Front, a small Palestinian faction linked to Saddam's Ba'ath party, told The Sydney Morning Herald last month that the Iraqi leader had raised the amount to encourage more Palestinians to volunteer as suicide bombers. (Albawaba.com)
© 2002 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
