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    Mint tea with the terrorists

    Written on April 14th, 2005 by stephengrey12 shouts

    Monday 11th April 2005

    Under US law, it is an offence to give any “aid or counsel” to groups such as Hamas or Hezbollah. But some westerners say it’s time to talk to even the most militant Islamists. By Stephen Grey

    Osama Hamdan wears an ordinary business suit and hands out an ordinary business card with his e-mail address and telephone number. But he never carries his own mobile – just in case Mossad tries to put explosives inside it again.
    Hamdan is in the downstairs bar of an elegant Beirut hotel, talking to me and to Bobby Muller, an American Vietnam veterans leader and a joint winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize.

    It’s not an ordinary conversation. Behind Hamdan lurk three burly and bearded bodyguards. Occasionally, one steps forward with the mobile phone. In the meantime, Muller, whose spine was severed by a bullet when he led a combat assault in Vietnam, discusses the impact of Hamas’s decision to stand in the Palestinian assembly elections in July, thus apparently joining the “Arab Spring” of democracy so lauded by President George W Bush.

    If Hamas wins enough votes to join the Palestinian government, Bush will be in a dilemma, explains Muller. The president has promised hundreds of millions of dollars to the Palestinian Authority – but US law forbids him from giving money to terrorist groups. The law is so tight that Muller himself, by taking part in this conversation, and by giving Hamdan an anti-war DVD, might be giving “aid or counsel” to a banned terrorist. That, too, is a violation of US law. Even buying a cup of mint tea for a Hamas leader could be considered a form of “aid”. Just telling a terrorist group to turn to peace could be an offence. (more…)

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