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President Bush gestures as he speaks at a campaign event in
New York, Monday, Sept. 20, 2004.
(AP) | |
President Bush might have been able to say it was simply a slip of the
tongue when he confused two terrorists in a campaign speech Monday in New
Hampshire. Trouble is, he's made the same misstatement at least 10 times
before.
During remarks in Derry, N.H., Bush said the terrorist Abu Nidal killed
Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish American who died after being
tossed - along with his wheelchair - off a hijacked cruise liner named
Achille Lauro in 1985.
"Do you remember Abu Nidal?" Bush asked the crowd. "He's the guy that
killed Leon Klinghoffer. Leon Klinghoffer was murdered because of his
religion. Abu Nidal was in Baghdad, as was his organization."
He repeated the mistake Monday evening at a campaign event in New York
City: "Abu Nidal was a cold-blooded terrorist killer who killed Leon
Klinghoffer."
Actually, it was Abul Abbas, the leader of a violent Palestinian group,
who killed Klinghoffer.
The White House had no immediate comment on the mix-up.
Abbas, who was captured in Baghdad last year, was the mastermind of the
Achille Lauro hijacking. His faction of the Palestinian Liberation Front
operated out of Tunisia until the cruise ship attack, then relocated to
Iraq. U.S. officials say Abbas died of heart disease on March 10 while in
U.S. custody in Iraq.
Abu Nidal, a Palestinian renegade, died in Baghdad
in 2002. His terrorist organization had been blamed for scores of
atrocities, including the 1985 attacks on Rome and Vienna airports in
which 20 people were killed and the 1986 attack on a synagogue
in Istanbul in which 22 Jewish
worshippers were massacred.
Bush's mistake, overlooked for weeks, is buried in his stump speech - in the section where
he makes a case that Saddam Hussein had links to terrorist groups. Indeed,
Abu Nidal is believed to have had connections to the former Iraqi leader.
But he didn't kill Klinghoffer.
"Remember Abu Nidal?" Bush asked Aug. 28 in Lima, Ohio. "He's the guy
that killed Leon Klinghoffer because he was Jewish. He found safe haven in
Iraq. In other words, terrorist groups were in this guy's country."
"We knew Saddam Hussein's record of aggression and his support for
terror," he told another crowd Sept. 13 in Battle Creek, Mich. "Abu Nidal,
the guy who killed Leon Klinghoffer, he and his organization were in
Baghdad."
(Agencies) |
周一（9月20日），布什總統在新罕布什爾州發表競選演講時又一次混淆了兩個恐怖分子的名字。他也許會辯解說這只是口誤，但問題是此前他已經出現至少10次同樣的口誤。
在新罕布什爾州德里的演講中，布什說1985年恐怖分子阿布·尼達爾殺害了69歲的美籍猶太人利昂·克林霍弗。（恐怖分子）把他綁在輪椅上，并把他從劫持的“阿奇里·勞羅”號大型游艇上扔入大海。
布什問在場的聽眾說：“你們還記得阿布·尼達爾嗎？是他殺害了利昂·克林霍弗。利昂·克林霍弗因為他的宗教信仰被殺害了。阿布·尼達爾和他的組織都藏在巴格達。”
周一晚，在紐約舉行的競選運動中他又犯了同樣的錯誤。他說：“阿布·尼達爾是謀殺利昂·克林霍弗的冷血恐怖分子。”
事實上，殺害克林霍弗的兇手是一個殘暴的巴勒斯坦組織的頭目——阿布·阿巴斯。
白宮并沒有立即對名字混淆事件發表評論。
阿巴斯去年在巴格達被抓，他是劫持“阿奇里·勞羅”號大型游艇事件的策劃者。劫船事件發生前，他的巴勒斯坦解放陣線組織一直在突尼斯境外活動，此后，他們撤回到伊拉克。美國官方稱阿巴斯在伊拉克被美軍監禁期間于3月10日死于心臟病。
阿布·尼達爾是巴勒斯坦叛徒，他于2002年在巴格達死去。他的恐怖組織因犯下累累罪行而臭名昭著。其中包括1985年襲擊羅馬和維也納機場，導致20人喪生；1986年襲擊伊斯坦布爾猶太教堂，使得22名做禮拜的猶太人喪生。
幾周來，沒有人注意到布什政治演說中的錯誤。在演講中，他試圖舉例說明薩達姆·侯賽因和恐怖組織有聯系。阿布·尼達爾確實和前伊拉克總統薩達姆·侯賽因有聯系，但是他并沒有殺害克林霍弗。
8月28日在俄亥俄州利馬的演講中，布什問道：“大家還記得阿布·尼達爾嗎？是他殺害了利昂·克林霍弗，就因為他是猶太人。伊拉克是阿布·尼達爾的避難所。換句話說，薩達姆的國家窩藏恐怖主義集團。”
9月13日他在密歇根州的巴特爾克里克演講時說過：“我們知道薩達姆·侯賽因有侵略的記錄，他還支持恐怖主義。殺害利昂·克林霍弗的兇手阿布·尼達爾和他的組織都藏在巴格達。”
（中國日報網站譯） |
Updated: 2004-09-22 10:40