February 6, 2006: PA: Al-Aqsa Brigade Chief Blames German Teacher's Abduction on Local 'Lunatic'

This is an interesting report - now the terrorists are distancing themselves from a kidnapping, claiming that the kidnapper was mentally ill and was not acting on their behalf even though he was a member of the group.

"We are not the kidnappers," he explained in a telephone interview with, "we are the liberators. The man who abducted that German guy is admittedly one of our men but he is sick, he suffers from mental illness, he cannot think straight. As soon as we were told of his escapade, we got on his tail and we resolved the whole affair. The guilty party will now be punished in accordance with our rules."

Jerusalem -- The leaders of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade, the armed wing of Fatah that is spearheading the protest, do not seem so determined to link their name to the anti-European threats any longer. This, especially since their competitors in Hamas have deprived them of the leadership of the protest while marking their distance from all forms of violence and offering to defend the Catholic schools and churches in Gaza that have come under threat from the Islamic Jihad and from the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades themselves. Thus Gaza's "brigadiers" yesterday showed up outside the school and the church of the Holy Family, threatened with destruction, and handed out sweets and drinks to Catholic nuns, priests, and teachers. (passage omitted)

The same change of atmosphere can be perceived in Nabulus, the turbulent city on the West Bank where the Brigades had kidnapped and immediately released a young German teacher on Thursday evening (2 February). Nasr Abu Aziz, the Al-Aqsa Brigades' number three with whom I met two weeks ago in the very same Hotel Jasmine where the abduction took place, now denies any responsibility in the affair.

"We are not the kidnappers," he explained in a telephone interview with, "we are the liberators. The man who abducted that German guy is admittedly one of our men but he is sick, he suffers from mental illness, he cannot think straight. As soon as we were told of his escapade, we got on his tail and we resolved the whole affair. The guilty party will now be punished in accordance with our rules."

Having resolved the affair of the abduction and having put behind him the threats to kidnap any European setting foot in the city, Nasr Abu Aziz now claims to be a strenuous defender of law and order: "Of course we feel insulted (by Danish Muhammad cartoons); we are angry in our capacity as Muslims, but we cannot forget that we are members of the Palestinian Authority's security forces; we are a militant force but we defend law and order."

Not even reminding him that the Hotel Jasmine is his gang's favorite meeting place could force him to admit to being to blame in any way. "We were not at the Hotel Jasmine that evening; there was only that lunatic guy; but if you do not believe me, come to Nabulus, come back to see us and you will see... As long as we are around, the law here in Nabulus will be the same for the Palestinians and for you foreigners."

(Description of Source: Milan Il Giornale in Italian -- right-of-center daily owned by the Berlusconi family)