Reuters | Bereaved Palestinians Get $245,000 from Saddam

GAZA (Reuters) - Families of Palestinians killed by Israel received $245,000 in checks from Saddam Hussein on Wednesday, underscoring the Iraqi leader's continued support for a Palestinian revolt as he faces the prospect of a U.S.-led war.


Leaders of a pro-Iraq Palestinian group handed out the checks after delivering fiery speeches extolling the Iraqi president's virtues to hundreds of relatives of "martyrs" packed into a dingy YMCA hall in Gaza City.


Officials of the Palestinian Arab Liberation Front staging the ceremony said Saddam had now paid $35 million to support the kin of Palestinians killed in the Gaza Strip and West Bank since militants rose up against Israel there 29 months ago.


"Saddam Hussein considers those who die in martyrdom attacks as people who have won the highest degree of martyrdom," an official of the Arab Liberation Front said.


"Iraq and Palestine are in one trench. Saddam is a hero," said a banner over a mural of Saddam and Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, who sided with Iraq in the 1991 Gulf War against U.S.-led forces but has kept a low profile this time.


A family of a Palestinian suicide bomber received a check for $25,000 and 22 families of militants killed in fighting or of civilians killed during Israeli army offensives, incursions or air strikes got $10,000 each.[...]

Saddam? Supporting terror? Nooooo... Oh, I forgot. As long as you're killing Jews, that's not terror, or, as Reuters would put it, "terror."