Hamas and Islamic Jihad call for suicide attacks on US & British forces in Iraq

The Palestinian terrorist groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad are calling for suicide attacks on American and British forces in Iraq.

The public statements confirm intelligence reports that Hamas may be poised to murder Americans in the Middle East – and begin terrorist attacks inside the United States.

The developments will complicate things for their supporters in the United States – and for White House political operatives who continue to court them despite President Bush’s strict with-us-or-with-the-terrorists policy.

National Review is now voicing the same concerns raised by the Center for Security Policy and others, saying the outreach effort, engineered by the foreign-funded Islamic Institute with Americans for Tax Reform, has been hijacked by pro-terrorist extremists.

Writing in National Review, Byron York cites what he calls "a number of troubling associations involving the Islamic Institute."

According to York, "[Center for Security Policy President Frank] Gaffney and others have urged the administration to concentrate outreach efforts on more moderate Muslim groups. They worry that the inclusion of groups like CAIR in White House events gives them a credibility they could find nowhere else, making it easier for them to meet with officials in the cabinet departments and on Capitol Hill. What particularly worries some observers is the possibility that White House contacts with some of the Muslim groups and leaders might be more extensive than is publicly known — and that the president’s political opponents will try to exploit them."

Referring to the conflict rending the conservative movement over this issue, York says, "Conservatives might wish that it would go away — or at least that [Islami Institute co-founder Grover] Norquist would stop calling people racists and bigots — but they first have to worry about the administration’s Muslim outreach program, which gave rise to the conflict in the first place."