A.P. PUFF PIECE ON JEW-HATING TERRORIST

AP's Glowing Portrait of a Terrorist (LGF)
Feel like reading a puff piece about an Al Qaeda terrorist who has formed a gang that aspires to wipe out the Jews? The Associated (with terrorists) Press is always happy to oblige: Family speaks of Fatah Islam leader.

AMMAN, Jordan - Shaker Youssef al-Absi, the Palestinian who heads a shadowy militant group blamed for this week’s violence in Lebanon, is not a terrorist but a nationalist who seeks an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands, his family says.

But Jordanian officials insist he is an al-Qaida-linked militant, once closely allied with the slain al-Qaida in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Al-Absi was sentenced to death in absentia here along with al-Zarqawi for their roles in the 2002 slaying of a U.S. aid worker and was implicated in other planned terror plots in Jordan.

“He’s not a terrorist, but a man with a cause,” said al-Absi’s younger brother, Dr. Abdul-Razzaq al-Absi — an Amman bone surgeon.

“He wanted to see an end to Israel’s occupation of Palestinian lands,” the brother told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, refusing to meet for fear of retribution from the authorities.

“He always used to tell me, ‘My only concern in life is Palestine and its liberation from the Israeli occupiers,’” he added.