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Testimony in the trial of Chicago resident Muhammad Salah and Abdelhaleem al-Ashqar of Northern Virginia, continued yesterday. FBI Agents gave testimony focusing on items found in Ashqar's home during a search of his Oxford Mississippi residence on December 26, 1993, in addition to wiretaps of his phone and fax lines. Special Agent Bradley Benabidez testified that the FBI acquired over 2400 hours of audio during the year that they maintained a wiretap. Benabidez further described the December 1993 search of Ashqar’s home where a team of agents from the FBI photographed over 1600 documents. A few of those documents which...

Palestinian security forces in Ramallah on Monday arrested a suspect in the murder of Samir Rantisi, a local journalist and spokesman for former PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo. Rantisi, 42, had for years urged Palestinians to endorse non-violent methods in their confrontation with Israel and was strongly opposed to suicide bombings. He was murdered early Monday morning while he was sleeping in his bedroom in the Sateh Marhaba neighborhood. A lone gunman who broke into his apartment in the Shkukani Building shot him twice in the head in front of his wife. The wife managed to identify the suspect,...

Dear Maariv Newspaper Editor, Please Publish... The following is a translation of a letter written in the Online Forum of one of Israel's major newspapers, Maariv, by a female reader named  Rachel. The letter was in response to the major online headline about The Bodies of the Six Soldiers that had died in a Gaza security offensive and how their remains had been defiled by the Palestinian terror groups. See: Palestinians Parade Israeli Soldiers’ Remains (DEBKAfile) (05/11/04) http://www.debka.com/article_print.php?aid=843 This letter  may be one of the most popular letters ever written in this widely read forum receiving unanimous and unequivocal...

<p>In the last few weeks, CNN has suffered a series of embarrassing incidents calling into question its news judgment and ability to meet the most basic standards of fairness in reporting on Israel. CNN boss Ted Turner made the following statement about the ongoing war between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. "I would make the case that both sides are engaged in terrorism," he told the Guardian newspaper. Although Mr. Turner subsequently apologized for suggesting that Israel was behaving this way, the damage had been done.</p>

Arafat's $Billions in Assets and Investments (Mideast Newswire Archive) Arafat's Wife's Spends Millions While Palestinian Children Starve (Irish Blog Via FR Forum) (02/11/04) ------------------------------------------------------------- On the eve of the famous "hand shake" on the White House lawn which rewarded Rabin and Arafat with the Nobel Prize for Peace, the PLO made Britain's most dangerous terrorist/criminal organizations list. The British National Criminal Intelligence Service (NCIS) also reported that the PLO had world-wide assets approaching $10 billion and an additional annual income of about $1.5 to 2 billion, generated from illegal activities. Surprisingly, the report was not picked up by the media....

ALSO SEE: Arafat's Wife on a Luxury Trip NY DAILY NEWS (11/06/03)---------------------------------------------Last week we were told that "Malnutrition in the Gaza Strip and West Bank is as bad as in sub-Saharan Africa because the Palestinian economy has all but collapsed under Israeli restrictions." (Irish Times February 6, 2004) A report by the cross-party International Development Select Committee also called on Britain to press the European Union to impose trade sanctions on Israel until it lifts its restrictions on Palestinian trade. The World Bank said last year that the Palestinian economy was in steep decline after the Israeli army blockaded and...

CommentsTHE UNITED STATES SHOULD NOT TRY to play a "neutral arbiter" in the Israeli/Palestinian dispute. We should, in fact, be doing our best to make the Palestinians suffer until they change their ways, because, to put it bluntly, they are our enemies. Read this to see how they feel about America. And read this piece by Amir Taheri on the Iraqi "resistance," which notes Palestinian terror connections by the Iraqi insurgents, and features a Palestinian "journalist" egging them on. These folks are our enemies, and deserve to be treated as such. They don't deserve a state of their own. It's...

The author is a professor of law and director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University School of Law. With the simple press of a button, the pilot of an Israeli helicopter gunship unleashed three missiles, instantly killing Sheik Ahmed Yassin, founder of Hamas, as he was being driven home from prayers at his local mosque in the Gaza Strip. Yassin had not been sentenced to death by any court, nor was he on a battlefield in any conventional sense. Seven others died in the attack. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon made no apologies,...

JERUSALEM — Israel's response to Palestinian violence after a pullout from the Gaza Strip would be even harsher than it is now, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Tuesday. Interviewed on Israel's Channel 10 television for Israel's independence day, Sharon defended his "unilateral disengagement" plan, including a pullout from the Gaza Strip. Members of his Likud Party vote on the plan in a referendum Sunday. After a pullout, Palestinians could no longer explain violence by saying that Israel was occupying their land, Sharon said, "and Israel's responses (to violence) would be much harsher." He refused to give specifics beyond noting...

The top figures in the militant group Hamas after the assassination Sunday of its leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi. _Mahmoud Zahar: A Hamas spokesman, the 53-year-old Zahar is considered a hard-liner. Zahar was the personal physician of Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin, who was killed by the Israelis on March 22. Zahar served as Hamas' liaison with the PLO in the mid-1990s but now opposes compromise with the Palestinian Authority. Zahar has been imprisoned by Israel and has been jailed repeatedly by the Palestinian Authority. _Ismail Hanieh: A top aide to Yassin and like Zahar he is a member of Hamas'...

Translation from Hebrew to English by me Even though the leaders of Hamas, the Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Avad Al-Aziz Al-Rantisi, have moved on to a new world their popularity continues. Take for example Mazen Al-Natzar, a Hamas man (36) from Schem. Al-Natzar decided to call his twins that were born two days ago on the name of the Hamas leaders who were eliminated by Israel. Al-Natzar, who works as a communications clerk in the Palestinian Communications Company (PalTel), told the French Agency Press that he decided to call his two kids Yassin and Rantisi as a sign of his...

<p>TEL AVIV — The radical Palestinian group Hamas has been plunged into a leadership crisis after two of its founding visionaries, Sheik Ahmed Yassin and Abdel Aziz Rantisi, were assassinated by Israeli forces less than a month apart, Palestinian observers said.</p>

TEL AVIV - Even though he had been targeted for death since last fall, Israeli defense officials say the assassination of Abdel Aziz Rantisi became an urgent priority only in the last month, after he became the head of Hamas and began upgrading Iranian involvement in the organization. Rantisi, 54, was killed April 17 by an Israeli helicopter gunship near his Gaza home, just 26 days after he took over Hamas following the assassination of his predecessor, Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. During the few weeks that he headed the organization, defense officials say Rantisi invited the Iranians and their Lebanese...

"The week has ended with the hit on a man who has probably killed more innocent people than bin Laden. The Israelis kept their word. They gave fair warning to whomever took over the top spot in the terror organization Hamas—“show your face and die.” Today, Rantisi did both. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, proud head and co-founder of one the world’s most famous groups of killers, the proud parent of the suicide bomber plan, was given a missile to chew on and it gave him extreme indigestion."

The global pediatric community announces the passing of that splendid humanitarian, Dr. Rantisi. Apparently, his bevy of seventy virgins grew tired of cooling their heels in the great waiting room in the sky. They were fortunate to find a commonality of interest with the Israel Defense Forces (of whom this writer is honored to be an active member), who dispatched him to their tender mercies. This sort of consensus is rare in the Middle East and is worthy of fervent commendation. The Hebrew phrase comes to mind: "Hu halach limnuchosv'otanu azav la'anachos", literally "he went to his rest and left...

A day after Israeli troops killed its second leader within a single month, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas put on a brave face. The Israelis "are dreaming" if they think this would weaken Hamas, announced Ismail Haniyeh to a crowd of over 70,000 mourners at the funeral for Abdel Aziz Rantisi. "Every time a martyr falls," Haniyeh insisted, "Hamas is strengthened." This sort of boosterism and puffery has a long history among Palestinians. The last time Israeli forces did real damage to the Palestinian war machine, in May 2002, for example, Khaled Meshaal of Hamas announced that the Israeli devastation...

The Democratic presidential nominee, Senator John Kerry, has defied U.S. policy and openly endorsed Israel's assassination policy. Asked on NBC's Meet the Press about Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, Kerry said, "I believe Israel has every right in the world to respond to any act of terror against it. Hamas is a terrorist, brutal organization. It has had years to make up its mind to take part in a peaceful process. They refuse to. Arafat refuses to. And I support Israel's efforts to try to separate itself and to try to be secure." On Monday the senator...

A day after Israeli troops killed its second leader within a single month, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas put on a brave face. The Israelis "are dreaming" if they think this would weaken Hamas, announced Ismail Haniyeh to a crowd of over 70,000 mourners at the funeral for Abdel Aziz Rantisi. "Every time a martyr falls," Haniyeh insisted, "Hamas is strengthened." This sort of boosterism and puffery has a long history among Palestinians. The last time Israeli forces did real damage to the Palestinian war machine, in May 2002, for example, Khaled Meshaal of Hamas announced that the Israeli devastation...

A day after Israeli troops killed its second leader within a single month, the Islamist terrorist organization Hamas put on a brave face. The Israelis “are dreaming,” if they think this would weaken Hamas, announced Ismail Haniyeh to a crowd of over 70,000 mourners at the funeral for Abdel Aziz Rantisi. “Every time a martyr falls,” Haniyeh insisted, “Hamas is strengthened.”This sort of boosterism and puffery has a long history among Palestinians. The last time Israeli forces did real damage to the Palestinian war machine, in May 2002, for example, Khaled Meshaal of Hamas announced that the Israeli devastation was...

<p>LONDON — Top Palestinian militants acknowledge that the militant organization Hamas is hard-pressed to follow through on its threats to wreak havoc inside Israel in response to the successive killings of its two top leaders.</p> <p>"Hamas might have a crisis on its hands after losing its leaders," said senior Hamas official Ismail Haniyeh at the funeral on Sunday for Abdel Aziz Rantisi, the Hamas leader killed in the Gaza Strip on Saturday.</p>

The United Nations Security Council late Monday began an emergency meeting to discuss Israel's assassination of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi. The Palestinians blamed the United States for emboldening Israel to assassinate Rantisi by vetoing a Security Council resolution condemning last month's "extrajudicial execution" of Hamas' founder. But Israel countered that it has been forced to take "defensive actions," including killing Rantisi, because the Palestinians refuse to meet their international obligation to arrest terrorists and get rid of terrorist groups like Hamas. The exchange took place at the start of the meeting, sought by the Arab League to address escalating...

Hamas appoints successor to Rantisi Special to World Tribune.comMIDDLE EAST NEWSLINEMonday, April 19, 2004 GAZA CITY – Hamas has quietly appointed Mahmoud A-Zahar to head the movement in the Gaza Strip. Hamas sources said Mahmoud A-Zahar, 53, was selected as the organization's new head in the Gaza Strip. A-Zahar succeeds Abdul Aziz Rantisi, who was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike on Saturday. The appointment was decided by Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Masha'al, the sources said. Masha'al, based in Damascus, became the undisputed leader of Hamas over the past month in wake of the Israeli assassination of Hamas founder...

Israel managed to find and kill Abdel Aziz Rantisi by placing one of his bodyguards under surveillance, Channel two's Arab affairs analyst reported Monday night. Rantisi was killed, along with two of his bodyguards, in an IAF missile strike Saturday night. Channel 2 reported that on the day of his assassination, Rantisi was dressed in disguise as an old Arab man. The disguise included an Arab cloak (Abaya) and headdress (Kafiyeh). His bodyguard was 'tailed' by a Palestinian collaborator, who called in his Israeli contacts the moment Rantisi and his entourage were about to switch cars near Rantisi's Gaza home,...

The killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi was an “inhuman act,” Pope John Paul II has said at the Vatican. Such acts are contrary to the will of God said the Pontiff. “I am following with great sadness the tragic news coming from the Holy Land and Iraq. The shedding of blood by brothers must end. Such inhuman acts are contrary to the will of God,” the Pope said on Sunday. His comments challenge the attitudes of many evangelical Christians in the US, who have said they support Israel’s policy of killing terrorists. The assassination however was also condemned...

<p>April 19, 2004 -- JERUSALEM -  Defiant Hamas leaders yesterday said they've already picked a new chief to replace assassinated Gaza Strip head Abdel Aziz Rantisi - but refused to publicly identify him.</p> <p>The move came as hundreds of thousands of frenzied Palestinians rampaged through Gaza, vowing to start a bloody "earthquake" against Israel for killing Rantisi less than a month after assassinating his predecessor, Sheik Ahmed Yassin.</p>

Original... Today's Update... And their first Your attention please"

<p>TEL AVIV — Hundreds of thousands of angry Palestinian mourners poured into the streets of Gaza City yesterday for the funeral procession of a Hamas leader killed in an Israeli missile attack the previous evening.</p> <p>With calls for revenge against Israel, a parade of Hamas' green banners, and masked gunmen firing into the air, the funeral of Abdel Aziz Rantisi bore many similarities to the one held less than a month ago after the assassination of Hamas' founder and spiritual leader Sheik Ahmed Yassin.</p>

SEOUL, April 19 (Xinhuanet) -- South Korea Monday voiced concern that Israel's assassination of a top Hamas leader over the weekend may further escalate tension in the region. Abdel Aziz Rantisi, leader of the Palestinian militant group Hamas, was killed Saturday by an Israeli missile strike. "The South Korean government is concerned about the possibility of the killing of new Hamas leader Rantisi causing a vicious circle of revenge between Israel and Palestine and further increasing tension in the region," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Shin Bong-kil in a statement. "Our government opposes any violence that mars peace and stability in...

BEIJING, April 19, (Xinhuanet) -- Tens of thousands of Palestinians, thirsty for revenge, filled the streets of Gaza City on Sunday for the funeral of Abdel Aziz Rantissi. The Hamas leader was killed the night before in a targeted Israeli strike with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon warning that his policy of attacking terrorist leaders would continue. Tens of thousands of Palestinian mourners cried out on Sunday to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi by Israeli forces. Following a four-hour-long procession through the heart of Gaza city, Rantissi's body, wrapped in a white shroud and the Hamas flag, was...

Hamas threatened a "volcano of revenge" against Israel as some 200,000 Palestinians packed the streets of Gaza for the funeral of the Islamic movement's assassinated leader Abdelaziz Rantissi.

Palestinian medical sources announced the martydom of Abdulaziz al-Rantesi, leader of Hamas in Gaza strip and two of his companions in an attack launched by a helicopter of the terrorist Zionist army organization, Saturday evening on a car they were using in Gaza city.

Frightened and shaking, Yasser Arafat jumped out of his bed in the semi-destroyed room in the Mukata. He has been a virtual prisoner here for many months now. The world, it seems, has almost forgotten him. Very few world dignitaries ever visit and the calls for Israel to allow him to leave Ramallah have all but ceased. Doesn't anyone care anymore? Creeping quietly towards the window, he listened to the never-ending buzz. Those damned Israeli helicopters! He turned on the radio: "This is Al-Jazeerah and here is the breaking news: "Hamas leader, Dr. Rantisi, was assassinated today as three missiles...

Hamas Leader Rantisi Dies of Natural Causes (2004-04-18) -- Hamas, the Palestinian social services agency, announced today that its recently-appointed leader Abdel Azziz Rantisi died this weekend of natural causes. Mr. Rantisi apparently perished from the same disease which took the life of his predecessor, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin less than one month ago."The autopsy showed that Abdel Azziz Rantisi died of a virulent, contagious kind of cancer that destroys the mind, and by natural cause-and-effect, the body," said an unnamed Palestinian coroner. "Although you may have read that Rantisi and Yassin died from Israeli missile attacks, that was...

Dr Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, who replaced the recently assassinated Hamas leader, Sheikh Yassin, had been at his post less than a month before Israel's targeted killing removed him on Saturday. A month is scarcely enough time to follow up on your initial meet-and-greet, but Rantissi got a few projects off the ground anyway. On the very morning of his death, a Hamas suicide mission killed an Israeli border guard at the Erez Crossing in an industrial area where Palestinians cross to work alongside Israelis. Had he lived, Rantissi would have kept the Israeli body count high. Targeted killings are counter-terrorism...

WITHIN hours of the killing of Abdel Aziz Rantissi by the Israelis, the Palestinian militant group Hamas chose a grey-bearded and softly spoken physician to become its third leader in just under four bloody weeks in the Gaza Strip. The appointment of Dr Mahmoud Zahar, 53, was kept secret as he joined tens of thousands of Palestinians at the funeral of Dr Rantissi. Dr Zahar is married with children. He was for years best known as a working doctor and the personal physician of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, Hamas’s spiritual leader, who was killed in an Israeli missile attack last month....

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Hamas threatened "100 unique reprisals" against Israel for killing its leader, Abdel Aziz Rantisi, as hundreds of thousands of mourners flooded the streets Sunday in a show of strength and fury. It wasn't clear if the Islamic militant group was strong enough to carry out large-scale attacks after a sustained two-year Israeli campaign against it. Despite promises of revenge, Hamas still has not struck in the three weeks since Israel assassinated Rantisi's predecessor, Hamas founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin. Hamas chose a replacement for Rantisi on Sunday, but did not disclose his name - a...

<p>WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States did not know Israel was going to kill Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice said Sunday.</p> <p>Speaking to ABC's "This Week," Rice said President Bush "doesn't discuss with [Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon] Israeli operations."</p>

Justified and productive Apr. 18, 2004 "They had the opportunity to hand themselves to justice and answer for their crimes. They refused to do this. It goes without saying that we would have much preferred this, but the news that Saddam's sons are no longer a threat to the security of Iraq will be a reassurance to the Iraqi people."– Jack Straw, July 22, 2003, on the killing, by US troops, of Uday and Qusay Hussein "One has to treat such claims and proposals by al-Qaida with the contempt they deserve. This is a murderous organization which seeks impossible objectives...

"IT was Bush." The verdict was near unanimous amid the rage on Palestinian streets last night after Israel assassinated Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantissi in an air strike the Arab world blamed on the new alliance between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and the US President. "Bush has Rantissi's blood on his hands," Khamis Saadi cried as he joined the tens of thousands who swept into Gaza's shabby streets for Dr Rantissi's funeral. "All doors to hell should be opened against the Israelis and against the Americans." Dr Rantissi's body was carried aloft on a stretcher draped in a green...

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - After President Bush came down firmly on Israel's side on some of the thorniest issues in the Mideast conflict this week, Palestinian leaders went into crisis mode, considering a series of grand and radical gestures. Yet they've done very little - Yasser Arafat issued an oblique, belated condemnation of Washington's new stance Saturday and his foreign minister canceled meetings with U.S. officials set for next week. Palestinian hawks were further stunned and outraged when Israel killed Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi in a missile strike on his car as part of its campaign to wipe...

ISRAEL'S Deputy Prime Minister today said no terrorist could feel safe after the assassination of Hamas leader Abdelaziz Rantissi. "No one who is personally, individually and directly involved in perpetrating terror, in financing terror, in providing the necessary support for the suicidal attackers can feel immune," Ehud Olmert told CNN in the US. "It is entirely inconceivable ... that those people, those who are making these suicidal attacks possible, those who really make the difference in terms of the brutal terror against innocent civilians, that they will be able to plan, to execute, to finance, to co-ordinate, to provide all...

    Sat Apr 17, 3:33 PM ET A Palestinian youth holds up the Muslim prayer beads belonging to Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi following an Israeli airstrike on a car in Gaza April 17, 2004. Rantissi, the top official of the Palestinian militant group in the Gaza Strip (news - web sites), was killed in an Israeli air strike on Saturday, medics said. REUTERS/Ahmed Jadallah     Sun Apr 18, 8:28 AM ET Mourners carry the body of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi during his funeral, Sunday, April 18, 2004 after he was assassinated in an Israeli missile strike on his...

France condemned Israel's killing of Hamas leader Abdel Aziz Rantisi, with the French foreign ministry saying such "extrajudicial executions" are violations of international law. "Every state in the region has the right to protect its citizens, but not with no regard for international law," the ministry said in a statement Sunday, referring to the Middle East. Rantisi, the head of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and two bodyguards were killed as they rode in his car on Saturday in Gaza City near his home, hospital officials said. Rantisi was one of Israel's top targets after it assassinated Hamas founder Sheik...

27 Nisan 5764 4.18.2004 Sunday 10:55 PM Israel Time   Print This Article   US upholds Israel's right to defense; UK, EU, PA and UN rap Rantisi killingWashington calls on Israel "to consider consequences;" Hamas vows revenge Maariv News Service, Itamar Inbari and Marwan Atmana The United States refrained from condemning the assassination of Hamas leader Abd al-Aziz Rantisi, and upheld Israel’s right to defend itself from terrorism. However, the White House denied giving Israel the green light to go after Rantissi, and advised Israel to consider the consequences of its actions. A statement issued by Bush’s press secretary, Scott...

And without further adu... Little Ahmad

  ................................................................................................................................................... Sunday, April 18, 2004 A Chronology of Terrorist Attacks Carried out by Hamas Since September 2000 Sunday, 18 April, 2004 Background Information Attributed to "security sources" [Provided by the IDF Spokesperson] Since the beginning of the current conflict, the Hamas terrorist organization is responsible for carrying out 425 various terrorist attacks which resulted in the killing of 377 and wounding of 2,076 Israeli citizens and soldiers. The Hamas organization has carried out 53 suicide attacks, killing 289 Israelis and injuring 1,649. A Chronology of Terrorist Attacks Carried out by the Hamas Since September 2000: April 17,2004 -...

Peres on Rantisi hit: "Whoever deals with murder pays the price" Yifat Zohar Maariv 17 April 2004 http://maarivintl.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article&articleID=6084 Opposition and Labor Chairman Shimon Peres, who is currently in Poland, reacted positively to the assassination of Hamas leader Rantisi. "Whoever deals with murder pays the price", he said. [IMRA: Peres made the remark on an Israel Government television Channel One news broadcast. Peres sharply criticized the killing of Rantisi's predecessor, Yassin and earlier this evening Min. Uzi Landau warned that a "Labor-Likud-Shinui sadwich" government would not approve such an operation. Israel Government Television, that has bent over backwards in its coverage...

US Senator John Kerry, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, said on Sunday Israel's killing of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi was justified because Israel "has every right in the world to respond to any act of terror against it." "Hamas is a terrorist, brutal organization," he told NBC's Meet the Press. "It has had years to make up its mind to take part in a peaceful process. They refuse to ... and I support Israel's efforts to try to separate itself and to try to be secure."

Speaking to reporters at Yad Vashem on the eve of Holocaust Day, Chief of Staff Lt.Gen. Moshe Ya'alon stressed the importance "to remember and never forget," and to state clearly to the world "never again." At a seminar attended by the top IDF echelon, Ya'alon said Israel is in the midst of fighting a complex battle, one in which the army is required to maintain its morale and qualitative norms. "We will not allow what happened in the past to happen again," he said. Describing the former Hamas leader Abdel Azziz Rantissi as an arch terrorist. "It is important to...

By Nidal al-MughrabiGAZA (Reuters) - Tens of thousands of mourners cried out Sunday to avenge the assassination of Hamas leader Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi by Israel ahead of its planned U.S.-backed pullout from Gaza. Reuters Photo   The Hamas military wing pledged "100 retaliations" for Rantissi, a 56-year-old firebrand who was the second Hamas leader Israel killed in Gaza in less than a month. Sheikh Ahmed Yassin died in a missile attack on March 22. Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon (news - web sites) praised the army for Saturday's helicopter strike on Rantissi, the Palestinian Muslim group's political leader in Gaza, and...