Posted on 04/02/2002 11:00:14 PM PST by kattracks
WASHINGTON, Apr 02, 2002 (United Press International via COMTEX) -- The CIA and other U.S. agencies played a key role Tuesday in negotiating the surrender of approximately 180 people from the West Bank compound of Palestinian security chief Jabril Rajoub, U.S. officials confirmed.
"We helped negotiate a resolution to the standoff," one U.S. official told United Press International. "We wanted to prevent an attack and evacuate the people the Israelis said were wanted terrorists."
More than 15 Israeli tanks and two Apache helicopters had Monday night surrounded the compound, in the West Bank town of Bitonia, saying they were looking for suspected Palestinian terrorists holed up there.
Under the U.S.-brokered deal, the people in the compound will be detained by the Israelis for 24 hours, to see if any of them are on the Jewish state's list of suspected terrorists, a senior Palestinian security official told UPI.
The U.S. official said the State Department and the CIA played a key role in both Bitonia and from Washington by telephone negotiating the evacuation of the compound. An Israeli official also confirmed the CIA's involvement Tuesday.
Rajoub himself went on the al-Jazeera network Tuesday and denied any role by the United States negotiating an end to the standoff. He said the people in the compound decided to surrender after the Israeli army used more than 60 people as human shields in front of tanks. That claim could not be verified, however.
Earlier Tuesday he told UPI by telephone in the middle of the standoff, "There would be a real massacre if the Israeli army enters the headquarters." He said his men "would fight the Israeli troops and defend their building no matter what the price is."
Israeli officials have said that they suspect militants arrested recently by Rajoub's security forces were holed up in the compound. Israelis said they shot at the compound only after demanding turnover of the suspects.
In an interview in Washington Tuesday, Hasan Abdel Rahman, the PLO's chief representative in Washington and Yasser Arafat's de facto ambassador said: "There were a few prisoners who were there."
But Rahman stressed that primarily the people inside the compound were "families, women secretaries and administrators."
Rahman said that many of those arrested by the Palestinian Authority have been detained in security offices because so many prisons have been destroyed by the Israelis since the beginning of the intifada.
"In every city there is one prison or more. The Israelis have destroyed most of them, almost all of our prisons were attached to the police stations which have been targets for the Israelis," he said.
The clash with Rajoub is not the first since the intifada began in September 2000. Last year, Israelis fired a missile at his compound that narrowly missed him, a cause for concern from the Bush administration. Rajoub has had a close relationship with the CIA since the beginning of the Oslo Peace Process in 1993.
"In terms of intelligence collection for the United States on stuff coming into Hamas, on what kind of money is coming in, what foreign countries are doing what, Rajoub is one of our best official sources," retired CIA Middle East Operations Officer Whitley Bruner told United Press International Tuesday. "He is one of the guys the United States is in touch with all the time because of his charismatic leadership and his ability to work with radicals and with the Israelis."
Bruner said Rajoub spent 17 years in an Israeli prison where he learned fluent Hebrew, making him an effective interlocutor with the Israelis as well.
But many of the old relationships forged between the United States and key figures within the Palestinian Authority have come under intense strain in recent weeks. On March 6, one week before U.S. peace envoy Anthony Zinni arrived in Jerusalem to restart security talks and implement a cease fire, Israeli F-16s fired rockets at a building in Gaza minutes before Arafat's Intelligence chief, Amin al-Hindi, and 11 aides were about to enter.
The Bitonia deal comes as the Israeli army intensified its wide military offensive against Palestinian towns, refugee camps and villages in the West Bank, where Palestinian sources said 12 Palestinians were killed.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army lifted for two hours a curfew imposed on Ramallah since Friday to allow the residents to buy food, medicine and gas. Medical officials used the time to bury the bodies of 25 Palestinians who had been kept into the hospital's refrigerators since Friday.
*
(With reporting by Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza.)
By ELI J. LAKE, UPI State Department Correspondent
Copyright 2002 by United Press International.
/sarcasm.
So, US operatives are working WITH Israeli intelligence ON the Ground in the west bank eh?
I guess the "leaked" document reported today about arafat paying for suicide bombers, was a calculated one from our disengaged, and "I wish he would do more" president?
Nice John... very damned nice catch.
NOW we know WHY powell said with a little certainty... it will be over in a couple of weeks... perhaps we are not as detached from ops as is being projected? heh heh... nice acting job guys.
I suppose then too, that the missiles fired into northern Israel, and the return fire and threat issued to Syria and Iran, probably did NOT fall on deaf ears either. heh heh... I wonder how many of those "peace protesting" palestinian supporters, were actually CIA plants in arafattys headquarters yesterday.
I also wonder, how many of his special ops we have intercepted on TAPE for presentation to our cowardly allies in Europe later this month. HOW many CAlls to Bagdad and Tehran... and BEIJING?
The game it appears, dear John... is very much afoot.
kaboom.
What were we just saying?
:-)
Don't worry, I won't say a word..;^)
It has been kinda fun to watch Europe twist in the wind, not knowing what's going on, and shooting their mouths off about Israel, and the USA for the last three weeks.
I hear that eating crow in Europe, is considered a delicacy? Bon apetite?
With us "leaking" our involvement in the West Bank ops with Israelis, can USA action be far off in other places? Interesting.
Ah, yes -- how true. It surely spark another round of criticism from the know-nothing crowd =^)
I don't want to hear the Islamobombos bitching about us taking sides in the war on terrorism...
Ah, yes -- how true. It [would] surely spark another round of criticism from the know-nothing crowd =^)
Cut to the Whitehouse..Colin Powel comes in the room.." I just cut a deal with Israel..[Rumsfeld winces}...
"Whats it gonna cost us"..Bush asks...
"Just a couple of Jets..and some missiles..with spares"
Cut to an Arab league meeting...Yasser Arafat is in a back room with Arab regime big wigs.."Oh my brothers..we have defeated the Ezz Ra eeli's..we have won"...
A Saudi Prince leans forward and says.."Your F-ing killing us..our balls are swollen you stupid ass"!
Again.
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