Posted on 04/04/2002 10:18:40 AM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
| SMOKING GUN - Israel says Arafat signed pay slip to "terrorists" | |
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By Megan Goldin
JERUSALEM, April 4 (Reuters) - Israel said on Thursday it
had found two documents signed by Yasser Arafat which showed the
Palestinian leader authorised payment to militants wanted by
Israel for shooting and bombing attacks.
Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said he had not
seen the documents but expected they were fabricated and accused
Israel of using them to distract attention from its military
operations across the West Bank.
Israeli cabinet minister Dan Meridor said the documents
showed Arafat had "a direct link to terrorist attacks, including
the finance of them".
"A direct link that cannot provide for any deniability,"
Meridor told a news conference in which the documents were
presented to reporters. He said they were taken from Arafat's
headquarters, which has been surrounded by Israeli troops.
Colonel Miri Eisen, a military intelligence officer, said
the documents had been sent by an activist in the al-Aqsa
Martyrs Brigades, an armed group linked to Arafat's Fatah
faction, to Fatah leader Marwan Barghouthi. They were then
passed on to Arafat for approval.
Arafat signed in the corner of each document and wrote the
amount to be paid to a total of 15 "terrorists" involved in
killing Israelis, including two bombings in the Israeli city of
Hadera and numerous shooting attacks, Eisen said.
"The requests themselves were to pay salaries but they were
all highly wanted terrorists at the time of the request,"
Meridor said.
The United States has recently put the al-Aqsa Martyrs
Brigades on its list of terrorist organisations.
In one document Arafat wrote "allocate $600 to each of them"
on a note asking for money for three militants including one
behind a shooting at a banquet hall in the Israeli city of
Hadera in January in which six people were killed, Eisen said.
She said the second document showed Arafat's signature
ordering payment of $350 each to 12 al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades
members involved in shootings of Israelis in the Tulkarm area of
the West Bank.
TRUCK LOADS OF DOCUMENTS Eisen said the documents were among two truckloads of papers taken from Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah in a military offensive launched after a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 26 Israelis at a religious feast last week. The bombings are part of a more than 18-month-old uprising against Israeli occupation in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Israel presented another document on Tuesday which it said was an invoice from the al-Aqsa brigades listing the cost of weapons and funding for between five to nine bombs per week. Erekat accused Israel of forging Tuesday's document and said: "I'm sure we'll witness a series of fabricated materials." Eisen denied the documents were fabricated and said military intelligence staff were going through thousands more documents. She said the documents made public on Thursday had been faxed to Barghouthi by Raed al-Karmi, an al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades leader in Tulkarm, and then sent on to Arafat for approval. She said Karmi's name and the names in both documents had appeared on a list of "most wanted" people which Israel handed to Arafat demanding their arrest, three months before the Palestinian leader signed the document authorising payment on September 9, 2001. Karmi, suspected by Israel of killing nine people, was killed in January in a bomb explosion which Palestinians blamed on Israel. Israel said he was killed in a "work accident" while preparing a bomb. ((Jerusalem newsroom, 972-2-537-0502, jerusalem.newsroom@reuters.com))
Sheesh! Murder-for-hire is getting cheaper these days.
Just like the Bin Laden tape was fabricated.
Just like the arms shipment from Iraq was Israeli planned,
These Palestinians are such cards aren't they?
Everything is a conspiracy, and they can only believe what they already know. Anything to the contrary - tape recordings, video, or paper trails - must all be forgeries. In this atmosphere, negotiations and peace talks seem futile.
Any recipients since then have been insulted by the slander of being counted among the likes of Arafat.
I am waiting to hear the words you used to describe that other murdering bastard- Bin Ladin. Dead or Alive.
But, I'm not holding my breath.
Sincerely.
They should occupy the WB thoroughly and then set up a UN monitored election process for the refusee population to find a new and more sensible "government", all the while providing 24hr bodyguarding for the election candidates and witness protection programs for their helpers and... You know nothing can ever work while this Arafat/Hamas mafia is running the place. Nothing can beat these thugs and attain a normal society here while the mullas beat the propaganda drum either. And then there's the schools that beat the drum too.
Sigh. Maybe its just like an filthy apartment - chuck in a few bug bombs and lock the doors -- then clean up the mess and move in.
All forged by Israel of course. And the EUrotrash and everyone else and their cats and dogs will believe the PalPots or conveniently ignore the evidence.
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