U.S. helped Israel locate weapons ship: report

Reuters/The Globe ^ | Reuters

[consrv_at_IsraelForum_dot_com]

Washington — U.S. intelligence agencies helped Israel track down a ship bound for Palestinian-ruled territory carrying a large cache of arms allegedly obtained from Iran, The Washington Times reported on Tuesday.

Citing unnamed U.S. intelligence officials, the newspaper said Israel approached the CIA last month with a request for help in locating a vessel carrying 50 tonnes of arms believed destined for the Palestinian Authority. The arms shipment was seized by Israel in the Red Sea on Jan. 3.

The Washington Times reported that U.S. intelligence agencies, using various high-tech intelligence gathering means, were able to identify the ship near Iran's Kish Island, about 18 kilometres off the Iranian coast.

Israel said the ship, the Karine-A, was carrying rockets, anti-tank missiles, small arms and explosives.

Quoting intelligence officials, the newspaper report said many of the weapons were identified as coming from Iranian production facilities.

U.S. intelligence officials told the newspaper the U.S. assistance was considered vital in Israeli military efforts to identify the vessel carrying the weapons.

"Our assistance was crucial," one U.S. official was quoted as saying.

Israeli officials said the arms were loaded off Kish Island on the night of Dec. 11-12 with help from the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrilla group Hizbollah.

Iran on Monday denied any link to the Palestinian Authority and called for an investigation of Israeli claims of Iranian involvement in an attempt to smuggle weapons to the Palestinians.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon earlier accused Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat of ordering the arms but the Palestinian Authority denied any link and has ordered its own inquiry into the cache, which officials say could have sparked a major escalation in the Mideast conflict.

[veronica]

Ping.

[veronica]

Bump.

[Long Cut]

It appears that the Kaffiyah Krew has retired for a while. They'll be back, unfortunately. Oh, well, they're easy to defeat.

[Cachelot]

U.S. urges Israel to defer arms to India

...said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Rotfl. Urges :). Translation: "We would like it if Israel could wait up a bit with delivering these arms to India. We wanna be in the bidding round too, dammit. And no, you DON'T say I said that!"

[monkeyshine]

Does this mean that Israel will no longer sell weapons to the enemies of the US - such as China. Probably not...

When did they sell weapons to China?

[CommiesOut]

Uh oh...
Israel Denies U.S. Helped Track Arms Ship

[Orion78]

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