Posted on 01/07/2002 11:32:25 PM PST by IcommGen
(09:40) Report: US knows Karine A was headed for PA
It is reportedly clear to the US government that the weapons-laden Karine A vessel captured by Israeli naval commandos over the weekend was destined for the Palestinian Authority.
However, the US has refrained from issuing a statement indicating such in order to restrain a potential Israeli military response directed at the PA, American sources told Army Radio.
Omar Akawi, captain of the Karine A, said yesterday PA officials were directly involved in the purchase and smuggling of the 50 tons of arms it carried.
While US officials say privately they found PA Chairman Yasser Arafat's explanation of the Karine A unconvincing, the State Department yesterday refused to endorse Israel's version that the ship was commissioned by the PA. It said it is still studying the incident.
see entire news break (with links) at: http://www.jpost.com/Editions/2002/01/08/LatestNews/LatestNews.41316.html
You know what they say... if it looks like a chicken and it walks like a chicken...
I can just see this in court in the states. "Judge I admit that I owned the car, and that I was driving the car when I was arrested, and I see that I was followed from the warehouse by both the Cops and the DEA, but I have no idea where the 2 1/2 tons of cocaine came from that the car was stuffed with. I protest being arrested, I am innocent, the drugs were a plant from one of the cops pockets!"
Good one. Arafat started this intifadah. If the Israelis had their way the Palestinians would be stuck defending themselves with stones, and even then they would be crying in the press how the stonethrowing kids were brutalizing their soldiers.
Let's keep in mind how west bank came under Israel's control... Arabs attacked Israel...
The basis for the EXISTENCE OF THE PA, the soldiers it has that ISRAEL AND AMERICA ARMED AND TRAINED, and the landed that they recieved was based on OSLO (land for peace).
It explicitly forbids these weapons. If they aquire them, they've violated the pivotal part of Oslo, and thus negated not only their recognition in Israel and America (and most of the Western world) but the last that Israel gave them and should IMMEDIATELY TAKE BACK.
And armed Palestinian/Arab/Islamic/Dictatorship state in the West Bank and Gaza is a STRATEGIC THREAT to Israels very existence and will NEVER EXIST. Nuclear holocust in the Middle East will predate that event.
What you have to understand is that these weapons were to be used for purely peaceful purposes.
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