Posted on 01/09/2002 6:45:31 AM PST by truthandlife
The United States refrained from according responsibility for the "Karine A" weapons ship to the Palestinian Authority and its chairman, Yasser Arafat, for political reasons, U.S. officials say.
The Bush administration did not want to undermine peace envoy Anthony Zinni's visit to the country, and they were wary of giving a "green light" to hard-line Israelis who favor extreme action against the PA, the U.S. sources said.
The U.S. government views implementation of the Tenet and Mitchell plans as the top priority, and the ship capture is seen as an obstacle impeding progress on these cease-fire and peace initiatives, the sources added.
After U.S. State Department Spokesman Richard Boucher refrained in a Monday statement from attributing responsibility for the captured weapons ship, Assistant Secretary of State William Burns told Israel's ambassador to the U.S., David Ivry, that "the spokesman was not sufficiently accurate." Burns added: "The U.S. is well aware of the fact that the Palestinians bear responsibility. Their presence on the ship is compelling proof."
Israel has requested that the State Department correct its statement regarding the "Karine A" to make it consistent with the information the Bush Administration has received on the affair.
On Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that Israel's capture of the weapons ship was a legitimate act. But Rumsfeld, speaking in an interview broadcast on C-SPAN, stopped short of saying explicitly that the weapons cargo was destined for the PA.
A team of Israeli intelligence officials will arrive in Washington today to submit findings that Israel claims conclusively link the weapons ship to the PA and Arafat.
Israel has already given the U.S. a sizable amount of information gleaned from the interrogation of people who were seized aboard the ship. Israel has also shared the intelligence information that led to the capture of the "Karine A" with American officials. These details were originally relayed to Zinni during his visit to the country; later, they were also furnished to U.S. intelligence officials and to top members of the Bush administration.
PA will investigate
PA spokesmen said yesterday that Arafat has established a committee to investigate the "Karine A" affair. It will be comprised of top PA security officials from the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
The spokesmen continued to claim that their leadership had no connection to the arms ship, but said the PA is prepared to accept the results of an impartial inquiry into the affair.
"We have nothing to hide in the ship matter," PA Information Minister Yasser Abed Rabbo told a press conference in Ramallah yesterday. He said that the new PA committee will review the possible involvement of persons whose names have been mentioned in connection with the affair, as well as any new names that might come up.
Abed Rabbo added that the PA's investigation committee will relay its findings to the U.S. government, Russia and the European Union.
Top Arafat adviser Nabil Abu Rudeina said yesterday that the "Karine A" affair is an Israeli fabrication, and that the investigation committee will prove that the PA had no connection with the weapons ship.
According to a report published yesterday in the international security journal AFI Research, the capture of the "Karine A" was made possible by joint intelligence work carried out by U.S. and Israeli officials. According to the journal, which is published in both the U.S. and Britain, the vessel - which it says is Iraqi-owned - was under constant surveillance by U.S. naval ships and satellites from the moment it weighed anchor and set sail from its Iranian port, Bandar Abbas. But surveillance teams learned of the ship's ultimate destination only because crew members aboard the vessel violated orders requiring a complete radio black-out. Intelligence teams from both Israel and the U.S. then decoded these transmissions, and discovered that contrary to previous assessments, the vessel was headed toward the PA, and not toward Hezbollah forces in Lebanon.
Defense Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer said yesterday that "we have established a clear, irrefutable connection between the Palestinian Authority, and its head, on the one hand, and the process of bringing the ship to this region, including the purchase of weapons in Iran, on the other." Ben-Eliezer stressed that the attempt to bring the weapons ship to the Gazan coast was a collaborative effort between the PA, Iran and Hezbollah.
`Best week since intifada began'
Speaking yesterday to members of the Council for Peace and Security in Tel Aviv, Ben-Eliezer said there are some indications that the pressure exerted on Arafat has yielded results, and also that support for continued violence against Israel might be ebbing among the Palestinian public.
Ben-Eliezer said that this is the third week in which there has been a significant decline in terror attacks. There have been fewer attacks in the past week than in any other week since the intifada broke out in October 2000, the defense minister said.
Ben-Eliezer hinted in his comments that Israel and the PA are heading toward the end of the seven days of quiet that are mandated under the Tenet plan as a precondition for starting to implement the Mitchell plan. Yet Ben-Eliezer also expressed concern that an agreement worked out between Arafat and Islamic Jihad - under which the PA is not arresting members of the organization, and in exchange Islamic Jihad is not carrying out attacks within the Green Line - may not last.
US message to Israel--you must learn to get along with the terrorists
An addict usually requires "hitting bottom" before acquiring the desparation, and willingness to change. The first phase is detoxification.
Each time that Israel shows restraint, it is like enabling the addict. Each time the US restrains Israel, it is like enabling the addict. The addict must eventually experience the full impact, of its actions. (Japan and Germany?)
What I'm suggesting, is that short of a devastating, crushing blow, I doubt that the Palestinians will "get it." They are addicted to terrorism.
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