Free Republic

This week, US Sen. Arlen Specter submitted a troubling request to the US Justice Department. Specter asked that the US attorney-general request that Israel extradite convicted Hamas terrorist Hassan Salameh to stand trial in the US for the murder of three US citizens. Salameh was one of the commanders of Hamas at the time of his arrest in 1996. He was sentenced to some 50 consecutive life terms in prison for his direct involvement in the murder by suicide bombings and shooting attacks of scores of Israelis from 1994-1996. Given the steep sentence, why would Specter seek his extradition? Perhaps...

Major General Doron Almog does not have great faith in Mohammed Dahlan. The head of the Israel Defense Forces' Southern Command and the Palestinian Minister for Security are old acquaintances: In 1994, Almog, then a brigadier general, oversaw the IDF's redeployment in the Gaza Strip under the "Gaza and Jericho First" agreement. Dahlan came from Tunis to head the Preventive Security Service in Gaza. During the first 10 months of the deal, 18 Israelis, both soldiers and civilians, were killed in Gaza. The attacks, mostly committed by the Islamic organizations, continued despite Dahlan's assurances that the Palestinian Authority would stop...

Although talks between Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) and militant Islamic group Hamas over an end of attacks against Israelis broke down Friday with Hamas's walkout, other efforts to clear the streets of gunmen continued. Palestinian security chief Mohammed Dahlan on Friday offered to buy illegal weapons carried by members of the Al Aksa Martyrs' Brigades, a militia linked to Abbas' Fatah movement, according to several Palestinian officials and militia members. The buyback was to start in the coming days, they said. Dahlan has received money from the United States, Britain and other European countries to buy...

Four men are now in Israel's sights. Two – Yasser Arafat and Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi – are under siege in Ramallah. The other two are running for their lives with Israeli intelligence services on their heels Fatah-Tanzim militia chief Marwan Barghouti and Rashid Abu Shbak, deputy to Gaza preventative security chief Mohammed Dahlan. These manhunts take time. Palestinian bombmaker Yahya Ayyash was not caught in a day, while the world's most wanted fugitive, al-Qaida's Osama bin Laden, and his senior lieutenant, Imad Mughniyeh, continue to elude the most intensive pursuits. A senior Israeli security source, asking to remain...

Israeli sources claim that the U.S. now regards Mohammed Dahlan, head of the PA Preventive Security forces in Gaza, as a leading candidate to head that new security structure - and possibly step into line as Arafat's heir. Dahlan was in Washington last week, as were intelligence chiefs from Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, for meetings with Tenet. While in Washington, Israeli sources told Haaretz, Dahlan made a strong positive impression on National Security Adviser, Condoleezza Rice, while Mohammed Rashid, Yasser Arafat's financial adviser, failed to impress his American interlocutors, especially after reports came out that he had reached...