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Just one week ago, on October 6, The Evening Bulletin broke the story that U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, during her Middle East sojourn, had met with and encouraged the Fatah, which sponsors the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, defined by Rice’s own U.S. State Department in its annual report as one of the “terrorist groups in this region”, listed as: “The Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades (Fatah’s militant wing).”
Now it can be confirmed that Rice not only met with and encouraged Fatah, which continues to operate the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, but she offered to arm the Fatah.
The New York Times reported that the U.S. proposed expanding Abbas’ Force 17 from 3,500 men to 6,000 as part of a $26-million plan to strengthen the Palestinian leader, while the Associated Press and Yediot Ahronot, Israel’s leading daily newspaper, also reported that new training facilities for Force 17 are slated to be set up in the West Bank town of Jericho and in Gaza, at a cost of $2 million each, according to the U.S. proposal.
Abu Yousuf, an officer in the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigade, said in an interview with journalist Aaron Klein, the bureau chief of the on World Net Daily online news service, that the U.S. is planning to transfer weapons and aid to Force 17, which protects Abbas and also serves as a special security force on behalf of the Fatah party, adding that “There is a chance that Israel will attack the Palestinian territories, and in this case, these weapons and others provided (by the U.S. to Force 17) will be directed towards the (Israeli) occupation.”
Continued Abu Yousuf, “They (Americans) hope that these arms will be used against our brothers in Hamas, but we ask Allah that our brothers are also aware of this issue and will not play into the hands of the Americans and the Israelis…. These weapons will not be used in an internal war but against Israelis,” he said. “Force 17 is proud that we were the first to lead the Palestinian people during tough times such as resistance operations. We will also be the first to lead the Palestinians in the current struggle against Israeli occupation.”
Senior Palestinian officials also told Klein that “The U.S. is planning to transfer ammunition and new assault rifles to Force 17 within days and has pledged to procure about $28 million in aid to Abbas,” saying that “the U.S. would help train Force 17 members in the operation of the new weapons and in advanced combat techniques in facilities already in use in Jericho.”
In June, Abbas appointed senior Al Aksa Brigades leader Mahmoud Damra as a senior commander, despite the fact that he was wanted for murder in Israel for leading a terror cell based in Ramallah that was allegedly responsible for scores of shootings against Israelis. Damra was arrested by Israeli security forces two weeks ago.
Together with the Islamic Jihad terror group, the Al Aksa Brigades also took responsibility suicide bombings inside Israel the past two years, including an attack in Tel Aviv in April that killed American teenager Daniel Wultz and nine Israeli citizens.
The Fatah movement, bolstered by Western aid, has confirmed that it has indeed received new shipments of US made assault rifles and ammunition.
According to the authoritative Middle East News Line, Palestinian sources said that Fatah units in the West Bank received thousands of U.S.-origin M-16 assault rifles. These sources said that assault weapons were supplied to Fatah units as part of a western aid package to forces loyal to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
“The weapons are meant for PA forces but they end up with Fatah in the war against Hamas,” a Palestinian security source said.
In May, the United States had helped to finance the transfer of about 2,000 assault rifles from Jordan to the expanded Presidential Guard led by Abbas.
Palestinian sources told the Middle East News Line that the U.S.-financed plan to expand the Presidential Guard from 2,500 to about 6,000 has led to a weapons flood in the West Bank. These sources reported that Hamas “has the money to buy these weapons from the Fatah.”
U.S. Response
Asked about how the U.S. could consider arming a group the U.S. itself officially links to a terrorist organization, an American government official stuck by the official position of the U.S. State Department, which is that “the US does not regard the Fatah as a terrorist organization.”
When this reporter asked the American government official to examine the U.S. State Department Web site in this regard, the U.S. government official said that the official was not familiar with the Web site in this regard, saying only that “Arafat signed a document denouncing violence and terrorism.”
PLO Never Approved Denunciation Of Violence And Terror
Yes, Arafat, the head of the Fatah, did sign the “declaration of principles” which denounced violence and terror on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993.
However, Arafat’s PLO executive council would not ratify the “declaration of principles” when the council was supposed to do so on October 6, 1993 at a special session at the PLO headquarters in Tunisia. Indeed, the PLO never ever approve these “declaration of principles”, otherwise known as the Oslo accords.
The journalist who broke the story that the PLO rejected the “declaration of principles” was Pinchas Inbari, the reporter for the now defunct Israeli left wing newspaper, Al HaMishmar, who was then only credentialed Israeli reporter at the PLO HQ in Tunis.
The Evening Bulletin has asked ten congressional offices for their response to the U.S. government decision to arm an organization which the U.S. government defines a group that is directly linked to a terrorist organization.
Next week, with only a few weeks to go before the critical midterm U.S. congressional elections, their respective answers will be published.
The Philadelphia Evening Bulletin 10/13/2006:
http://www.theeveningbulletin.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17323872&BRD=2737&PAG=461&dept_id=576361&rfi=6
