CNN: 'Compelling evidence' that Arafat knew of arms shipment

[NewsGuy]

From CNN:

Israelis have presented what the Bush administration believes is "compelling evidence" that Yasser Arafat knew about a shipment of weapons intercepted by Israel, a senior State Department official told CNN.

"We now know enough to say that there were actions that occurred that we can only assume Arafat had knowledge of, could have been involved with," the official said.

...

"We have had extensive briefings from the Israelis, and at the moment there is quite a bit of compelling evidence that figures Fatah and the Palestinian Authority were involved in this shipment, and it is clear that Chairman Arafat has a responsibility at this point to provide an immediate and clear explanation," the official said.

"We have concluded that part of these transactions and shipments were of such magnitude that we have to conclude that Arafat would have known," he said.

When asked what impact this might have on U.S. attempts to mediate a cease-fire and jump start long-stalled peace talks, the official refused to answer directly.

...

The captain of the ship, who was arrested by Israel, told reporters Monday he worked for the Palestinian Authority and that the shipment was to be delivered to the Palestinians.

...

He said he took his orders from a Palestinian Authority official in Greece.

[L@mplighterM]

If my memory serves me correctly CNN reported a few days ago that the US had informed Israel about the ship. I cant really recall which CNN site it was because I'm multi-lingual.

Further CNN reported that the US felt that Israel had every right to have seized the ship.

It dosn't surprise me the least that Arafat is involved in this matter. Needless to say it would've been terrible if the PA had gotten the weapons, one can only shudder at the thought. At least now the US has taken the steps to make their opinion known in concrete terms vrs diplomatic language.

A question that should be asked is whether this was the first shipment and could there have been further deliveries scheduled.
One can only hope this was a failed test run and that there weren't any prior shipments.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by L@mplighterM
If my memory serves me correctly CNN reported a few days ago that the US had informed Israel about the ship.

Yes, the reports said that the US was active in tracking the ships movements and my guess is that the US was also in the area to prevent any problems when Israeli commandos took over the Palestinian ship.

But the US was not a part of the original intelligence gathering process, supposedly.

[L@mplighterM]

I'm sure that there's a lot of ships sailing in that area. For the US to have tracked that specific ship one can only conclude that ther was prior knowledge about it's cargo. At some point prior to departure someone knew about the weapons.

There's finite ways that information could've leaked to Israel. I don't believe that it's too far fetched for someone to think that the CIA had something to do with it. In any event someone picked up a fair piece of change for this information.

[NewsGuy]

Originally posted by L@mplighterM
I'm sure that there's a lot of ships sailing in that area. For the US to have tracked that specific ship one can only conclude that ther was prior knowledge about it's cargo.

That's true.

All I can say is that I'm happy to hear that there is such close cooperation that is producing results to protect Israel against, at least some, Islamic terrorism.

I also hope that this might be finally the straw that breaks the camel's back and a green light is given to Israel to eliminate Arafat, which may then pave the way to a Palestinian leadership that is 1. democratic and 2. capable of reaching a peace agreement.

[L@mplighterM]

Arafat was democratically elected six years ago as far as I understand it. Sadly the top contenders for his position is worse than him and if that wasn't the case he would have been eliminated a long time ago.

In some places in the world Demacracy dosn't have the same meaning like in many of the western countries. It even lost it's meaning in the US in the last presidential election too me. I've discussed that election in many parts of the world and many people feel the same way.

Terrorism and Islamic fundamentalists are an integral part of life in all Islamic societies . Because of the close proximity of Israel to these countries and their inability or their unwilligness to deal with the issue I dont see how peace can ever be established in the region.

I would dare to say that any Muslim country that's not willing to turn a blind eye to Islamic Fundamentalism would cease to exist without internal terrorism.

[Not Beilin]

Even though Arafat was "elected" by the Palestinians, he is just a two-bit corrput dictator. There is no democratic system by the Palis.

When's the next elections scheduled for? No such thing planned since it would be very very tough to have an election when Arafag has executed all his political opposition that may have been against terror.