Well what do you know....Palestinian group coming out of the closet.......and telling us how the Palestinian Authority treats their own folk.........another Mossad trick no doubt as our resident looney, Fullguy/Costic will have us believe.......wanker that he is.
GEOSTRATEGY-DIRECT INTELLIGENCE BRIEF Arafat oppresses with West-funded forces Report details Saddam-like tactics against his own people
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted: May 22, 2004 1:00 a.m. Eastern
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Yasser Arafat has turned his Western-financed security forces into tools of oppression that call to mind the Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein, reports Geostrategy-Direct, the global intelligence news service
Arafat has taken a page from Saddam's book and instead of paying decent salaries, implicitly encourages security officers to rob, pillage, rape and even kill ordinary Palestinians who get in their way.
New evidence of the methods and abuses of the Palestinian security agencies is presented in a new report by the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, perhaps the only Palestinian group that has actually monitored Palestinian human rights abuses. The report, "Intrafada, the Chaos of the Weapons," documents official Palestinian abuse of their own people and the transformation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip into a wasteland of violence.
What do Palestinians do in such a hell? Those who can, run. The report said Christian migration has increased and cities with Christian majorities have been taken over by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Hamas and Jihad encourage this migration. They first target Christian women who don't dress according to Islamic norms. They also take over Christian homes for use in attacks against Israeli forces, particularly in the Bethlehem area.
The report said 90 percent of what it termed "gang lawlessness" can be traced to people on the PA payroll. The report said Fatah operatives often bring their guns to a dispute between Palestinian neighbors.
One of Fatah's favored and most feared tactics is the accusation of collaboration with Israel, a charge that can carry a sentence of death without trial. The PA or the terror gangs often swoop in to detain, torture and even kill a Palestinian accused of collaboration. No one bothers to investigate, even if Arafat orders a probe.
Collaboration also provides an option to punish women. The accusation by a husband that his wife is a collaborator has a chilling affect on the family. Women who don't listen to their fathers have been accused of collaboration to ensure that they are killed. Fatah terrorists often rape and then kill women who refuse to marry them and later charge the victims with being collaborators.
"Violence permeates the security forces, and it is worsened by legal confusions," the group said in a report. "Unless and until more accountability and order is introduced, the problem will remain and could worsen as PA control continues to deteriorate. Sometimes violence erupts between police members and loyalists of political factions."
From January to October 2003, 102 people were killed in premeditated murders, said the report, citing PA police statistics. During this time, there were 135 attempted murders and 746 threats of murder. Nablus had the largest number of murders, with 23.
Arafat operates more than 12 security and police agencies. They include the civilian police, civil defense, national force, Preventive Security Apparatus, coastal police, civilian intelligence, military intelligence and the presidential guard. There are also secret intelligence and security cells that conduct operations so dirty that the PA doesn't want to be formally connected.
The rivalries between the security forces make them ineffective at best and dangerous at worst. The report cited an absence of a command structure in the dozen or more PA security agencies, including the police, Preventive Security Apparatus, intelligence services, coastal force and presidential guard.
"The confusion is especially dangerous with regard to the multitude of Palestinian policing forces, whose roles remain ambiguous, but who exist independently of each other," the report stated. "Even insiders do not know who is in charge and which branch is responsible for which tasks. The overlap of jurisdictions can result in both verbal and physical infighting among those forces designed to protect the larger populace from violence," the report stated.
"Arafat only exacerbates the problem by playing each security chief off against the other in order to secure his own position."
The PA security forces have been allocated about $300 million for their restoration and restructuring. But U.S. officials said most of the money has not been relayed because Arafat has failed to take any significant measures.
But the European Union has continued to pump money into the PA security forces while Britain has accelerated training and equipping of the police and security agencies.
"As Arafat's power continues to decline, the internal regime struggle is likely to intensify," the report said. "Governmental changes have resulted in a schizophrenic administration, part of which holds that Palestinians need a national liberation movement under strong and authoritative leadership – a view espoused by Arafat and his supporters."
Some examples: In July 2003, a Palestinian laborer was dragged out of his home in Bethlehem and accused of collaborating with Israel. The interrogation was conducted by the Fatah-headed Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade in cooperation with the PA.
"Under threat of violence [including firing at his feet] the man confessed to having committed certain thefts, but insisted that he was not responsible for Israeli assassinations of Palestinians in Bethlehem," the report said. "When he finished his 'confession,' the militants broke his hand and leg, smashed his teeth and hit him with an iron bar on his back. He was then dumped into a garbage container where he was found the next day."
In August 2003, a 29-year-old student of Jerusalem Open University was arrested by members of the Palestinian Criminal Security forces. He was accused of slandering the security services and tainting the reputation of a PA general. The report said he was beaten for 16 days straight until he was released "for lack of evidence."
"These examples are but the tip of the iceberg," the report said.
Perhaps the most violent city is Nablus. The northern West Bank city has been torn between rival gangs that try to grab a piece of the action. Most of the gunmen are young Palestinians who battle for vengeance, influence and control over smuggling and extortion.
PA security forces, however, have not been disciplined or even sanctioned by the West. Indeed, the report said, the United States has encouraged Arafat to use his security agencies to oppress his people. The result is chaos.
"Palestinians are at times encouraged and even advised by outside forces to engage in internal violence and infighting," the report said. "The American government, for example, has repeatedly praised Arafat when he has cracked down on his own people. As a result, Palestinians opposed to or critical of America and its policies are likely to turn away from the PA and join those groups who contest U.S. actions."
The report does not envision an improvement in the West Bank and Gaza Strip under the Arafat regime. The human rights group said PA leaders have warned the U.S. that it cannot do such tasks demanded by the West as the collection of illegal weapons from Palestinian communities.
"The PA is simply unable to carry out any weapons collection," the report said. "With its declining authority, control and legitimacy, such an attempt would amount to digging its own grave. It is for this reason, and for fear of a Palestinian civil war, that the authorities 'do not want' to initiate a weapons collection. Even if Arafat ordered the cessation of violence and the handing-in of weapons by armed groups, it is unclear if his call would be followed."
The report ends with an assessment of an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and parts of the West Bank, a plan supported by the Bush administration. The Palestinian group warns that an Israeli withdrawal from the Gaza Strip would be disastrous for Palestinians. When the Israelis are gone, the report said, Palestinians expect an increase in PA abuse, corruption and dictatorship, with their only hope being a Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip. The Palestinian group does not envision cooperation between Hamas and the PA in sharing power.
"Two opposing power centers – the PA and Hamas – cannot co-exist or coordinate affairs, especially if there is no geographical continuity," the report said. "The 'Gaza First' initiative thus raises the prospect of two separate Palestinian states – an Islamic one in Gaza, and a PA-controlled one in the West Bank."
