BB FANS

Israeli troops surround West Bank prison
U.S., British observers pull out.




JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Palestinian guards and Israeli forces clashed outside a prison complex in the West Bank city of Jericho on Tuesday after U.S. and British guards pulled back from monitoring positions at the facility, Western diplomatic and Palestinian security sources said.

The facility is the site where six Palestinian prisoners were transferred as part of an international agreement, ending an Israeli siege on former leader Yasser Arafat's compound in Ramallah on May 1, 2002.

Among the group were four Palestinian militants involved in the killing of Israeli government minister Rehavam Zeevi.

The head of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Ahmed Saadat, and Fouad Shubaki, who is considered the mastermind behind the Karin-A arms smuggling ship apprehended by the Israelis on January 3, 2002, round out a group of six prisoners.

The Karin-A shipment was an attempted shipment of arms from Iran to the Palestinian Authority.

Western diplomatic sources confirmed that the U.S. and British observers left the prison earlier in the day after repeated complaints to the Palestinians that the prisoners covered under the international agreement were being given free reign at the prison to come and go, and were being allowed to use cell phones.

Israeli forces surrounded the prison shortly after the U.S. and British monitors pulled out.

CNN

British Centre Attacked


Hundreds of furious Palestinians have stormed the British Council in Gaza City.

Windows were smashed and fires started as the building became a focus for anger following an Israeli raid on a prison in Jericho.

US and British inspectors had earlier visited the prison to supervise the jailing of those involved in the assassination of an Israeli cabinet minister in 2001.

Sky News understands they walked out because they were unhappy with the lax regime at the prison.

About 20 minutes after they left, Israeli forces arrived determined to take the prisoners away themselves - dead or alive.

Top militant leader Ahmed Saadat, who allegedly masterminded the 2001 assassination, vowed the prisoners would not surrender to the Israelis.

"We are not going to surrender. We are going to face our destiny with courage," Saadat told Arabic television station al Jazeera from the prison.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he held Britain and the US responsible for the raid.

Militants have since warned all Brits and Americans to leave the territory or face abduction.

The British Council provides education and services for Palestinians.

It has since said all its staff are locally appointed and are not British citizens. Sky

Will we ever reach a stage where the powers that be actually stand up to Israel and take action?

remind me of this quote in 13-14 days, when the Israelis are flying over Iran.
----

Calrissian: DEFCON 2, standing by.

God help us all if that ever happens, Calrissian.

Abbas Calls Raid an 'Unforgivable Crime'

By KARIN LAUB, Associated Press Writer 20 minutes ago

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip - Palestinian militants on Wednesday released the last four foreigners they had seized a day earlier to protest an Israeli military raid on a
West Bank prison. Meanwhile, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas called the raid an "unforgivable crime."


Palestinian security officials escorted the four hostages — a South Korean journalist, two French citizens and a Canadian — into the headquarters of the Palestinian preventive security agency in Gaza City. Security officials had worked through the night to secure their release.

Palestinian gunmen originally seized 11 foreigners after Tuesday's raid in the West Bank town of Jericho. Most of the hostages were quickly released unharmed.

In the raid,
Israel seized six wanted Palestinians, including the mastermind of the 2001 assassination of Tourism Minister Rehavam Zeeviof. Israel said Wednesday it is determined to try the detainees for the killing.

Palestinian anger over the raid lingered Wednesday as a protest strike was held. Palestinians closed shops across the West Bank and Gaza amid an outburst of anti-Western sentiment. In Gaza, schools opened, but most students left early. Nablus residents observed a general strike.

The raid set off unprecedented Palestinian reprisals against foreigners because U.S. and British wardens, who had supervised the Jericho prisoners under an unusual 2002 arrangement left their posts just before Israeli troops arrived. Gunmen vandalized Western offices and kidnapped 11 foreigners, including an American university professor. All have now been released.

Abbas cut short a European trip and called the raid an "unforgivable crime" and "an insult to the Palestinian people" as he toured the demolished complex.

Abbas suggested there was close coordination between British and American inspectors at the prison and Israeli forces. Abbas said the foreign monitors left Jericho at 9:20 a.m. Tuesday, and that Israeli forces entered town 10 minutes later.

Pressed to elaborate, he said: "I'm giving the facts. They (the monitors) left at 9:20 a.m., and the Israelis came in at 9:30 a.m. How can we explain that?"

The Israeli raid made Abbas appear increasingly weak to his people.

"This was a severe blow to the
Palestinian Authority and to Abu Mazen (Abbas) personally," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who was accompanying him.

The daylong siege came at a time when Abbas is wrangling over the division of powers with the Islamic militant Hamas, which is poised to form a new government this month. In the West Bank city of Nablus, hundreds chanted anti-Abbas slogans during a protest.

The raid came just two weeks before Israel's general election and boosted acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's image as a tough-minded leader. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz, a member of Olmert's centrist Kadima Party, dismissed allegations by Palestinians and critics at home that the operation, which involved some 1,000 troops, including elite commandos, was timed to win over hardline voters.

"Got 'em!" gloated one banner newspaper headline, above a large photo of blindfolded, handcuffed Palestinian militant leader Ahmed Saadat being led away by Israeli troops in the West Bank town of Jericho.

Israeli forces took the Palestinian Authority by surprise when they ringed the Jericho prison Tuesday morning and demanded the surrender of all prisoners, including Saadat and four accomplices in the .

Throughout the day, groups of prisoners emerged from the lockup, their hands raised and forced to strip to their underwear. Helicopters and tanks shelled the building and jackhammers tore down walls to force the others to give up as well. Saadat, leader of a radical PLO faction, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), held out until after nightfall, then walked out in a single file of prisoners and Palestinian police.

In all, more than 300 Palestinians were detained, and about 100 have since been released, the Israeli military said. Saadat and other top prisoners were questioned overnight at a small army base near Jericho. In addition to the PFLP prisoners, Israel seized Fuad Shobaki, the alleged financier of an illegal weapons shipment to the Palestinian Authority several years ago.

Israeli officials said Wednesday they are determined to try Saadat and four other PLFP activists for the assassination of Zeevi but will first have to overcome some legal hurdles. The four believed to be directly involved in the assassination were convicted in the past by a Palestinian court, and legal experts said they'd have to sort out first whether they can be tried again.

Despite the legal questions, Israel intends to keep Saadat and the others, Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni told Army Radio. "I have no doubt that they will stay with us for a long time," Livni said.

Zeevi, an ultranationalist who advocated the expulsion of Palestinians from Israeli-controlled territory, was shot dead in the hallway of a Jerusalem hotel in October 2001, and the PFLP claimed responsibility at the time.

Saadat and four PFLP activists directly involved in the killing were eventually arrested by Palestinian police. In April 2002, a makeshift court hastily convened in then-Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat's West Bank compound and sentenced the four to prison terms ranging from one to 18 years. Saadat was not charged, with Palestinian officials saying they did not believe he was involved in Zeevi's death.

At the time of the trial, Israeli forces were besieging Arafat's compound, in part to seize the PFLP suspects. Under an internationally brokered deal to end the siege, Saadat and the others were transferred to Jericho, where U.S. and British inspectors were to supervise their imprisonment.

British and American officials said they had complained repeatedly about security conditions at the prison and threatened in a letter last week — a copy of which was sent to Israel — to remove the monitors if things did not improve immediately.

Israeli officials said that once the monitors left, they were forced to act in light of recent statements by Palestinian officials and Hamas leaders — including incoming Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh — of plans to free the prisoners.

"As soon as Haniyeh said that he is going to free them, why should we give them any time?" Mofaz, the Israeli defense minister, told Army Radio Wednesday. "That's why we acted the way we did."Yahoo

Bush Sees Iran As Possibly Greatest Threat




Iran may pose the greatest challenge to the United States and diplomacy to thwart the Islamic nation's nuclear program must prevail to avoid confrontation.

In a 49-page national security report, the president reaffirmed the strike-first, or pre-emptive policy he first outlined in 2002. Diplomacy is the U.S. preference in halting the spread of nuclear and other heinous weapons, Bush said.

"If necessary, however, under long-standing principles of self-defense, we do not rule out the use of force before attacks occur — even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy's attack," Bush wrote.

"When the consequences of an attack with weapons of mass destruction are potentially so devastating, we cannot afford to stand idly by as grave dangers materialize. ... The place of pre-emption in our national security strategy remains the same."

The White House released the National Security Strategy report Thursday morning in conjunction with a speech that Bush's national security adviser,
Stephen Hadley, is delivering at the U.S. Institute of Peace.

The report, Bush's second since becoming president, summarizes his strategy to protect the United States and improve U.S. relations with other nations. When he sent his first report to Congress — a year after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 — Bush was struggling to persuade U.S. allies to join an offensive to topple Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein.

Since then, the oppressive Taliban regime in
Afghanistan was replaced by a freely elected government. Iraqis approved a constitution by referendum and nearly 12 million of them voted in an election for a permanent government.

Sectarian violence, however, threatens the fragile government in
Iraq, where more than 2,300 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war in March 2003.

"When the Iraqi government, supported by the coalition, defeats the terrorists, terrorism will be dealt a critical blow," Bush wrote in the report required by Congress.

In the report, Bush reproaches Russia and China and calls
Syria a tyranny that harbors terrorists and sponsors terrorist activity.

On Russia, Bush said recent trends show a waning commitment to democratic freedoms and institutions. "Strengthening our relationship will depend on the policies, foreign and domestic that Russia adopts," he said.

The United States also is urging China to continue down a road of reform and openness.

"China's leaders must realize, however, that they cannot stay on this peaceful path while holding on to old ways of thinking and acting that exacerbate concerns throughout the region and the world."

He said these "old ways" include enlarging China's military in a nontransparent way, expanding trade, yet seeking to direct markets rather than opening them up, and supporting energy-rich nations without regard to their misrule or misbehavior at home or abroad. yahoo