Details of released Killers

PRESS RELEASE FROM THEE PM'S OFFICE
via IMRA 1/29/99:

"Arafat Releases Five Killers of Americans
The Prime Minister's Office - Jerusalem 28 January 1999

In recent weeks, Yasser Arafat has been releasing dozens of terrorists from prison. On the occasion of Id al-Fitr (a Muslim holiday) last week, he released some 60 terrorists from detention, in violation of the Oslo Accords and the Wye Protocol.

Among recently released terrorists involved in the murder of Americans are:

1) Jihad Suwiti - senior Hamas terrorist who served as a deputy to Hassan Salameh, the mastermind of the wave of suicide bombings in Israel in February-March 1996 (which killed 60 people) including the February 25, 1996 attack on bus #18 in Jerusalem which killed 3 Americans: Matthew Eisenfeld and Sara Duker (students at New York's Jewish Theological Seminary) and Ira Weinstein.

2) Arafat Kawasmeh - senior Hamas terrorist from the Hebron area, released by Jibril Rajoub's Preventive Security Service on December 18, 1998. Assistant to Hassan Salameh, mastermind of suicide bombings in Israel in February-March 1996 (which killed 60 people) including the February 25, 1996 attack on bus #18 which killed 3 Americans: Ira Weinstein, Matthew Eisenfeld and Sara Duker.

3) Hassam Alimani - senior Hamas terrorist and arms dealer, freed by the PA's Military Intelligence on December 19, 1998. A member of the Awadallah brothers' terror unit (prior to their deaths in September 1998) which masterminded the July 30, 1997 bombing in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including Leah Stern, an American-Israeli formerly of New Jersey.

4) Talal al-Baz - senior Hamas terrorist from Kalkilya, headed the organization's military wing in the city. He assisted the Awadallah brothers' terror unit (prior to their deaths in September 1998) which masterminded the July 30, 1997 bombing in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including Leah Stern, an American-Israeli formerly of New Jersey.

5) Bashir Daher - Hamas terrorist and student at A-Najah University in Shechem (Nablus), assisted wanted fugitive Mahmoud Abu Hanoud, ringleader of the terrorists who set off bombs in Jerusalem on July 30, 1997 (which killed 15 people, including Leah Stern, an American-Israeli formerly of New Jersey) and on September 4, 1997 (which killed 5 people, including 14-year old Yael Botwin, an American-Israeli originally from California). Last week, the PA also released Abdallah Shami, one of Islamic Jihad's most prominent figures in Gaza.

Shami was detained by the PA on the eve of President Bill Clinton's December 1998 trip to the region after he publicly announced "Clinton should get a bullet in his head when he arrives here." Shami has also been involved in the planning and preparation of attacks against Israel.

     

VOA on PA released killers

Voice of America 1/28/99: "Israel has accused the Palestinian Authority of releasing from jail five Islamic militants suspected of being involved in bombings which killed Israeli and American citizens. Ross Dunn reports from Jerusalem.

Text : The office of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says five Islamic militants linked to a series of terrorist bombings have walked free from palestinian jails. More than sixty people, including at least three American citizens, died in the suicide blasts which occurred in israel during 1996 and 1997.

Mr Netanyahu's office says the prisoner releases are an another example of a "revolving door" policy, under which the Palestinian Authority arrests Islamic militants but then sets them free.

Israel has protested over the freeing of the five suspects to both the Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the us government. A spokesman for the U-S embassy in Tel Aviv says the ambassador Edward Walker has agreed to look into the matter.

A spokesman for Mr Netanyahu says that all the suspects belonged to underground military cells of the militant Islamic group, Hamas.

He says the releases were just one reason why Israel is refusing to carry out more troop withdrawals from the West Bank, as promised in the U-S brokered Wye River peace accords, signed at the White House last October.

Under the agreement, Israel agreed to transfer more territory to Palestinian self-rule, providing that the Palestinian Authority did more to halt violence by Muslim activists.

A Palestinian police official says that some 38 prisoners had been freed in recent weeks on the occasion of Muslim holidays but refused to say whether the five suspects had been among them.

Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian preventative security in the West Bank, declined to comment other than to express his surprise that Israel is attempting to turn the prisoner releases into a major issue."

National Security Council established

ARUTZ7 1/28/99: "Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed a major accomplishment this afternoon when he announced the establishment of a national security council.

It will address all aspects of national security - Israeli and enemy forces and policy, and how they are impacted by domestic social and economic conditions - as an independent body.

The formation of such a council has been discussed and recommended for many years, including by the Agranat Commission after the Yom Kippur War and the committee that investigated the bungled assassination attempt of Hamas leader Chaled Mesh'al in Jordan last year.

However, some defense ministers - most recently, Yitzchak Mordechai - have been against it, for fear that it would encroach on their authorities.

Mordechai, running for Prime Minister on the centrist party list, criticized Netanyahu and his decision today, saying it was unnecessary and a waste of money.

Netanyahu appointed Maj.-Gen. (res.) David Ivry as the council's head. Ivry is a former director-general of the Defense Ministry, deputy IDF Chief of Staff, and Israel Air Force commander."

     

Plea deal with Cyprus

ARUTZ7 1/29/99: "Israel has struck a plea-bargain deal with Cypriot prosecutors in the case of the two Israelis charged with espionage.

Yigal Damari and Udi Argov will no longer be charged with spying, and instead have admitted to possessing illegal communications weapons and entering a forbidden area. The sentence - expected to be a probationary prison term - will be handed down on Monday."

ARUTZ7 1/28/99: "The much-criticized snap vote to approve a 5% retroactive pay hike to Deputy Ministers and many other public servants will apparently be nullified.

Following a stormy Knesset debate yesterday at which Prime Minister Netanyahu argued angrily with the Shas MKs who voted for the raise, the plenum decided that the pay raise will be put to another vote on Monday.

The Knesset will, at the same time, consider setting up a public committee that will determine the wages of ministers and their deputies. Netanyahu said yesterday that the vote to raise the salaries was tantamount to "theft from the national coffers" and a "disgusting nighttime heist."

Several Shas MKs defended the vote, but later adopted a lower profile on the matter, and one of them admitted that he had erred..."

Earthquake relief

ISRAEL LINE 1/28/99: "Israel will dispatch disaster relief to the victims of the recent earthquake in Colombia, Israel Radio, KOL YISRAEL, reported.

The relief will include 1.5 tons of medicine and 3.5 tons of food, the majority of which will be enriched milk for infants. The aid comes from both Government and private sources and is being supplied in response to an appeal to foreign missions in Bogota by Colombian President Andres Pastrana.

Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon and President Ezer Weizman on Wednesday conveyed their condolences to their Colombian counterparts..."

Ramon again

HA'ARETZ 1/29/99: "MK Haim Ramon is once again rethinking his future in the Labor Party, after its central committee yesterday went back on last week's decision regarding the party's primaries.

Ramon was outraged to learn that at the behest of most top party officials, the committee was asked to make changes to the primaries system approved only last week at his demand.

The maverick MK has already once before resigned from the party to start a new political party that eventually won the Histadrut leadership away from Labor - and returned to Labor at Shimon Peres's request immediately after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin.

He will meet today or tomorrow with Labor Chair Ehud Barak for talks which might prove crucial to his future in the party. Officials in the centrist party were predictably pleased with the latest development, with leaders there saying they would accept Ramon "with open arms."