Wednesday, March 5

More on US & Dahlan efforts to spark civil war in Palestine

Who is to say what was planned. One of the biggest traps
is to have groups of the occupied fight among each other.

One good question is how did David Rose come across
this information for that Gaza bombshell article?

I would agree on a comment that a viewer posted
"One has to stop and REALLY think what the purpose of
this article is and also how the information was obtained."

I would agree that I am pro-Palestine for the innocent people
who suffer at the hands of US and Israeli policy which seeks
to divide the Palestinian people so they have less work
to do themselves.

What are your views, please post a comment!


http://afp.google.com/article/
ALeqM5hKXQ-z0uYIEFRif9
ce7cxXA2I6Aw

US sought to oust

Hamas, sparking

civil war: report

WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush
and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice covertly
sought to oust Hamas after the 2006 polls triggering
a bloody Palestinian civil war, a US magazine alleged
Tuesday.

Vanity Fair said it had obtained confidential documents,
which had been confirmed by US and Palestinian sources,
that Washington sought to arm a Palestinian force led by
Fatah loyalists to oust Hamas militants from power.

"But the secret plan backfired, resulting in a further
setback for American foreign policy under Bush,"
the magazine wrote.

"Instead of driving its enemies out of power, the US-backed
Fatah fighters inadvertently provoked Hamas to seize
total control of Gaza."

The report, which the magazine dubbed Iran-Contra 2.0
in reference to a controversial 1980s arms scheme under
late president Ronald Reagan, was swiftly dismissed by
State Department spokesman Tom Casey as "false,
wrong, untrue, silly, ridiculous."
Rice, who was in the West Bank on Tuesday trying to save
the peace process from collapse, said: "As for the Vanity
Fair article that I have not read, I am not going to
comment on the article."

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, also declined
further comment, saying only: "Secretary Rice and her
spokesman Sean McCormack spoke to this today and
said that that article is not accurate".

The magazine alleged the force was led by Fatah
strongman Mohammed Dahlan, who has served
as a security advisor to Palestinian president
Mahmud Abbas.

Dahlan told Vanity Fair he had warned the Bush
administration that Fatah was not ready to contest
the January 2006 elections. But there was complete
dismay and bafflement in the White House when
Hamas swept the vote.

Without any contingency plan in place, the US
administration was forced onto the offensive.
In October 2006, Rice traveled back to the Middle East
and sought to push Abbas into disbanding the Hamas-led
government and imposing emergency rule.

A State Department memo prepared around that time said:
"If you act along these lines we will support you both
materially and politically.

"We will be there to support you," the memo said,
according to Vanity Fair.
State Department spokesman Casey said
Tuesday: "We very openly said that we would work
with those security forces that were under president
Abbas's authority, just as we said we would work
with those institutions within the Palestinian Authority
that were under president Abbas's authority.

"But we always did so out of the firm belief that the only
way to have any kind of progress in discussions between
Israelis and Palestinians was to have a functioning
Palestinian Authority and functioning institutions."

But Vanity Fair alleged the United States was seeking to
boost Fatah security forces in preparation for a feared
Hamas backlash by providing both money and arms.
Reacting to the report, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said:
"This article confirms the US administration was involved in
the events in Gaza. One can talk of a Gazagate.

"These revelations clear Hamas and prove that Fatah,
which was used by the Americans, bears the responsibility
for what happened," Abu Zuhri told journalists in Gaza.

Vanity Fair said the US security coordinator for the
Palestinians, lieutenant general Keith Dayton, met in
November 2006 with Dahlan for a series of Jerusalem talks.
And State Department officials told the magazine that Rice
began a round of phone diplomacy among Arab leaders
seeking to whip up funds for Fatah.

The first weapons, including 2,000 Egyptian
automatic rifles, 20,000 ammunition clips and two million
bullets reportedly rumbled across the Israeli-controlled
Gaza crossing in December 2006.
After a series of nasty, skirmishes in Gaza, Hamas seized
control of the Gaza Strip in five bloody days of fighting in June.
"Having failed to heed the warning not to hold the election, they
tried to avoid the result through Dayton," former UN
ambassador John Bolton told Vanity Fair.
Original Vanity Fair article,
"The Gaza Bombshell" here

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