http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Middle_East/2000-11/ruthless061100.shtml
An influential think-tank advises Palestinian Authority to ruthlessly repress militant
elements without regard for basic human rights
By Robert Fisk in Gaza
6 November 2000
Palestinian leaders have been shocked to read an American think-tank report which
urges them to act "ruthlessly" against opponents of the Oslo agreement � even if this
involves "excessive force", trials without due process of law and "interrogation
methods that border on psychological and/or physical torture."
A draft copy of the report by the influential Centre for Strategic and International
Studies (CSIS), which has close links with the United States government, has been
published on the internet and circulated among dozens of members of the Palestinian
Authority in Gaza, including Yasser Arafat's most senior intelligence officers.
The report says that even if peace follows the "Second Intifada", "both sides
[Palestinian and Israeli] will be forced to conduct aggressive [sic] security
operations for years to come" which "can have a high price tag in terms of human
rights." By way of comparison, it adds that British security forces in Northern
Ireland "balanced" what it calls "effective security" with human rights � even though
"the British used excessive force, abused human rights, and used extreme interrogation
methods and torture."
Amnesty International and other human rights groups have frequently condemned the use
of arbitrary false arrest, detention and torture by Arafat's "muhabarrat" security
apparatus, pointing out that CIA operatives appear to have been complicit in these
abuses. Far from denouncing these practices, however, the draft CSIS report appears to
encourage their use, stating that "such measures also tend to work".
The document is dated 18 October and bears the name of Anthony H Cordesman � a former
national security assistant to failed Republican presidential candidate Senator John
McCain � who is now holder of the Arleigh A Burke Chair in Strategy at the CSIS, named
after the former Chief of US Naval Operations. His document is heavily referenced to
CIA, State Department and Israeli sources and, according to Palestinian officials
here, has been circulated within the US and Israeli governments.
Entitled "Peace and War: Israel versus the Palestinians", it recounts the turbulent
history of Israeli-Palestinian relations since the 1993 Oslo agreement although its
bias is obvious from the frequent use of "terrorist" to describe violent Arab groups
and the almost ubiquitous use of "extremist" in reference to their violent Israeli
opposite numbers.
It excuses the use of Israeli live bullets against stone-throwers, adding that CS gas
and rubber bullets are often "not effective in stopping large groups" and that "troops
cannot let mobs armed with stones and Molotov cocktails close on their positions, or
rely on the riot control gear used in civil disobedience."
In a section headed "The Need for Palestinian Authority Ruthlessness and Efficiency",
it states "there will be no future peace, or stable peace process, if the Palestinian
security forces do not act ruthlessly and effectively. They must react very quickly
and decisively in dealing with terrorism and violence if they are to preserve the
momentum of Israeli withdrawal, the expansion of Palestinian control, and the peace
process. They must halt civil violence even if this sometimes means using excessive
force by the standards of Western police forces. They must be able to halt terrorist
and paramilitary action by Hamas and Islamic Jihad even if this means interrogations,
detentions and trials that are too rapid and lack due process. If they do not, the net
cost to both peace and the human rights of most Palestinians will be devastating."
The report says that permission must be obtained for any publication of the contents,
but copies have now been circulated throughout the Palestinian Authority, including
the offices of Mohamed Dahalan and Jibril Rajoub, respectively heads of Arafat's
"Preventative Security" in Gaza and Ramallah. Both Dahalan and Rajoub were sent to
Langley, Virginia, for what was called "human rights training" by US government
intelligence services.
Although it condemns "Israeli terrorism" � a phrase used only once and in reference to
Jewish settlers' groups � the document concludes with chilling advice to both
Palestinians and Israelis. "Every counter-terrorist force that has ever succeeded has
had to act decisively and sometimes violently," it says.
"Effective counter-terrorism relies on interrogation methods that border on
psychological and/or physical torture, arrests and detentions that are 'arbitrary' by
the standards of civil law, break-ins and intelligence operations that violate the
normal rights of privacy, levels of violence in making arrests that are unacceptable
in civil cases, and measures that involve the innocent (or at least not provably
directly guilty) in arrests and penalties."
The issue, the report adds, "is not whether extreme security measures will sometimes
be used, or whether they are sometimes necessary. The issue is rather how many such
acts occur, how well-focused they are on those who directly commit terrorism, and how
justified they are in terms of their relative cost-benefits."
Palestinian officials here noted with surprise how accurate was the report's list of
escalating Israeli responses to the current low-intensity war, from Israeli
mobilisation of armour to the sealing off of Palestinian towns and "the use of
helicopter gunships and snipers to provide mobility and suppressive fire". Apparently
based on a 1996 Israeli test plan codenamed "Operation Field of Thorns", the military
responses end with the "forced evacuation" of Palestinians from "sensitive areas".
Palestine Authority officers, however, were taken aback to read that the PA's
"military strength" includes a Lockheed Jetstar aircraft. The plane, they point out,
happens to be Arafat's personal executive jet.
