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| Middle East |
| Concern in U.S. over Dahlan's rise |
| 2002-06-27 |
| The Bush administration is being questioned on its apparent campaign to groom a former Palestinian security chief as the successor to Yasser Arafat. Congressional staffers said the administration's focus on Palestinian Authority security chief Mohammed Dahlan has raised concern among Middle East analysts. They said Dahlan has been directly involved in Palestinian bombings of civilians, including children. "We are talking about a man who has crossed all the lines of terrorism," a senior congressional staffer said. "I think the White House is being hoodwinked." Dahlan, chief of the Preventive Security Apparatus, has held talks in Washington with White House aides, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. Officials acknowledge that Ms. Rice has been impressed by Dahlan and believes that he can implement reform in the PA. They said Washington has offered tens of millions of dollars to Dahlan to create and head a Palestinian superagency. Guess those congressional staffers aren't all that smart — or they're Democrats trying to find a reason to snipe at Bush. They're assuming Yasser's immediate successor is going to be the guy we ultimately end up dealing with. There's probably no party in the Paleostinian camp who doesn't have blood on his hands, and the Israelis seem willing enough to deal with some of them, for instance Barghouti. My guess is that Son of Yasser I will be nearly as bad as Yasser. But the logjam will have been broken, and Son I won't be around for 50 years — when he gets out of line he'll be disposed of, either internally or by the IDF. Son of Yasser II won't be quite as bad as Son I, and so on, until we end up with someone who wouldn't make Himmler feel queasy. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |