Loosening the Fatah-Al Aksa Links

A while back Honest Reporting requested to be inform if their readers came across news stories describing the links between Al Aksa and Fatah as merely loose.

Today a SAPA-AFP and SAPA AP report in the Star newspaper has done just that.

Also yesterday, a Palestinian suicide bomber blew herself up near a crowded bus stop in Jerusalem, killing two people and wounding at least 14 others, Israeli authorities said. The Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, a violent group loosely linked to Arafat's Fatah movement, claimed responsibility for the attack. - Sapa-AFP and Sapa-AP

As Honest Reporting points out

The evidence, however, clearly indicates that the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade is not some "loose offshoot," but rather has a direct and ongoing bond to the Fatah party, which holds a majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament. The Palestinian government, therefore, bears direct responsibility for the group's heinous terrorist acts: The Jerusalem Post reports that a disagreement between the two groups has led Fatah to publically recognize its obligations to the AAMB. For their part, the AAMB is feeling abandoned by their sponsor: "Thanks to us, Fatah restored its dignity and power during the intifada," [an AAMB leader] added. "But now the members of the Fatah Central Council are putting pressure on us to disband. We don't trust them any more and we tell them that they are the ones who must go." The leader of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades in Tulkarm told USA Today on March 14, 2002: "The truth is, we are Fatah, but we didn't operate under the name of Fatah...We are the armed wing of the organization. We receive our instructions from Fatah. Our commander is Yasser Arafat himself." In November, 2003 a BBC investigation found that up to $50,000 a month was funneled by Fatah directly to the Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades.

Comments

[Anti-UN]

I also noticed that. But what is worse is that the STar uses Sharons threat to arafat as the headline, then goes to mention injured palestiians who were firing at Isaelis in settlements, and then, merely as a last sidenote says "Also yesterday"...there was a suicide bombing.

I wont write and complain about that, but it is really horrible how little press the suicide bomb received.

[David Gerstman]

And the PA's PM admits the link. He makes them sound like a bunch of wayward youth who only need a little TLC.

[Steve]

Amazing. Thanks for the link.