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Israel: Documents link Al Aqsa to Palestinian finance official
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Documents seized from Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's Ramallah compound links a Palestinian Authority finance official to the group behind several recent suicide bombings, the Israel Defense Forces said Tuesday. Israeli troops seized the records from the office of Fouad al-Shoubaki, the former chief of procurement and finance for Palestinian security forces, an Israeli military statement said. The records indicate that al-Shoubaki distributed funds for the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the military arm of Arafat's Fatah movement, the IDF said. The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades has claimed responsibility for several recent suicide bombings that targeted Israeli civilians, including an attack on a Haifa restaurant that killed 14 people Sunday. The United States recently designated the group a terrorist organization.
The IDF said Al Aqsa wanted $100,000 to set up a factory to build heavy weapons and $15,000 a month in operating expenses. The documents captured in Ramallah showed the brigades were "an established organization, which holds official correspondence with Fouad al-Shoubaki's office in order for it to finance its planned operations," the IDF said. Specifically, the IDF said, one excerpt from the documents read: "Costs of electricity products and various chemical materials (for manufacture of explosive charges and bombs). This is the greatest expenditure (the cost of one ready explosive charge is 700 shekels at least). We require on a weekly basis 5–9 explosives charges for squads in various areas (addition in handwriting of 5,000 shekels per week x 4 = 20,000 shekels per month)." Hassan Abdel Rahman, the Palestinian representative to the United States, dismissed the documents as a forgery. "This is a fraud by Israeli intelligence," Rahman told CNN. "There is an Israeli department that specializes in putting out lies." Arafat fired al-Shoubaki in January after Israeli officials linked him to an attempt to smuggle arms from Iran aboard the freighter Karine-A. But an Israeli military statement said the documents seized in Arafat's compound show al-Shoubaki conducted "business as usual" after his involvement in the Karine A affair was disclosed. |
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