November 21, 1995
Web posted at: 12:00 a.m. EST (0500 GMT)
From Jerusalem Bureau Chief Walter Rodgers
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- The man who admitted assassinating Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was in court Monday. Again he expressed no regrets for his actions. His court appearance comes amid new revelations of his involvement with Israeli security forces.
The assassin was unrepentant on his return to court. Yigal Amir said all Israel supported the murder of Rabin.
Smiling at times, other times argumentative, he said he pulled the trigger on the gun, but he said he was doing it for thousands of Jews, who for 2,000 years wanted to live in Israel.
An Israeli newspaper reported Amir once worked as a security guard abroad and was trained by the Israeli security service, Shin Bet. He attended lectures on personal security protection and practiced on their shooting range.
"There was a colossal failure of the General Security Service (GSS) which led to Rabin's assassination. They had many tips and many leads about Amir's intention to murder the prime minister and they ignored them," said Yossi Melman, an intelligence expert. (152K AIFF sound or 152K WAV sound)
Asked about his feelings during a police investigators re- enactment of the assassination, Amir said, with Rabin's death, "Justice has been served."
Disclosure of Amir's connection to Israeli security, and that another man, initially detained as a possible accomplice, was a Shin Bet informer, has temporarily shifted the focus of blame away from right wing extremists to the failures of the government security agencies. Avaishi Raviv was apparently secretly reporting to Israeli security while at the same time he was handing out fliers of Rabin dressed as a Nazi SS officer.
"He was trading information. He was providing information to the GSS and in turn, they were turning a blind eye to their extreme statements and activities," said Amnon Abramovitz, an Israeli TV commentator.
In the wake of the Rabin assassination, the Israeli cabinet has vowed to fight right wing extremism but the discredited role of Israeli security is muddying the waters.
"It's such a hot topic, such as sensitive issue that politicians will jump on the opportunity to fingerpoint that the GSS was involved in one way or another in the conspiracy to kill the prime minister," said Melman.
The Commission of Inquiries' original brief was to determine how Amir was able to murder the prime minister. Now the security agencies may also find themselves on trial with perhaps as many conspiracy theories as followed in the wake of President Kennedy's assassination.
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