http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/860752.html
Last update - 20:31 17/05/2007
U.S. lauds Israeli restraint in face of Qassam rocket attacks

By Shahar Ilan and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents and News Agencies

The United States praised Israel on Thursday for showing "great restraint" in the face of new rocket attacks from the Palestinian group Hamas but added that Israel also has a right to defend itself.

Israel Air Force strikes on Thursday destroyed a Hamas security headquarters and a car carrying one of the group's top commanders. Israel had threatened a "severe" response to cross-border rocket attacks that have persisted despite a troop and settler pullout from Gaza in 2005.

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack urged restraint on all sides but said Israel had the right to respond to rocket attacks from Hamas, which he blamed for the latest upsurge in Palestinian violence.



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"Israel has the right to defend itself and it has exercised great restraint in the face of these rocket attacks," McCormack told reporters.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke earlier to Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas as well as Prime Minister Ehud Olmert about the latest violence.

"She wanted to talk to them directly and see how they saw the situation," said McCormack. "We certainly want to see a reduction or an end to the violence but let's remember how that violence started and it started with these Hamas-led forces."

The current round of fighting began last Friday between rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Abbas's Fatah. More than 40 Palestinians have been killed in the most serious violence since the two groups formed a unity government in March.

At a news conference with British Prime Minister Tony Blair, U.S. President George W. Bush expressed concern over the violence in Gaza.

"We strongly urge the parties to work toward a two-state solution. Looking forward to continuing to work on this issue," he said.

"I've instructed my secretary of state to be actively engaged," Bush added.

"We understand the fright that can come when you're worried about a rocket landing on top of your home," he added.

Rice has sought in recent months to revive stalled peace efforts between the Palestinians and the Israelis, visiting the region almost monthly to try and bring the two sides together.

Asked how the latest violence affected her ability to continue this mission, McCormack said the United States remained "deeply engaged" and Rice planned to visit the region in the near future. He did not provide a date.

British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett released an official statement Thursday saying "I remain deeply worried by the continuing violence between militias in the Gaza Strip. We want to see the latest cease-fire take hold, for the sake of all the people of Gaza. I support President Abbas' efforts to achieve this."

"I also deplore rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel, attacks that are bringing suffering to Israeli civilians."

"I would like to express my sorrow for the families of civilians killed and injured, on all sides. I call on all parties to refrain from violence and to restore to the people of Gaza and nearby Israeli communities the security that they need and deserve."

Likud Chairman Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday called on the government to cut off the power and water supplies in the Gaza Strip in a controlled fashion.

The opposition leader added that he supports a limited ground incursion into the Qassam firing area, roughly four kilometers past the border.

Speaking from the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem, where the Likud party was marking the 30th anniversary of the party's first elections victory, Netanyahu said that the paralysis and helplessness of the government "must leave this world".

"The government isn't doing anything," Netanyahu said, "Begin understood that the government's top priority was the lives of its citizens. This government doesn't realize that it must stop the methodical bombing of citizens' homes."

"Everyone must imagine what would happen if his house was hit by a Qassam," he added.

While Netanyahu was addressing his fellow Likud members in Jerusalem, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni spoke with German Foreign Minister Frank Steinmeyer.

Livni said that if the international community does not put an end to the Qassam firings, Israel will be forced to do so.

The foreign minister added that she expects that the European Union to be involved in diplomatic efforts, condemn the Qassam firings and identify with the residents of Sderot.

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3401605,00.html
IDF vows to operate till Hamas surrenders

Defense establishment source says military to expand activity in Gaza, adding that 'the more Hamas launches, the more they will get back'
Hanan Greenberg

"We'll shoot till they say 'stop'!" a defense establishment source told Ynet on Thursday after IDF activity in the Gaza Strip was expanded.

"We plan to operate against those who are guilty, not around them; they will be the ones to pay the price. We are aware of their Qassam launching abilities, but the more they launch, the more they will get back," the source said.

IDF tanks enter northern Strip / Ali Waked

Tanks cross border fence, enter several hundred meters into Gaza near evacuated settlement of Dugit; artillery batteries placed opposite Gaza. IAF strikes number of targets across Strip, killing at least four Palestinians

In an evaluation meeting held by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, with the IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi and other defense establishment bodies, it was decided that activity in the Strip should be expanded; and that preparations for the possibility that activity would continue for a number of weeks be made.

At this point however, there are still no plans to send ground forces into Palestinian territory.

"We are not going to do anything unnecessary," the source stressed, "but we will certainly demand payback from those who hurt civilians."

The source said there was no doubt that this military operation would lead to "zero Qassams".

"We can defiantly bring about calm and make the other side see that we are serious," the source said.

Most of the IDF activity in the Gaza area is being carried out by the Southern Command through the Israel Air Force.

In addition, a few tanks and a small infantry force was sent a few hundreds meters into the Strip.

The IDF's aim is to achieve better observation points and better control. This step is not meant to be an aggressive, but certain means may be used depending on developments in the area.

IDF sources assume that terror organizations will attempt to reach the border fence to commit attacks; therefore, this deployment is meant to thicken the line of defense.

The deployment of artillery batteries across the Strip was approved on Thursday by Defense Minister Amir Peretz, after being removed some six months ago, when 18 Palestinian civilians were killed in Beit Hanoun.

Peretz's office said that "the firing procedures will be applied in light of lessons learned from previous incidents, and in full coordination with the chief of staff," meaning that the cannons will only shoot when the need arises.

There are no other forces around Gaza, and the IDF prefers not to assemble forces as long as there are no plans to launch a ground operation.

'Informal immunity should be removed'

Deputy Defense Minister Ephraim Sneh said that the State of Israel would aid Sderot residents all the way.

"We acted today to get hundreds of residents out for a break, there is an organized plan to make people feel good and not want to leave," Sneh said.

"At the same time, Home Front Command officers are going from house to house, helping out. This is how a government acts," he added.

MK Tzachi Hanegbi, the head of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee said that an IDF response was necessary. "It's vital that we persist for a long time, so that the price paid by Hamas is heavy and significant: An endless pursuit against the military leadership, terror infrastructure officials, rocket manufacturers, and the launching cells themselves."

Hanegbi said that the "informal immunity" which political leaders in the Strip, including Hamas members, have been receiving, should come to an end.
Amnon Meranda contributed to this report

Israel strikes Hamas in Gaza, threatens more action
18 May 2007 17:16:59 GMT
Source: Reuters
By Nidal al-Mughrabi

GAZA, May 18 (Reuters) - Israel struck Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday and threatened more strong action to stop rocket attacks while Palestinian rival factions fought each other in turmoil verging on civil war.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah faction has been accused by Hamas of siding with Israel, called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and asked her to halt an Israeli "military escalation", a Palestinian news agency said.

A Palestinian hospital official said at least one man was killed and others were wounded when Israeli helicopter gunships fired on them after they launched a rocket into Israel.

The military said it attacked a rocket crew in northern Gaza and that 10 missiles had struck Israel. One hit a house in the town of Sderot. Medics said there were only minor injuries.

Hours later, Israeli aircraft bombed a Hamas-owned van in Gaza City. Two militants were killed, hospital officials said.

Fatah and Hamas forces, locked in week-old fighting, battled in Gaza City. Three rocket-propelled grenades were fired at the pro-Hamas Islamic University campus.

Two militants -- one from each side -- were killed, hospital officials said. A fisherman was also killed after being caught in crossfire. Hospital officials said two other civilians died from wounds sustained during internal clashes earlier this week.

Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader, called on Palestinians to unite against "Israeli aggression" and cease internal fighting.

"All members of the security services should abide by the instructions of the political leadership and return to their positions and bases, and also all gunmen should pull out of the streets," Haniyeh told reporters.

Truces agreed by the Islamist Hamas and the more secular Fatah over the past week have collapsed swiftly. Nearly 50 people have died in the deadliest internal violence since the two rival groups formed a unity government in March.

"VIBRANT MEASURES"

In Tel Aviv, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told foreign ambassadors the government might decide on further action within days and noted the cabinet would meet as usual on Sunday.

"We will see sustained and vibrant measures to end the rocket attacks and remove the threat to southern Israel," government spokesman David Baker said.

Israeli forces have recently completed training for a possible ground offensive in Gaza, from which they and Israeli settlers withdrew in 2005.

Tanks and some other troops took up positions just inside the crowded coastal enclave on Thursday in a move the military called "defensive".

At least 11 Hamas fighters have been killed in Israeli strikes since early Thursday. Militants from Gaza have fired about 100 rockets at the town of Sderot and its surroundings in the past week, causing several injuries but no deaths.

"For too long the international community took this situation in the southern part of Israel as acceptable, as part of life in Israel, and it's not. Enough is enough," Livni said, saying there was a need to put pressure "on these terrorists".

Abbas was quoted by Wafa news agency as asking Rice "to stop the Israeli military escalation against our people and continue their efforts to push the peace process forward". (Additional reporting by Avida Landau and Alastair Macdonald in Jerusalem)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/18/world/main2824638.shtml
Gaza Falls Deeper Into Chaos
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip, May 18, 2007
(CBS/AP) Israeli planes pounded Hamas targets and rival Palestinian factions exchanged bursts of automatic weapons fire outside Gaza City's Islamic University Friday. The volatile mix of Israeli strikes and Palestinian infighting plunged Gaza deeper into chaos.

Five Palestinians were killed in a single air strike by Israel, which said it was responding to Hamas rocket attacks on southern Israel — a campaign that showed no sign of subsiding Friday. Hamas fired three rockets at the town of Sderot, where three people were injured by shrapnel and several others were treated for shock.

Hamas has fired more than 100 rockets across the border this week, reports CBS News correspondent Robert Berger. Hamas gunmen also clashed with members of the rival Palestinian faction for the sixth straight day.

In other developments:

Israel has been aiding Fatah against Hamas by allowing Fatah to bring into Gaza earlier this week as many as 500 fresh troops. The fighters were trained in Egypt under a U.S.-coordinated program to counter Hamas. The Bush administration and Israel want to strengthen Fatah militarily and politically but have been trying to avoid being seen as taking sides in the Hamas-Fatah conflict.

Israeli and Palestinian businessmen launched a joint council on Friday in Jordan, saying they want to advance networking and promote peace despite the raging violence in the Gaza Strip. The Israeli-Palestinian Business Council's 10 founding members, all prominent businessmen, will work toward advancing the "relationship between the two business communities and, ultimately, assist the region to move toward durable peace and coexistence," the World Economic Forum said in a statement.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's coalition government won a reprieve on Friday when Labor party allies turned down a call by rebels to bolt the alliance immediately, but Labor's central committee said it would meet again to review its support for Olmert's administration after May 28 primaries.

Outside the Islamic University — a Hamas stronghold — one person was wounded from the exchange of fire, but it was not immediately known from which side.

The fighting largely died down later in the day after Fatah and Hamas fighters took up positions around the university. Then it flared up again, with Hamas firing grenades at Fatah forces and Fatah responding with a hail of gunfire.

Earlier, the office of the university's president, Kamelen Shaath, was attacked by rocket-propelled grenades, according to Hamas.

Shaath appealed for an immediate halt to the violence.

"Universities must be outside the circle of violence and I appeal to the president and all the wise people on both sides to try and spare the university the agony of this fight," he said.

In six days of mayhem, 47 Palestinians have died in infighting and another 17 were killed by Israeli strikes. The latest casualty was a 40-year-old Palestinian fisherman named Samir Amodi, who was shot in the head by a sniper in Gaza City's harbor.

The fighting between Hamas and Fatah has all but destroyed a two-month-old power sharing deal between them, and brought them close to all-out civil war. The Israeli strikes have introduced a new layer of violence and uncertainty — though a senior army official, speaking on condition of anonymity because no official decision has been made, said Israel had no immediate plans for a major ground offensive to halt rocket fire.

Israeli aircraft fired missiles east of Gaza City on Friday, killing five Palestinians, at least three of them Hamas militants, and wounding six people, Hamas and local doctors said. The military said the target was a Hamas headquarters building. Two other strikes followed but there was no word of any casualties, Palestinian doctors said. The army said it struck at a squad that fired rockets into Israel.

The Palestinian street battles were down from their height two days ago, but the latest cease-fire worked out between the sides was not holding. Gunfire could be heard in many areas, and gunmen who had promised to withdraw from the streets were still manning roadblocks and taking up positions on rooftops.

"Our retaliation for (Fatah's) crimes is going to be beyond their imagination," Abu Obeida, spokesman for Hamas' military wing, told The Associated Press.

Walid al-Awad, a member of a committee set up to implement the cease-fire, said his team worked late into the night to get the sides to withdraw, but to no avail.

"Nothing has been implemented, and I have warned both sides that this a time bomb that is sabotaging our efforts," al-Awad said.

By most accounts, Hamas' performance in the latest round of internal fighting has been superior to Fatah's, with greater discipline and more motivated fighters.

Although Israel said it wasn't taking sides, the air strikes did make it harder for Hamas gunmen to move around and that could help Fatah's fighters.

There was no sign of any Israeli military buildup that would indicate plans for a serious intervention into chaotic Gaza, though a few tanks and soldiers moved just across the Gaza border on Thursday.

"Israel will take every defensive measure to stop these rocket attacks. We will defend our citizens against the rockets, against the weapons, against the Iranian-backed Hamas who are attacking Israel," government spokeswoman Miri Eisen said.

Analysts said Israeli policy makers were likely trying to walk a narrow line to avoid uniting Palestinian factions into a common front against Israel but Infrastructure Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, a retired general, said Israel could not stand idly by while Palestinian rockets continued to fall.

"We have to show them one thing, that the moment you fire, we shall return fire," he told Israel Radio.

Hamas Web sites, radio and TV carried accusations that forces loyal to Abbas were working with Israel — a charge dismissed as "absurd" by a Fatah spokesman.

The Israeli strikes complicated an already chaotic situation in Gaza, making the embattled Abbas even more vulnerable to Hamas accusations that he is in Israel's pocket. With his aides citing security concerns, Abbas canceled a Thursday trip to Gaza for talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas.

Israel had remained on the sidelines during the infighting, but security officials said the military had to respond to the rocket attacks on Sderot.

"The Hamas government is a terrorist organization-led government," Eisen said.

Olmert was under intense public pressure to respond to the Hamas barrage, and he visited the town late Thursday to tell residents they shouldn't feel alone, his office said. "I am handling this crisis in order to remove this threat as much as possible," he was quoted as saying.

Olmert is fighting for political survival in the face of plummeting popularity and harsh criticism of his handling of last summer's war in Lebanon.

Still, he probably would be wary of a major ground offensive in Gaza, fearful of another inconclusive effort.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/05/18/politics/printable2824376.shtml
Senators Press CIA To Release 9/11 Report
WASHINGTON, May 18, 2007
(AP) A bipartisan group of senators is pushing legislation that would force the CIA to release an inspector general's report on the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The CIA has spent more than 20 months weighing requests under the Freedom of Information Act for its internal investigation of the attacks but has yet to release any portion of it.

The agency is the only federal office involved in counterterrorism operations that has not made at least a version of its internal 9/11 investigation public.

Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and two other intelligence committee leaders — chairman Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and senior Republican Kit Bond of Missouri — are pushing legislation that would require the agency to declassify the executive summary of the review within one month and submit a report to Congress explaining why any material was withheld.

The provision has been approved by the Senate twice, but never made into law.

In an interview, Wyden said he is also considering whether to link the report's release to his acceptance of President Bush's nominations for national security positions.

(AP Photo/Rick Bowmer)“It's amazing the efforts the administration is going to stonewall this,” Wyden said, seen at left in an April 3, 2007 file photo. “The American people have a right to know what the Central Intelligence Agency was doing in those critical months before 9/11.... I am going to bulldog this until the public gets it.”

Completed in June 2005, the inspector general's report examined the personal responsibility of individuals at the CIA before and after the attacks. Other agencies' reviews examined structural problems within their organizations.

Wyden, who has read the classified report several times, wouldn't offer any details on its findings or the conversations he has had with CIA Director Michael Hayden, former CIA Director Porter Goss and former National Intelligence Director John Negroponte.

But he did say that protecting individuals from embarrassment is not a legitimate reason for protecting the report's contents from public review. He also said the decision to classify the report has nothing to do with national security, but rather political security.

Hayden declined to be interviewed about the report. In a statement Thursday, his spokesman Mark Mansfield said the CIA director wants the agency to learn from any past mistakes, but doesn't want to dwell on them.

“Given the formidable national security challenges our nation faces, now and down the road, General Hayden believes it is essential for the Agency to move forward,” Mansfield said. “That's where our emphasis needs to be.”

The agency's actions prior to Sept. 11 have gotten renewed attention with the release of a memoir by former CIA director George Tenet. He has been criticized for not doing more to warn Bush about the al Qaeda threat.

In interviews about his memoir, he has said instead he worked the bureaucracy beneath the president by asking then-National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and others for action.
Bond said some intelligence officials have dismissed the inspector general's report as “ancient history,” which he doesn't accept. He said the report has additional information which would be useful to the public.

“We have no desire to embarrass or throw cold water on the enthusiasm of the great men and women of the CIA, but let's just take a clear and open look at what the IG found and see if we have all of those problems corrected,” Bond said.

In an October 2005 statement Goss said the officers involved in counterterrorism were “stars who had excelled in their areas” singled out by the CIA to take on difficult assignments. “Unfortunately, time and resources were not on their side, despite their best efforts to meet unprecedented challenges,” he said.

Goss rejected a recommendation from CIA Inspector General John Helgerson that the agency form accountability review boards to examine any personal culpability. Bond said that move was regrettable.

In his statement, Goss also noted that the agency had received a Freedom of Information Act request for the report, and that a review process was ongoing. But the CIA has not released any documents to The Associated Press or other organizations that began requesting the information at least 20 months ago.

The law requires agencies to respond to requests within 20 days, but officials rarely meet those deadlines and often blame lengthy backlogs.

Groups including the National Security Archive have clashed with the agency over its FOIA policies. Last year, the archive gave the CIA its prize for the agency with the worst FOIA record. Called the “Rosemary Award,” it's named after President Nixon's secretary, Rosemary Woods, who erased 18 minutes of a key Watergate conversation on the White House tapes.

The citation noted that CIA's oldest FOIA requests could apply for drivers' licenses in most states. “CIA has for three decades been one of the worst FOIA agencies,” archive Director Thomas Blanton said this week.

Many of the individuals highlighted in the inspector general's report are likely to have retired. But some are believed still to be in senior government positions, making the report's findings even more sensitive at the CIA and perhaps elsewhere within the intelligence community.

The AP has reported that the two-year review of what went wrong before the suicide hijackings harshly criticized a number of the agency's most senior officials.

That includes Tenet, former clandestine service chief Jim Pavitt and former counterterrorism center head Cofer Black, according to individuals familiar with the report, who spoke in 2005 on condition they not be identified.

Yet the report also offered some praise for actions of Tenet and others.

Pavitt is now a principal with The Scowcroft Group, an international business advisory firm, and Black is vice chairman of Blackwater USA, an international security firm whose clients include the CIA and other U.S. agencies.