April 15, 2001
The CIA has a secret recording of Muhammad Dahlan giving the orders to bomb
an Israeli school bus. The recorded telephone conversation features the
Palestinian Security Chief in Gaza ordering the bombing of the Kfar Darom
school bus on November 20 of last year. Two adults were killed in that
attack, and several children were wounded – including the three Cohen
siblings, each of whom lost part of a leg.
The American intelligence organization has other recordings of Dahlan’s
deputy Rashid Abu Shabak giving the orders for other terrorist
attacks. Arutz-7 correspondent Haggai Huberman, who broke the story in the
HaTzofeh newspaper on Friday, reports that the Americans chose not to keep
the information to themselves but rather to share it with Israel.
Based on the CIA tapes and other information, the IDF has submitted a
report to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, in which the terrorist attacks
ordered by Dahlan and Abu Shabak are detailed. Abu Shabak, responding to
the news of the tapes, said that he is not afraid of Israel’s “long
arm.” Several leading terrorist have been killed in pinpoint attacks by
Israeli forces, most recently leading Islamic Jihad terrorist Iyad Hardan;
he was killed ten days ago by an explosion at a public phone in Jenin.
Dahlan was quoted this morning as saying that Israel had “killed the
security cooperation” between the sides.
