18 January 2002
Press Release "as-Safir" Beirut, Friday, 18 January 2002. The Popular Front on the "trick" involved in the arrest of Ahmad Saadat The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine explained to "as-Safir" the facts about the trick played on the Front's General Secretary, Ahmad Saadat that led to his arrest. The Popular Front's representative from the leadership outside Palestine, Mahir al-Tahir, told "as-Safir" that the story began about two weeks ago when the head of the Public Security Agency on the West Bank, Colonel Tawfiq al-Tayrawi, began to insist that the leaders of the Popular Front arrange a meeting between him and Saadat. During this period the Palestinian President, Yasir Arafat, discussed the matter of Saadat with the deputy General Secretary of the Popular Front, Abd al-Rahim Mallouh. Arafat explained to Mallouh that Saadat was not wanted by the Palestine Authority for anything and that no one was pressuring the Authority to arrest him. The Popular Front responded to the insistence of al-Tayrawi and agreed to hold a meeting on condition that it be in a public place. A place was chosen for the meeting on this basis - a hotel in the middle of the city of Ramallah. Saadat went to the meeting together with another leading member of the Popular Front, Bashir al-Khayri, who is also a lawyer. Just five minutes after the meeting began, about 200 men of the Palestinian security forces surrounded the hotel and raided the place where the meeting was underway. An argument then broke out between the Preventive Security Forces under Colonlel Jibril al-Rajjoub, and the Public Security Forces led by al-Tayrawi. Opinions differ at this point about the reason for the argument, whether it was about who would get the "honor" of arresting Saadat or about the arrest itself. The rival forces were compelled to "seek help" from the Palestinian presidency which accepted the "honor" of the arrest from both of the services. In this way Saadat was brought the headquarters of the Palestinian presidency in Ramallah. At the same time Mallouh arrived at the headquarters of the presidency along with others to meet with Arafat. Mallouh objected to the arrest of Saadat and demanded his immediate release. But Arafat replied to this request that Saadat was his "guest" and not under arrest and that there is not in fact any order for his arrest. -- "as-Safir" The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Branch of the Palestinian (West) Bank 16 January 2002 Press Release To set the record straight Declaration issued by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine To clarify the facts related to the arrest of Comrade Ahmad Saadat, the General Secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, the Front presents the following information: 1. We in the Popular Front view this as an act of deceit and a total political ambush prepared in advance by the Palestine Authority and its various security agencies. 2. In taking this position we refer back to the stance taken by Abu Ammar (Yasir Arafat) when he spoke to representatives of the patriotic and Islamic forces and to representatives of the Popular Front in a meeting with them last November. At that time he said that the subject of arresting Comrade Ahmad Saadat is not on the agenda. 3. Based on that, during these past months Comrade Ahmad Saadat did not act as a fugitive subject to arrest by the Palestine Authority, although he was out of sight of the occupation and its agents. 4. The meeting that was held in a hotel in the city of al-Bireh yesterday, Tuesday 15 January 2002 between a high-ranking security official in the Palestine Authority and a delegation from the Popular Front led by Comrade Ahmad Saadat took place based on repeated requests made by that official. 5. What took place in the hotel yesterday was a pre-planned brazen political arrest. The greatest proof of the planned nature of the operation was the presence of a large number of armed members of the various security agencies. In no way was Comrade Ahmad Saadat "turning himself in" as claimed by Security Service Colonel al-Tayrawi in a statement published in the newspaper "al-Quds" this morning. 6. We in the Popular Front view all that has happened as a clear act of submission to pressures from the Sharon government, pressures that we know will never end. Therefore, we will not accept this situation that encroaches upon the bases of Palestinian national unity. Free Comrade Ahmad Saadat and all political prisoners! The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine 16 January 2002. 13 January 2002 Press Release As the terrorist Zionist Sharon government continues its war of extermination against our people, murdering, destroying, and demolishing with the blessing of its ally the United States of America in a desperate Israeli-American attempt to get our people and their national forces to abandon their firm goals and inalienable rights and their continued commitment to the common national choice, the choice of intifada and resistance, the public security forces and the preventive security forces in the district of Ramallah and al-Bireh continue their feverish campaign against our resistance activists and the supporters of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, arresting, kidnapping, and torturing them. The number of detainees as of today has risen to 21 resistance activists whose only crime is their participation in the intifada of their people and their heroic resistance. The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, together with the other national forces, has all along affirmed its position, like a bullet in the chest of the occupation, that these suspicious acts will not reduce its commitment to continuing the resistance so long as the occupation of our land continues. The Popular Front reaffirms that surrender to international developments and to American and Israeli dictates will only yield the same rotten and noxious fruit that has been the result of ten years of compliance with their dictates and endless longing for more negotiations. We call on our people and their national forces and on all the vital and healthy forces in our Arab nation to take up their role in support for and aid to the course of intifada and resistance, protecting it from the manipulation of those who want to make light use of the honor of the nation and of the citizens and of the national unity that has been embodied in the blood of our martyrs, the torment of our wounded and prisoners, and in the unending suffering our people. The way out of this current national impasse is not to solve the problems of the occupation forces, complying over and over again with their cunning fascist demands. An honest, responsible, and serious political review is needed through a comprehensive national dialogue, where there is no place for the threats and arrests that have never once succeeded in shutting the mouths of our people and their resistance activists or in putting out the fire of their weapons - fire that is always legitimate in the face of a thieving occupation. No one will convince us with nervous logic and false viewpoints that the unity of our positions, plans, and leadership can be achieved by empty claims that impose their failure upon our national struggle. Our unity can only be achieved if we seek to win ourselves before we win over the United States, by reordering the interior of our own house, rather than by trying to make our heads fit an Israeli hat. We firmly believe in the ability of our people to impose the priority of comprehensive national dialogue rather than a lust for meetings and talks with the butchers of our people and our Arab nation, who are after our land, our blood, and the very destiny of our people and nation. Branch of the Palestinian (West) Bank 13 January 2002. _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
