[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 157 (Wednesday, October 11, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H9862-H9864]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
AMERICAN DIES IN CUSTODY OF PALESTINIANS
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Fox of Pennsylvania). Under a previous
order of the House, the gentleman from Colorado [Mr. Skaggs] is
recognized for 5 minutes.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Indiana [Mr. Burton] is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I hope all of my colleagues who
are here will listen to what I am going to read to them. A man named
Mohammed Rahim Mosleh, an American citizen, was picked up for
questioning Wednesday at a cafe by plain- clothesmen who identified
themselves as agents of Jericho's preventive security police on the
West Bank, now the new domicile of the Palestinian Liberation
Organization.
He was picked up. He was dressed only in his trousers when his body
was returned today at 2:00 a.m.
Now get this, my colleagues, his forehead was bruised blue, his lip
was torn open, blood had flowed from one ear, and there were what
appeared to be burn marks on his right foot, like cigarette burns,
according to family members.
Palestinian security officials speaking on conditions of anonymity,
said Mosleh was overcome by the 98 degree heat in Jericho and had a
heart attack. Get that, he had a heart attack with his head smashed in,
his lip bleeding, his blood coming out of his ear and burn marks on his
feet.
A doctor at Jericho's hospital, where Mosleh was dead on arrival,
refused to issue a death certificate. The certificate would normally
include a cause of death.
Witnesses said Mosleh was playing cards at a village coffee shop when
six men identifying themselves as preventive security agents for the
PLO approached his table Wednesday and invited Mosleh outside. They
said they were investigating a theft of gold from his sister and asked
him to come with them to Jericho. When he did not return that night,
his wife and two of his sons drove to Jericho on Thursday to ask about
him. Preventive security agents twice told them to come back later,
assuring them that Mosleh was there.
On the third trip, another agent said preventive security knew
nothing about his whereabouts.
Now, I am for the peace process in the Middle East. We all want there
to be peace in the Middle East, and we want it to work out between the
Israeli Government and the PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, and the PLO
forces. But
[[Page H 9863]]
here is an American citizen that was tortured to death, and nobody is
doing anything about it. This is an American citizen who had his head
bashed in, his lip torn open, beaten in the ear so severely that blood
came out of his ear, and burn marks on his feet. He was tortured to
death, and nobody is doing anything about it.
To add insult to injury, we are going to give the PLO $500 million
over the next 5 years. Now, I am for the peace process. But this kind
of baloney has to stop, and so I say to the State Department and to the
President and anybody else who has any authority over this peace
process over there, we want a full accounting of this man's death and
those who perpetrated this atrocity must be brought to justice.
If we do not get justice, then we ought to cut off that $500 million
in aid we are giving them. There should be severe conditions, in any
event, put on that aid.
[From the Washington Post, Sept. 30, 1995]
American Dies in Custody of Palestinians
(By Barton Gellman)
Ein Yabroud, West Bank, Sept. 29.--A Palestinian American
grocer on vacation from Dallas was returned dead to his wife
and family here early today after about 36 hours in custody
of security police in the Palestinian self-rule enclave of
Jericho.
Members of his immediate family said Aram Mohammed Rabim
Mosleh, 52, picked up for questioning Wednesday at an Ein
Yabroud cafe by plainclothesmen who identified themselves as
agents of Jericho's Preventive Security police. Mosleh was
dressed only in trousers when his body was returned today at
2 a.m. His forehead was bruised blue, his lip was torn, blood
had flowed from one ear, and there were what appeared to be
burn marks on his right foot, according to family members who
saw him.
Palestinian security officials, speaking on condition of
anonymity, said Mosleh was overcome by the 98-degree weather
in Jericho and had a heart attack. A doctor at Jericho's
hospital, where Mosleh was dead on arrival, refused to issue
a death certificate. The certificate would normally include a
cause of death.
Mosleh is at least the fourth person--the first holding a
U.S. passport--to die in suspicious circumstances in the
hands of the Palestinian self-rule security establishment.
Although the time of death could not be pinned down
precisely, Mosleh appears to have lost his life within hours
of Thursday's White House appearance by Palestinian leader
Yasser Arafat for the signing of an accord extending
palestinian rule in the West Bank. The Jericho forces are
responsible to Arafat.
One American official said the U.S. consul general in
Jerusalem would place ``tremendous pressure'' on the Jericho
forces for an independent investigation into Mosleh's death,
and said the FBI would take part, as it sometimes does in
foreign cases involving Americans to establish if there was
any political motivation against the United States.
``This will be an enormous embarrassment for Arafat in
Washington,'' the official said.
A report last month by the Israeli human rights group B T
selem found a ``greatly disturbing picture'' of ``gross human
rights violations'' by the Jericho-based security police.
Some of those interrogated and released have told of being
beaten and tortured with electric prods, hit cigarettes and
burning plastic.
John Bargeron, deputy consul general in Jerusalem, was said
to be planning a trip to Jericho on Saturday to meet with the
chief of Palestinian forces there. He planned to ask about
unconfirmed reports that another Palestinian American had
been arrested with Mosleh and remained in custody.
This village near Ramallah, about 12 miles north of
Jerusalem, has an unusually large number of American
citizens. Many of the men, like Mosleh, live and work in the
United States. They send money to their families here and
return for one or two months a year.
Mosleh was no stranger to controversy. Two years ago,
Israeli police arrested him on suspicion that he had killed
two Palestinians in the West Bank. They held him eight
months, according to U.S. diplomatic officials and Asid
Mosleh, his oldest son. The Israelis released him without
charge.
Mosleh then returned to Dallas, where he owns a grocery
store. The business made him wealthy by the standards of Ein
Yabroud, where he was nicknamed ``the millionaire,'' the
Associated Press reported. He arrived here for a visit last
month at his fortress-like and palatial family * * *.
``Anybody can have a heart attack,'' said Wahid Hussein
Mosleh's brother-in-law, who said the family did not want
further trouble with Preventive Security.
Witnesses said Mosleh was playing cards at a village coffee
shop when six men identifying themselves as Preventive
Security agents approached his table Wednesday and invited
Mosleh outside. They said they were investigating a theft of
gold from his sister and asked him to come with them to
Jericho.
When he did not return that night, his wife and two of his
sons drove to Jericho on Thursday to ask about him. A
Preventive Security agent twice told them to come back later,
assuring them that Mosleh was there.
One their third trip another agent said Preventive Security
knew nothing about Mosleh.
A preliminary investigation by U.S. diplomats suggested
today that Mosleh was handed over by Preventive Security to
the Mukhabarat. One Preventive Security representative told a
U.S. field investigator that his service had obtained a
``receipt'' for the prisoner.
____
PLO Violations of the Peace Accords
1. The PLO does not halt terrorist attacks by PLO members.
2. The PLO has not disciplined PLO members who engage in
terrorism.
3. The PLO continues to preach hostile propaganda against
Israel.
4. The PLO still has not changed the PLO Covenant, which
denies Israel's right to exist and calls for its destruction.
5. The PLO has failed to urge Palestinian Arabs to reject
anti-Israel Violence and terrorism.
6. The PLO has failed to honor Israel's requests for the
extradition of terrorist suspects.
7. The PLO hires fugitive terrorists for its police force.
(More than 20 fugitive terrorists have been hired by the PLO
police force.)
8. The PLO has not adhered to the agreed upon limits
concerning sovereignty issues.
9. The PLO fails to condemn terrorist attacks. (Between
June and November 1994, there were at least 72 Arab terrorist
attacks on Israelis. Arafat did not explicitly condemn any of
these attacks.)
10. The PLO does not respect human rights in Gaza and
Jericho.
11. The PLO operates in Jerusalem in direct violation of
the accords.
12. The PLO fails to prevent incitement by organizations
within its jurisdiction. It has not banned Hamas or Islamic
Jihad.
____
Is the PLO Really Broke?
(``The conglomeration of Palestinian movements under the
umbrella of the Palestine Liberation Organization are the
richest of all terrorist groups. It is estimated that they
have worldwide assets approaching 10 billion U.S. dollars and
an annual income of about 1\1/2\ to 2 billion U.S.
dollars.''--report by the United Kingdom's National Criminal
Intelligence Service (NCIS)).
a few of the plo's holdings
The PLO has bank accounts around the world.
The PLO has a partnership in Nigeria Airways.
The PLO owns the duty-free shop at Nuratala Mohammed
International Airport in Lagos.
The PLO controls Air Zimbabwe.
The PLO controls Kenya Airways.
The PLO owns the duty-free shop at Jomo Keynatta Airport in
Nairobi.
In Nicaragua, 25% of the national airline Aeronica is PLO
owned.
The PLO owns a substantial share of the duty-free store at
Nicaragua's ``Aeropuerto Internacionale Las Nercedas.''
Mr. Arafat, a billionaire, owns twelve homes and three
airplanes.
____
PLO Compliance and Financing
The Clinton administration is providing $500 million to the
PLO.
This funding has to be authorized by Congress.
The Senate, under pressure from the Clinton administration,
is preparing a long-term authorization of this funding, with
almost no strings attached.
This is a scandal of major proportions; as conservatives,
we must do something to stop it.
According to the British National Criminal Intelligence
Service [NCIS], the PLO is hiding assets of $7 to $10
billion.
The PLO is in major violation of their agreements with
Israel--they continue to support terrorism. Arafat, in his
speeches, continues to praise terrorists. The PLO refuses to
hand murderers over to Israel, as they are obligated to do by
the accords.
The PLO is misusing funds from foreign donors and is
engaged in massive fraud. Authenticated documents proving
that donor funds have been used for a host of illegal
activities.
____
[From the Center for Security Policy, Sept. 27, 1995]
We're ``Shocked, Shocked'': Arafat Bites the Hands Trying To Feed Him
$500 Million in U.S. Foreign Aid
Washington, D.C.--In an extraordinary display of
ingratitude, not to say intemperateness, Yasser Arafat's
Palestinian Authority (PA) recently repudiated legislation
aimed at ensuring its continued access to hundreds of
millions in U.S. tax-dollars. On 23 September 1995, the PA's
``Ministry of Information'' issued a press release
excoriating a legislative initiative sponsored by Sens. Jesse
Helms and Claiborne Pell, the chairman and ranking member
respectively of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The
Helms-Pell legislation was adopted last week by the United
States Senate as an amendment to the Fiscal Year 1996 Foreign
Operations appropriations bill.
Without mentioning the amendment by name, the Palestinian
Authority heaped vitriol on the preconditions imposed by the
Helms-Pell amendment on further disbursement of the $500
million that president Clinton pledged to Arafat two years
ago. Its release declared, in part:
``The American decision to extend financial assistance to
the Palestinian National
[[Page H 9864]]
Authority contradicts any accepted practice. This decision that was
taken while handcuffed (sic) with heavy chains of conditions.
It is provocative and insulting to the Palestinian national
feelings. The decision is a flagrant intrusion in internal
Palestinian matters. . . The American Congress has placed at
the very heart of its conditions the closing of Palestinian
institutions in Jerusalem and the cessation of support by the
Palestinian National Authority for these institutions. This
exposes the true face of American policy towards the Holy
City, a policy that supports and assists further Jewish
occupation of Jerusalem, its annexation to Israel and it
further confirms Israel's claims that Jerusalem is its
united, everlasting capital. . .
``. . . The American Congress has relinquished the American
role as a sponsor of the Declaration of Principles and
declared its absolute partiality in the interest of the worst
and most damaging of Israeli interpretations, by rushing
ahead more than the Israelis themselves have done when they
[members of Congress] demanded the canceling of some articles
in the Palestinian National charter and when they demanded
Palestinian co-operation with Israel in surrendering wanted
Palestinian citizens to it despite the fact that this demand
violates the signed agreements between the PLO and the
government of Israel. . .''
``The conditions that the American Congress demanded will
not find anyone to respond to them. The members of Congress,
who do not respect international legitimacy, will not need to
wait six long months because the Palestinian people will not
barter their rights for all the money in the world.''
(Emphasis added.)
arafat never promised you a rose garden
What makes you such vitriolic attacks particularly stunning
is the fact that they are basically directed at two senior
Senators who have gone to great lengths to protect the PLO/PA
from the sort of real conditions that many Americans believe
are in order. In light of Arafat's continuing support for
terrorism against Israel, his failure to comply with other
commitments under the Declaration of Principles and his
diversion of international aid to personal and political
purposes inimical to real peace, a powerful case can be made
for denying any further distribution of the roughly $350
million yet to be disbursed to the PA.
Congressional leaders, and Senator Helms in particular,
have come under enormous pressure from the Clinton
Administration, the Israeli government of Yitzhak Rabin and
the American Israel Public Affairs Committee to keep the aid
flowing to Arafat, such problems notwithstanding. In the end,
Senator Helms was induced to set aside his instincitive--and
well-founded--opposition to undisciplined foreign aid and to
those who support international terrorism. Instead, he lent
his name to a foreign aid bill for the PLO/PA whose
conditions were deliberately crafted with sufficient
ambiguity and/or loop-holes to meet with Arafat's approval
and to allow hundreds of millions of additional tax-dollars
go to his organizations.
the bottom line
The simple truth is that two years after the Oslo I
agreements were signed, efforts to moderate Yasser Arafat's
behavior through financial, political (and, in the case of
Israel, territorial) concessions have not had the desired
effect. Instead, such concessions in the face of continued
Palestinian gangsterism appear only to have encouraged more
of the same. For example, last week, even as the Congress was
considering the Helms-Pell legislation, Arafat used
interviews with the Egyptian and Jordanian press to affirm
that the Oslo agreements are implementing the notorious
``plan to phases'' adopted by the PLO in 1974. Phase I
involves obtaining territory from Israel via negotiation;
Phase II will use that territory to launch a final campaign
for the destruction of Israel.
Fortunately, Congress has an alternative at hand to such
appeasement. Legislation has been introduced in both the
Senate and House that would mandate a complete cut-off of
funding for the PLO/PA. This bill, known as the Middle East
Peace Compliance Act and sponsored in the Senate by Sens.
Alfonse D'Amato, Richard Shelby and Larry Graig and in the
House by Reps. Michael Forbes, Jim Saxton and Tom DeLay,
would allow continued aid to go toward legitimate,
monitorable and private humanitarian projects in Palestinian-
controlled areas--provided the PLO honors its commitments.
The Center for Security Policy urges Senator Helms and
others affronted by Yasser Arafat's imperiousness to
substitute the real conditions called for by the D'Amato-
Forbes bill for the ersatz conditions of the Helms-Pell
legislation. As the attached op.ed by Center for Security
Policy director Frank J. Gaffney, Jr. published in today's
Newsday makes clear, Israel is not the only nation with stake
in the quality of such conditionality. America's not vital
interests dictate that the United States must make every
effort to avoid rewarding PLO support for terrorism and other
non-compliance.
____________________