ISRAELI LAWYER SENDS WARNING TO US LEADERS OVER DAHLAN'S INVOLVEMENT IN
TERROR ATTACKS

Tuesday, July 02, 2002
Tel-Aviv attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has sent letters to United States
Attorney John Ashcroft, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and
members of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations warning them of
Palestinian leader Mohammed Dahlan's involvement in terror attacks. Dahlan,
a rising star in the international media, is being promoted by many in the
Bush administration to succeed Yassir Arafat as leader of the Palestinian
Authority. The lawyer's missive accuses former Gaza security service boss
Dahlan and his deputy Rashid Abu Shabak of having perpetrated the November
20, 2000, bombing of an Israeli school bus outside of Kfar Darom.

In the Kfar Darom attack several Israeli teachers were killed and many
school children were seriously injured. US citizen Rachel Asarof was
wounded in the attack and the husband of another American citizen, Gavriel
Biton, was killed. The bombing of the school bus, which crippled three
young children from the Cohen family, shocked Israelis and brought
international condemnation of the Palestinian Authority.

Following the attack on the school bus, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Barak dispatched the Israel Air Force to level Dahlan's Gaza headquarters.
Then opposition leader, Ariel Sharon called for Dahlan's immediate
assassination.

In his recent policy speech on the Middle East, American President George
Bush called on the Palestinians to oust Arafat and to elect "new and
different leaders." The President warned the Palestinian people, in a
thinly veiled reference to Arafat, that the United States would not
maintain relations with "leaders who are compromised by terror."

Darshan-Leitner's letter notes the irony of American leaders grooming
Dahlan to succeed Arafat, when the Gaza leader was the one actually
carrying out the PA's policy of terror attacks on Israeli civilians:

"Cultivating an accused terrorist like Dahlan, who has targeted Israeli
school children in his recent attacks, to replace Yassir Arafat merely
ensures the continuation of the Palestinian's strategy of criminal
violence to advance their extreme political goals. For the United States to
promote a Palestinian law enforcement official who bombed an Israeli
school bus and injured American citizens undermines President Bush's
pledge not to do business with those compromised by terror. By supporting
Dahlan's candidacy for leadership you are merely pulling U.S. policy out of
the fire and into the frying pan. Dahlan is not a new and different type of
leader - he is a terrorist too."

The letter also notes that Dahlan is currently providing shelter in Gaza to
Hamas arch-terrorist Mohammed Deif. Deif, a childhood friend of Dahlan has
topped Israel's list of wanted fugitives for several years. Deif is accused
by the Israeli security services of planning dozens of Hamas bombings that
resulted in the murder of scores of Israelis. Under Dahlan's supervision
Gaza has been utilized as a safe haven which provides refuge to hundreds of
wanted Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist such as Deif.

Darshan-Leitner's office has brought law suits against Dahlan in the Israeli
courts accusing him of terror attacks. In the United States attorney David
Strachman is prosecuting a civil action against Dahlan arising from the Kfar
Darom school bus bombing in the federal court in Washington, D.C.

For More Information: 972-9-973-3336.

E-mail: darshanleitner@hotmail.com