Security for the Palestinians from the Palestinians - and the CIA?

JINSA
Report #: 1,047
15 December '10

Normally, JINSA concerns itself primarily with security for Israel, and we have spent some time worrying about the future of the Palestinian National Security Force (NSF) armed and trained by a series of American generals. Today, however, we are concerned with the right of Palestinians to be secure from Palestinians- specifically from Palestinian security agencies funded by the United States and working in cooperation with the CIA.

A Palestinian source cited by Middle East Newsline (MENL) said U.S. intelligence has maintained its close ties with General Intelligence Service (GIS) and the Preventive Security Apparatus (PSA) despite reports of torture from international agencies and reports that several detainees have died in custody. And despite the Obama administration's ban on "abusive interrogation" methods by American personnel. Up to 1,000 Palestinians have been jailed during 2010. Western diplomats confirmed CIA support of the two security services and the CIA does not deny it, although in 2009 a CIA spokesman did deny a supervisory role. "The notion that this agency somehow runs other intelligence services ... is simply wrong," he said in the Guardian(UK) article. "The CIA ... only supports, and is interested in, lawful methods that produce sound intelligence."

We would hope so.

But in October, Human Rights Watch (normally more interested in alleged Israeli violations) announced its concern for two specific cases of possible torture by the PSA and said those were among more than 100 allegations of torture registered this year with the Independent Commission for Human Rights (ICHR), the official Palestinian human rights ombudsman, against security services in the West Bank. "The reports of torture by Palestinian security services keep rolling in," said Joe Stork, deputy Middle East director at Human Rights Watch in an article on its website. "President Abbas and Prime Minister Fayyad are well aware of the situation."

And yet, the United States maintains its funding and support for the GIS and PSA.

(Read full "Security for the Palestinians from the Palestinians - and the CIA?")

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