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PA Commander Mourned But Not Missed

(Ha'aretz) Arnon Regular - Palestinians killed in the suicide bombings in Amman included Bashir Nafeh, who until recently was the commander of the Palestinian special forces, and Abed Allun, the liaison between the Palestinian Preventive Security Service (PSS) and foreign intelligence agencies. The death of the two, who in recent years were considered close allies, caused a sigh of relief among most of the heads of the West Bank security services. Nafeh and the apparatus that he headed - which the Americans and British generously supported, mainly with equipment - caused a serious headache both for Nasser Yousef, the PA interior minister appointed to command the Palestinian security forces, and for Mahmoud Abbas. It is a well-known fact that the vast majority of incidents that create the chaotic security situation in the territories originate with the security forces themselves. Nafeh's men, about 1,000 policemen in the West Bank, were involved this year in dozens of serious gunbattles with PSS policemen as well as other security forces. In practice, it turns out that Abbas is incapable of controlling the heads of the security services and imposing security reforms. One of the heads of the security forces said this week, only half jokingly, that the attacks in Amman and the deaths of Nafeh and Allun eliminated one of the main obstacles that prevented the PA from taking control of its security services. The assassination of Moussa Arafat in Gaza four months ago solved a problem with the security services in a similar manner.
2005-11-29 00:00:00
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