[Peace-discuss] Today's Articles from Chicago Tribune

[David Green]

Three articles from Today's Tribune, from Page 3, are
pasted below.

The first details Israeli involvement in providing
arms to right-wing paramilitaries in Colombia,
although the word Israeli does not appear in the
headline. References to Guatemala's historic
relationship to Israel must, of course, be understood
in the context of pressure applied by the U.S. in 1948
to support the U.N. partition resolution which helped
to create Israel. This is not mentioned in the
article, as if Guatemala (otherwise known as the
United Fruit Company) just decided on its own. This
article downplays the murderous nature of the
Guatemalan junta in the 1980s, supported by not only
Israel, Argentina's neo-Nazi generals, and Chile under
Pinochet, but of course also by the U.S.--but which
was somewhat constrained by a congressional
resolultion, so had to use its fascist surrogates to
do the dirty work of supplying weapons and advisement.
Beyond that, note the reference to Hollywood, as if we
should be be surprised that this Israeli arms dealer
does not fit a movie stereotype. He's just a
casually-dressed Israeli!

The second article provides evidence of different
responses to "accidental" deaths of Israelis and
"accidental" deaths of Palestinians. Those of Israelis
deserve an entire story and an Israeli investigation,
while those of Palestinians usually merit one sentence
covering the incident, another covering the Israel's
denials of either responsibility or intentionality. An
example of the latter is at the end of this article--a
blatant example of the comparative valuation of Jewish
lives and Palestinian lives.

Finally, Colin Powell's comments can be seen in the
context of the Rose Garden statement by George Bush
that I just heard on the radio. There is no serious
recognition of Palestinian aspirations and Israeli
responsibility. I suspect that Bush's statement have
more to do with a desperate attempt to curry favor
with Arab nations prior to the Iraq war.

DG

Firm examined for gun deals in Latin America
Weapons secretly diverted to group on U.S. terror list
By Hugh Dellios
Tribune foreign correspondent

March 14, 2003

GUATEMALA CITY -- The first hint that Uzi
Kissilevich's company is not your ordinary Central
American import company are the paintings of Tel Aviv
street scenes in the lobby. They hang right over the
fine Moroccan vases.

Upstairs in a modern office that looks like an
architect's, Kissilevich says his business buys and
sells "equipment." But what he prefers not to discuss
is that Israeli guns are at least some of that
equipment.

Kissilevich is an Israeli arms dealer, one of three
linked to a recent scandal in which 3,000 Nicaraguan
army assault rifles were sold to Panamanian police but
secretly diverted into the hands of Colombian
paramilitaries on the U.S. list of terrorists.

While Kissilevich denies any role in the diversion,
among the questions raised by the scandal is why a
company representing the Israeli government's Military
Industries branch is based in Guatemala City and
brokering gun deals between the Nicaraguan and
Panamanian security forces.

The 11-year-old company, Gir S.A., is one of a number
of Israeli companies that have in recent years been
marketing security equipment and services in
Guatemala. They offer Israeli expertise to a
crime-battered country where citizens' security is
quickly becoming privatized.

Those businesses are part of the latest incarnation of
historically close relations between Israel and
Guatemala, beginning with Guatemala's active role in
promoting Israeli statehood in 1948 and running
through Israel's controversial military aid to
Guatemalan regimes battling leftist insurgents in the
country's bloody 1980s civil war.

In an interview, Kissilevich declined to discuss the
details of the arms scandal because of ongoing
investigations in Nicaragua, Panama and Colombia. But
he insisted that his transactions are legal and that
he would clear the company's name.

"As Israelis, we know what terrorism is," Kissilevich
said. "Selling arms outside the law? No, in no way."

A spokeswoman for Israeli Military Industries
confirmed that Gir S.A. is a representative of the
government weapons-manufacturing agency, which has
distributors and marketing consultants all over the
world. She said Israeli Military Industries had no
part in the weapons diversion.

Report details scandal

The Israeli company's involvement in the arms scandal
was detailed last month in an investigative report by
the Organization of American States, which warned
about the threat of unregulated trafficking of weapons
in the region.

According to the report, the 2001 deal involved the
Nicaraguan police buying Israeli-made Uzi submachine
guns from Kissilevich's company in exchange for
Nicaraguan AK-47 assault rifles. Gir S.A. then
arranged to sell the AK-47s to a different Israeli
merchant in Panama, Shimon Yelenik, who said he
represented the Panamanian police.

The rifles ended up in the hands of the United
Self-Defense Forces of Colombia, or AUC, which the
U.S. listed as a terrorist group last year because of
alleged atrocities against villagers and involvement
in cocaine-smuggling to the U.S.

The OAS report blamed Yelenik, saying that the
purchase order he presented was fake and that he was
"probably guilty" of fraud and breaking anti-terrorism
laws. He was arrested by Panamanian police in
December, and Israeli Military Industries officials
said they had no link with him.

The report did not accuse Gir S.A. of violating the
law but it did not erase all suspicions about the
roles of Kissilevich and his partner, Ori Zoller.

"If in fact the investigation team did not encounter
proof that Ori Zoller and Uzi Kissilevich ... had
conspired in the diversion of arms, the fact that they
did not attempt to verify the final destination of the
arms contributed to that diversion," the report
concluded.

The report said that Gir S.A. contracted with the
Nicaraguan army for a second, larger order of rifles a
short time after the first deal, but that the
businessmen abruptly canceled the deal after
international investigators began probing the matter.

The OAS team also reported that Zoller passed on to
Nicaraguan army officers a purchase order from Yelenik
for anti-aircraft weapons and grenade launchers. The
investigators traced that request back to a Lebanese
guns-for-diamonds merchant named Samih Osailly, who is
currently under arrest in Belgium for possible links
to Al Qaeda terrorists.

`Chain of documents'

Kissilevich says Gir S.A. was "hoodwinked" by Yelenik.
He said the "chain of documents" would prove that the
company had contracted for a legitimate deal that went
awry after it became involved.

"We want this resolved as soon as possible," said
Kissilevich, who is in contact with investigators.
"The other day [former Nicaraguan President] Daniel
Ortega accused me of working with the [Israeli spy
agency] Mossad. I have a wife and kids to whom I have
to explain all this."

Kissilevich hardly looks like your shady
Hollywood-version gun dealer. He is clean-cut, speaks
fluent Spanish and wears a fleece vest, jeans and
Israeli-made loafers.

He declined to say what other equipment Gir S.A.
imports. It is based in a hotel complex, but the
address listed for it in the telephone directory
actually is for a delicatessen named Schlotzky's,
where employees said they knew nothing of Gir S.A..

Officials say Gir S.A. is one of many Israeli
companies in the security business in Guatemala, a
country whose 20,000 police are outnumbered by 60,000
private security guards. A recent survey found that
only 15 percent of registered guns in Guatemala belong
to the police.

Israeli officials say the security companies are only
the latest link between Israel and Guatemala, two
nations tied together by mutual interest, historical
appreciation and, at times, a need for friends in
international affairs.

Guatemala was one of the first nations to recognize
Israel at the United Nations in 1948. And Israel
credits a Guatemalan diplomat named Jorge Garcia
Granados with successfully lobbying other Latin
American nations to do the same.

Subsequent Guatemalan governments have voted with and
for Israel in United Nations matters. And while the
Israeli government provides Guatemala training,
assistance programs and scholarships, private Israeli
businesses are involved in construction, agriculture
and energy projects in the country.

The Israeli security business here "is based on
Israel's experience," said Yaacov Paran, Israel's
ambassador to Guatemala. "There is a lot of need
because of the crime that is rising here, and what
country has more experience than Israel?"

In the 1980s, the bilateral ties hinged on military
aid, which also was provided by Argentina and Chile.
Much of it was delivered after the U.S. Congress cut
aid to Guatemala because of concerns about
human-rights abuses by the army.

It is common to see Guatemalan police and soldiers
carrying Israeli-made Uzis or Galil rifles. But
Guatemalan officials say the arms sales today are
handled strictly through private businesses.

Asked whether there was a link between the earlier
military assistance and today's private sales,
Kissilevich just shrugged.

"At that time, I was just a boy," he said.


2 Israeli guards killed
Troops thought security workers were Palestinian
gunmen
By Joel Greenberg
Special to the Tribune

March 14, 2003

JERUSALEM -- Israeli soldiers and a helicopter gunship
killed two Israeli security guards in the West Bank on
Thursday after troops mistook them for Palestinian
gunmen. In a separate incident, soldiers killed five
Palestinians in an exchange of fire in a West Bank
village, a military spokesman said.

The killing of the Israeli guards, which prompted an
army investigation, raised questions about firing
rules and discipline among troops after more than 29
months of conflict, during which human-rights groups
have accused the army of reckless gunfire that has led
to scores of Palestinian deaths.

The security guards were posted at a transmission
antenna on a hilltop near the Jewish settlement of
Pnei Hever, southeast of Hebron.

During a heightened alert after an intelligence report
of a planned militant attack in the area, soldiers at
a lookout post about a mile from the antenna spotted
the armed guards and mistakenly identified them as
Palestinian gunmen, an army spokesman said.

As soldiers from an elite unit arrived at the scene,
one of the guards got into his vehicle and began
driving down the hill.

The soldiers "called the vehicle to stop and, after
identifying the driver as armed, the force fired shots
toward the car, killing the driver," an army statement
said.

The military spokesman said that the soldiers were a
few dozen yards away from the car. Television footage
showed the car's windshield and hood, marked with the
Hebrew word "Security," riddled with dozens of bullet
holes.

The second guard who ran down the hill, apparently to
help his colleague, was killed by a missile fired from
a helicopter, the army and a witness said.

The incident raised questions about whether the
soldiers involved had fired too quickly, making no
attempt to arrest the armed men, and whether their
orders permitted them to shoot armed suspects on
sight.

The Israeli human-rights group B'Tselem said the
shooting followed a pattern that has led to repeated
killings of Palestinians, armed and unarmed, during
the current conflict when soldiers were not in
imminent danger and without subsequent investigations
of the killings.

"For more than two years, soldiers have been regularly
shooting without warning at suspicious figures, and it
is only natural that in the end they would also hit
Israelis," said Lior Yavne, a spokesman for B'tselem.
"I can only hope that the shocked reaction in the army
will recur when innocent Palestinians are killed.

"When orders permit shooting without warning at
suspicious figures, or when orders are not obeyed and
there is no investigation, it unfortunately also harms
Israelis," Yavne added. "This is almost routine when
it comes to Palestinians."

Figures compiled by Israeli defense officials and
published Thursday in the Ha'aretz newspaper showed
that 235 non-combatant Palestinian civilians have been
killed by Israeli forces during the conflict and that
another 130 of those killed were under the age of 16.
Human-rights groups cite higher figures.

Nearly 2,000 Palestinians and more than 700 Israelis
have been killed in the conflict.

On March 7, gunmen killed an Israeli couple at a
settlement near Hebron, and a soldier was shot and
killed in the city Monday. Troops were on heightened
alert for further attacks before Thursday's incident,
the army said.

"This is part of the ongoing campaign against the
terrorists, and occasionally and very unfortunately
civilians are killed by accident," said Capt. Jacob
Dallal, an army spokesman. "This was an operational
failure. If there were two terrorists there, then it
would have been a different story."

At Tamoun in the northern West Bank, five wanted
militants linked to Hamas and Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade
were killed in a gun battle near their hideout after
the Palestinians opened fire on Israeli troops, the
army said.

Powell blames Palestinians for violence, peace failure
By Barry Schweid
Associated Press

March 14, 2003

WASHINGTON -- Palestinian attacks on Israel and a lack
of Palestinian proposals for making peace are to blame
for the lack of progress toward a Mideast settlement,
Secretary of State Colin Powell said Thursday.

Testifying at a House Appropriations subcommittee
hearing, Powell spoke sympathetically of Israel's
refusal to negotiate while under attack.

"Nevertheless, we are deeply engaged," Powell said
under questioning by Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.)
and David Obey (D-Wis.).

Powell agreed with them that the administration would
have more support for its Iraq policy "if we had been
able to achieve greater progress in the Middle East."

He offered no criticism of Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon, who has ruled out concessions to the
Palestinians while terrorist acts continue.

"The principal problem has been the continuing
violence and terrorism that has come from the
Palestinian side directed against the state of
Israel," Powell said, leaving Israel unable "to do
some of the things that I would have liked to see
Israel do to move the process along."

Still, Powell said, the Bush administration was
looking for the right time to act on a plan toward
Palestinian statehood in 2005.

The U.S. is working on the plan with the UN, the
European Union and Russia.

The Palestinian parliament's appointment of Mahmoud
Abbas as prime minister puts "a new dynamic in play,"
Powell said, adding he hoped Abbas would have "real
authority and will allow us to move forward."

In the West Bank, however, Yasser Arafat delayed
signing legislation forcing him to share power with a
prime minister. He asked for several changes, which
the Palestinian legislature plans to consider Monday.


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