Dahlan flees to Jordan, blasts Abbas over raid

BEIRUT: Former Fatah leader Mohammad Dahlan issued a scathing attack on rival Fatah President Mahmoud Abbas Friday after the Palestinian security forces raided his house in Ramallah and arrested his guards Thursday. Dahlan arrived in the Jordanian capital Amman following the raid late Thursday, according to a report in Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Ray.

In an exclusive statement issued to Al-Ray, Dahlan said: “Abu Mazen is personally responsible for what has happened to me in Ramallah. He has brought shame upon us and he is trying to establish a dictatorship at a stage where all dictatorships are gone,” adding that Abbas “pretends to protect the law but at the same time he breaks into people’s houses which he is supposed to protect.”

Dahlan vowed not to stop struggling for the sake of the Palestinian cause, pointing out that the way he had been treated “is based on no law or traditions and the one who fails to manipulate the law resorts to bullying techniques,” the newspaper reported.

Palestinian security forces raided the former security chief’s home in Ramallah Friday, seizing weapons, computers and documents, stoking a long-standing feud between the two party leaders.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb/News/Middle-East/2011/Jul-30/Dahlan-flees-to-Jordan-blasts-Abbas-over-raid.ashx#axzz1TbZGtIg9

PA security forces spokesman Major General Adnan Ad-Dmairi told Ma'an that only the guards' room beside Dahlan's house was raided, and the home of Dahlan itself was not touched.

Dahlan has parliamentary immunity and was not the target of the raid, he said, adding that officials are permitted to have bodyguards, but need approval from the security forces to hold weapons.

Ad-Dmairi said forces captured illegal weapons and 10,000 bullets from Dahlan's guards.

Dahlan was understood to have been locked in a room of his house while security forces conducted the searches, AFP reported.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=409045

Fatah lawmakers from Gaza condemned the raid in a statement. They said it was an attack on Dahlan's parliamentary immunity and personal freedom, and violated Palestinian basic law.

The Fatah officials demanded the immediate release of Dahlan's bodyguards, specifically those whom the lawmakers had visited in the military intelligence headquarters in Ramallah.

The PLC members called on all Palestinian leaders and organizations to respect Palestinian law and public order, urging all "to maintain the prestige" of the Palestinian Authority.

The statement was signed by Mohammad Hijazi, Ashraf Jomah, Ibrahim Al-Masdar, Faysal Abu Shahla, Yahia Al-Sharafi and Rajai Barakah.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=409628

if memory serves Dahlan was quite involved on the Fatah side of the 2007 Gaza coup or countercoup depending on ones POV, it also weird that now Dahlan is being referred to as a Fatah leader when in the past it was strongman or henchman

And as you said coup or countercoup he took a lot of heat from the fatah due to the hamas takeover. He built up the security forces after oslo, which is what he is primarily known for, but he also was one of the negotiators at camp david, and now a member of the fatah central committee.

I am sure that Palestinians in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank will be watching this case very closely.

more lately Dahlan has been de-emphasized here'd one from far more recently 2005 wikilesks

'Dahlan's failing mental health treated in Israel'

"We called a doctor and suggested he go to a hospital. He refused and said he had to speak to thousands of Palestinians on September 17. He then collapsed on his bed. He looked ghostly white ... I said, 'If you leave this room you will either be martyred or end up paralyzed.'

"He broke down in my arms and said he would go to hospital. We arranged a VIP room at a hospital in Tel Aviv and took him there in an ambulance with a police escort. The following day doctors said he had a slipped disc," the cable quoted Gilad as saying.

Gilad said King Abdullah of Jordan sent a helicopter and flew Dahlan to Amman, Haaretz reported.

Although Gilad is quoted as describing Dahlan as "destructive" and an "extremist," he also points out, positively, Dahlan's alleged role in the "elimination" of Palestinian Authority interior minister Nasser Yousef.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=377451

Palestinian security forces raided the Ramallah home of ousted Fatah strongman and former Gaza security chief Mohammed Dahlan, officials said.

http://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2011/07/28/Palestinian-strongmans-home-raided/UPI-84021311853650/#ixzz1Tcy4moWn

Scores of Palestinian police on Thursday raided the Ramallah home of ex-strongman Mohammed Dahlan.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5jR1BiK0ZarmA989xkIa1eWR4JTzQ?docId=CNG.d8ba24af726d4b23ec809bc61ad011fe.11

Palestinians Storm Home Of Ex-Strongman Dahlan -Witnesses

http://www.nasdaq.com/aspx/stock-market-news-story.aspx?storyid=201107280203dowjonesdjonline000243&title=palestinians-storm-home-of-ex-strongman-dahlanwitnesses

Better?

They have always referred to him that way.

The "strongman" label has generally come from sources like AP, Reuters, and the like.

This term is still used by those sources - nothing has changed in that regard.

it would appear Dahlan was building his own militia

You seemed to think that there was with your comment about the use of strongman or lack thereof.

In reality, there has been no change in the news media with respect to what he has been called.

to you?

You listed two things you thought were weird:

"if memory serves Dahlan was quite involved on the Fatah side of the 2007 Gaza coup or countercoup depending on ones POV"

and

"it also weird that now Dahlan is being referred to as a Fatah leader when in the past it was strongman or henchman"

The second of your two observations was the one I was addressing. He is still referred to as a "strongman" in the sources that did so in the past (The Daily Star of Lebanon not among them).

If it's minutia then I'm not sure why you felt the need to make the observation in the first place.

Do you have anything substantive you'd like to discuss about the Dahlan incident other than whether or not the press still refers to him as a strongman?

I'd be happy to do so.

what was Dahlan up yo?

Why were you concerned in the first place with such minutia?

With respect to why or how the raid was illegal, I'd have to read the statement itself to understand fully where these PLC members were coming from. Ma'an does not link to it - not sure if it's available in English.

The article says that it violated Palestinian basic law but it did not say how - though it did mention parliamentary immunity.

to create a subthread out of, why is that?

In any case, you have decided to make this into a sub-thread, not I.

If you had simply responded to my correction by acknowledging that the press does still indeed refer to him as a strongman, the issue would have been closed.

You instead chose to make an argument out of it.

Is it so hard to simply admit that you made an error and to credit the person who corrected you for doing so?

you felt it necessary to post 3 links that 'proved me wrong'? was that your point well okay then

You pointed out that the press used to refer to Dahlan as a strongman but now they are calling him a leader. You noted that you thought that was interesting.

I provided sources that used the term strongman and not leader to refer to Dahlan.