Israelis Release More Documents Accusing Arafat of Terror
The documents related to Mr. Arafat, many of which have already been released, indicate that he approved payments to members of his Fatah political party who later carried out terror attacks, that his security service was aware that some Fatah members were engaging in terrorism and that the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad had infiltrated parts of the Palestinian security apparatus.

But they do not appear to show definitively that the Palestinian leader ordered terror attacks. In some documents, Mr. Arafat criticizes certain suicide bombings and the distribution of money from Saudi Arabia to Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Palestinians dismissed the claims as gross exaggerations timed for Mr. Sharon's trip to the United States. "Is there any document where President Arafat orders the purchase of weapons or the manufacture of weapons? Or any document where President Arafat calls for attacking Israeli targets?" asked Ahmed Abdel Rahman, a top aide to Mr. Arafat. "These are nonsensical and meaningless Israeli accusations."

A Western diplomat said the Israeli officials were exaggerating the role of Marwan Barghouti, a top Fatah official whom Israel has arrested and accused of secretly running Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades, a group of militant Fatah members who have carried out a series of suicide attacks in Israel after their leader was killed in January.

"They're making of Barghouti more than he was," the diplomat said. "If he's said anything, it's been amplified and magnified."

The documents do suggest that Mr. Arafat's intelligence agencies closely monitored the activities of militants from Fatah, Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, including terror attacks. What is unclear is whether senior Palestinian officials approved the attacks, tried to stop them or tacitly backed them by not intervening.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/06/international/middleeast/06DOCU.html