Sharon Says Prisoners Implicate Arafat in Financing of Terrorism
Mr. Sharon's office did not provide transcripts of the interrogations or describe in what conditions the prisoners, who include Marwan Barghouti, a senior leader of Mr. Arafat's Fatah organization, are being held. An official in the prime minister's office said security officials could not provide further details tonight.

Some of the men cited as sources had in the past denied that Mr. Arafat had a role in preparing attacks. Other Palestinian officials have also denied any such role for the Palestinian leader, and they have accused Israel of forging documents or using information out of context.

In Ramallah and elsewhere, the Israeli Army scoured the files in Palestinian Authority offices in an apparent hunt for proof of links to terrorism. Israel's internal security service is interrogating the hundreds of men arrested in the raids. Still, the evidence presented so far has not prompted the United States or any foreign government to cut ties to the Palestinian leader, who has publicly renounced terrorism.

The statement made clear that Mr. Sharon's government continues to regard not just Mr. Arafat but also the senior leadership of Fatah as committed to terrorism.

Among the men cited as sources of the information for Israel's accusation against Mr. Arafat was Mr. Barghouti, who is the senior Fatah leader for the West Bank and a member of the Palestinian Legislative Council. Israeli security officials in recent months have repeatedly accused Mr. Barghouti of masterminding Fatah terrorism and funneling money to Fatah militants, and Israeli forces arrested him last month in Ramallah.

In its statement, the Israeli government said that under interrogation Mr. Barghouti had said that he was "personally involved in directing terrorist attacks which resulted in the killing and injuring of scores of Israeli civilians."

Mr. Barghouti, a Hebrew speaker and a public advocate of a two-state peace solution, has called himself a political leader rather than a military one. He has said he approved of attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank and Gaza, the lands Israel occupied in the 1967 war, but that he opposed attacks in pre-1967 Israel. Israel rejects any such distinction.

The Israeli government said another militant leader, Nasser Abu Hamid, said under interrogation that Mr. Barghouti "was informed of the details of every operation carried out by himself and his men." It said Mr. Abu Hamid was responsible for several attacks, including attacks inside pre-1967 Israel.

Israel also said Ahmed Barghouti, a relative and close aide of the Fatah leader, had "personally dispatched suicide bombers to their terrorist missions, in which dozens of Israeli civilians were killed and hundreds wounded." It did not reveal the source of that information or specify the bombings.
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/03/international/middleeast/03MIDE.html