Chemist supplies Hamas [PLO Arab used ambulances to transport chemicals for making bombs]

Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 11, 2003 | MARGOT DUDKEVITCH

[yonif]

Rashed Tarek al-Nimr, a cousin of PLO executive head Farouk Kadoumi, who worked as a chemist in hospitals in Nablus and Bethlehem, supplied chemicals he took from the hospitals to Hamas for use in making bombs. He told the Shin Bet he used ambulances to transport the chemicals.

Details of his arrest on November 24 were released by the Shin Bet on Wednesday. Nimr met a number of Hamas members, including senior commanders from the Nablus area, who hid inside the hospitals to evade arrest. Several months prior to his arrest, he met Khaled Abu Hamed, a senior Hamas commander, who asked him to obtain chemicals from the hospitals. The two met a number of times and Nimr sold Hamed six containers of hydrogen peroxide for NIS 3,600. Abu Hamed then told Nimer there would be a large explosion in Israel in the near future. Officials noted that hydrogen peroxide is one of the ingredients used to make TATP, which was used by Hamas in numerous suicide bombings.

In October, Nimr met in Nablus with Hamas member Said Kutab, who gave him money to purchase more hydrogen peroxide. Shortly afterward, Nimr started working in a hospital in Bethlehem, and Kutab continued to request that he purchase more hydrogen peroxide and assist in locating a warehouse where it could be stored.

Days before Nimr was arrested, Kutab asked him to obtain nitrous acid and hydrogen sulfide, chemicals used in making nitroglycerine. Nimr told him that as soon as he got the supplies he would transfer them to him in ambulances.

Nimr told investigators that as a hospital worker, he had no problem in obtaining the chemicals without the necessary authorization. He said he approached suppliers and told them he needed them for hospital use.

Security officials noted that it is not the first time terrorists have used ambulances to smuggle people and weapons from one area to another, as they are not subjected to inspections by the IDF.

Palestinian ambulance drivers receive permits from the Civil Administration in Judea and Samaria and the factories they work for that allow them unrestricted travel and permission to transport chemicals. The drivers are acquainted with workers at various factories in Israel and bribe them to add additional goods to the load they are licensed to carry. The registered amount of chemicals is then transported to the designated factories in accordance with the registration papers, and the extra is sold to terrorists in Nablus.

[yonif]

And the world complains when it sees Israel searching ambulances without letting them right through....

[yonif]

Security officials noted that it is not the first time terrorists have used ambulances to smuggle people and weapons from one area to another, as they are not subjected to inspections by the IDF.

[Theo]

Yonif -- there are a lot of postings that inform us of what's going on in Israel, and a lot of us read them and don't always post to them. So often I don't have words to say, besides maybe that I pray from time to time for the peace of Jerusalem, that my wife has heard me mutter for the death of every single last "Palestinian" (although there are undoubtedly some decent, upstanding "Palestinians"), and that I ache for those who lives and friends' lives have been shattered by demonized people.

So please keep doing what you're doing, helping keep us informed, even when you post something that nobody responds to. We are reading and in solidarity with the good civilized people of Israel.

[yonif]

Thanks for supporting Israel.

[FreeReporting]

The Palestinians are very aware of the sensitivities and attitudes of westerners and use them cynically. Hiding explosives and terrorists in ambulances didn't fool the Israelis for long, if at all. Israelis have had a lot of contact with this kind of thinking and are on the look-out for it.

But the rest of the world has a knee-jerk reaction to such concepts, and these cold cynical people exploit these sentiments very consciously. Palestinians have no industries or talents besides those of being able to manipulate the foreign media and of blowing up innocents.