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CNN Live At Daybreak

Israel Trying to Convince Bush Arafat's Behind Suicide Bombings

Aired May 08, 2002 - 06:32   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Israel is trying to convince President Bush that Yasser Arafat is behind the suicide bombings in the Middle East. CNN's David Ensor tells us how Israel is doing that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID ENSOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Just minutes before the blast, Israeli officials in Washington were showing a mock-up of the terrorists' favorite weapon, a vest filled with homemade explosives costing, they said, only about $200.

COL. HOROWITZ, ISRAELI POLICE: The button is here in the pocket. You go your hands (ph) in the pockets, and when you...

ENSOR: Israeli intelligence officials came to Washington with Prime Minister Sharon seeking to convince U.S. opinion leaders that documents seized on the West Bank show Yasser Arafat's personal involvement in paying for terror.

COL. MIRI EISEN, ISRAELI MILITARY: Arafat himself personally signs money to terrorists. And as long as it has tried to say, are you going to find that? Bring up that document. Everybody is ready for me to bring out the documents in which it says that Arafat writes on it, please do a suicide bombing on the 17th of March somewhere. We are not going to find that. He is paying the terrorists. He knows very well what they are doing.

ENSOR: Some Palestinian officials have said the documents are forgeries. The Israelis also produced documents they say show Saudi Arabia has sent thousands of dollars, among others, to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. That, they say, amounts to a financial reward for terror.

EISEN: They are getting prize money. They are getting prize money from the Saudis, and the Saudis know it. This is not -- it's in the list itself it is written how the people died.

ENSOR: A senior Saudi spokesman reacted sharply to the charge of rewarding terrorism.

ADEL AL-JUBEIR, SAUDI FOREIN POLICY ADVISOR: We do not promise families of suicide bombers assistance. We provide assistance to any Palestinian family that needs it -- anyone. ENSOR (on camera): Israeli officials hope to use the intelligence to convince the Bush administration that Israel's Ariel Sharon should not have to sit down and negotiate with a government headed by Yasser Arafat. But U.S. officials say from what they have seen so far of the documents, they don't see smoking gun evidence of Arafat ordering terrorism.

David Ensor, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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