Rabin's Bodyguard calls for new Inquiry

[slaveplanet]

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1281754




ABC News
Rabin's Bodyguard Calls for New Inquiry
Ten Years After Israeli PM Yitzhak Rabin's Assassination, His Top Bodyguard Calls for New Inquiry


By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI Associated Press Writer

The Associated Press
JERUSALEM Nov 4, 2005 — Ten years after Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated, the official responsible for his security at the time is calling for a new inquiry into intelligence and security failures leading up to the killing.
Dror Yitzhaki, who headed the Shin Bet internal security services' bodyguard unit at the time, brushed off conspiracy theories that assassin Yigal Amir was not the lone gunman. But his call for a new inquiry will almost certainly fuel far-right activists who have long called for another investigation. Amir, an ultranationalist Jew who opposed Rabin's moves to exchange land for peace, fired the three shots that killed the Israeli leader on Nov. 4, 1995, after a peace rally in Tel Aviv.

Yitzhaki said in his first interview since the assassination that he took responsibility for the failure of Rabin's bodyguards to prevent the killing, including "the activity of the security guards who had been trained for years … that the second bullet if not the first would be theirs." The bodyguards did not fire a single shot, and Amir was arrested on the spot.

Five months before the killing, a sergeant from the army's intelligence unit overheard a conversation in a public restroom about a "little Yemenite guy" who had a handgun and had serious intentions to kill Rabin. But that information was never passed along, said Yitzhaki, who resigned after the assassination. Amir's family immigrated from Yemen.
"I received no intelligence except for general assessment paperwork," he added.

Because questions remain about the events leading up to the assassination, Yitzhaki said he wonders "whether there is room to set up another state inquiry to investigate the truth."
Amir was sentenced to life in prison and has become an icon for some hard-line Israelis who oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state on land Israel has occupied since the 1967 Mideast war. Excerpts from Yitzhaki's interview were broadcast Thursday on Israel TV Channel Two. The full interview is to be broadcast later Friday, the 10th anniversary of Rabin's death.
Continued

[jobycom]

1. Sounds like Senator Yarborough's comments on JFK's assassination

Yarborough believed that Oswald was the lone gunman, and believed that the Warren Commission had the basic shooting details right, but he felt that the WC was fatally flawed in other areas. The WC didn't pursue all conspiracy angles involving Oswald, and didn't cover any intelligence and SS failures that let Oswald succeed (I know that's controversial, I'm just citing Yarborough's opinions). So he called for a new investigation.

He said up until he died that Oswald was the lone gunman, but he would never say whether he thought Oswald was part of a conspiracy.

Anyway, just sounds like what the bodyguard is asking: Why was there an intelligence favor, why didn't the bodyguards react quicker, could this have been prevented, etc?

[slaveplanet]

3. you ain't kidding- third bullet

This is bigtime stuff folks...like Kennedy redux(Israel edition)

Late on Thursday, Israel's private Channel 2 television network charged that a third bullet hole was found in Rabin's shirt on the night he was murdered ...

http://www.metimes.com/articles/normal.php?StoryID=20051104-085248-3465r

[jobycom]

4. Yarborough's point was that there were not multiple shooters.

He just questioned the investigation's other conclusions.

[slaveplanet]

5. I know

Bad choice of words on my part...I agree the bodyguard could be playing the part of Yarborough...but I was trying to illustrate that this is like leadup to calls for a new Kennedy commission...all sorts of new accusations flying around...and VERY publicly on ISRAELI TV...which in and of itself is a very surprising development.

[jobycom]

7. Ah, I get it. I'm slow at times.

:-)

[slaveplanet]

2. more

But footage broadcast for the first time Thursday on Channel Two is evidence of how deep misconceptions ran at the time of Rabin's assassination.

The footage from a training exercise conducted a year before the assassination showed Rabin himself driving a burgundy van when two truckloads of "Palestinians" with assault rifles ambushed the vehicle.

The disguised combatants from the Shin Bet security service could easily have assassinated the Israeli leader. But the training exercise never took into account that such an attack would come from an Israeli

[...of J.Temperance]

6. I loved Yitzhak Rabin...LOVED him

I'm not Jewish, but God I thought he was a wonderful man. I can still vividly remember when he was assassinated, it was during the night. About half an hour after Prime Minister Rabin died, President Clinton appeared outside the WH and spoke about his friend, and the President was nearly in tears, actually I think he did cry at one point and then he got himself together.

Yitzhak Rabin was a Hawk turned Dove. I knew when he died that there would never be peace in Israel...the peace process I'm afraid died with him.

Well I suppose that they could kickstart a REAL peace process AGAIN, but the Likud pigs will have to be sidelined onto the fringe of society where they belong and in DC the Neo-Con Repukes will have to be sidelined onto the fringe of society where they belong.

Only the Labor Party and a Democratic Administration will ever be able to attempt to recreate what Prime Minister Rabin was achieving.

Not exactly anything to do with this threads subject matter. However as there seem to be no other threads on Prime Minister Rabin, I've done my piece in this particular thread.