The Palestinian Authority began rounding up the usual suspects in the wake of the Gaza Strip bombing that killed 3 Americans and critically wounded a fourth:

Palestinian police started rounding up suspects in a dragnet expected to last through the night, security sources said.

The action followed word that Arafat had reappointed a law and order general, Gazi el-Jabali, to command Palestinian police forces -- a man he had previously fired from the job.

The US position is that the bombing specifically targeted Americans, according to CNN:

In Washington, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that "in the absence of information" on who did it, "the assumption one has to make, given the nature of the attack," is that Palestinians targeted Americans.

That would tend to implicate the PA itself, given that the PA was responsible for the security arrangements and the route of the caravan. How else could the bomber have done this:

According to the State Department, a roadside bomb was triggered immediately after the Palestinian police cars in the convoy passed by, hitting the U.S. vehicle. An Associated Press correspondent at the scene reported seeing a gray wire leading from the bomb crater to a small concrete building nearby. He said an on/off switch was attached to the wire.

That means that whoever triggered the bomb had to have known the cars belonged to the Americans (who else would get a PA escort that Palestinians would want to attack?), as well as knowing the route well ahead of time, and presumably the timing of the caravan. All of this points to an inside job, and if it's an inside job, that means Arafat. Arafat has been implicated in the deaths of two American diplomats in the 70s, but the US has put that aside in an attempt to use Arafat's leverage to quell Palestinian terror tactics and get broad-based support for a multitude of peace initiatives. If nothing else, we should finally understand the futility of negotiating with life-long terrorists, and work to remove Arafat and his organization from the equation. Arafat has to pay for this.

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