FATAH: U.S. TRAINING KEY TO SUCCESS V. ISRAEL

Fatah Militant: U.S. Training Was Key to Intifada's Success - Aaron Klein (New York Sun)
American-run programs that train Fatah militias were instrumental in the "success" of the Palestinian intifada that began in 2000, said Abu Yousuf, a senior officer of Mahmoud Abbas' Force 17 Presidential Guard.

"I do not think that the operations of the Palestinian resistance would have been so successful and would have killed more than one thousand Israelis since 2000 and defeated the Israelis in Gaza without these [official American] trainings," he said.

"All the methods and techniques that we studied in these trainings, we applied them against the Israelis," he added. Many members of Force 17 also openly serve in Fatah's "military wing," the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades.