Al Jazeera journalist admits to being Hamas operative
During Shin Bet interrogation, former Afghanistan bureau chief Samer Allawi says he traveled to Syria to help terror group.
By YAAKOV KATZSamer Allawi, Al Jazeera journalist_311(photo credit: Facebook Page)
Al Jazeera's bureau chief in Afghanistan, Samer Allawi, was released from an Israeli prison Sunday night after reaching a plea bargain under which he confessed to serving as a Hamas operative.Allawi reached a deal with the Israel State Prosecutor’s Office under which he will receive a suspended sentence of three years, after he confessed to serving as a Hamas operative and working on behalf of the terrorist organization, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) released in a statement.RELATED:Israel rocket victims fail in bid to sue Al Jazeera Award-winning Palestinian journalist forced into hiding Allawi, a Palestinian, was arrested in August at the Allenby Bridge border crossing between the West Bank and Jordan.He said he was recruited into Hamas in 1993 and served until 2004 on a senior committee that oversees Hamas operations abroad and is responsible for fundraising.
In 2001 and 2003 Allawi traveled to Syria where he met with Mousa Abu Marzook, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal’s deputy and reported on his activities, the Shin Bet said. Abu Marzook offered Allawi to serve as Hamas’s official representative in Iran, but he rejected the offer.The Shin Bet said that Allawi met with a senior Hamas operative in Dubai in 2000 and expressed his readiness to participate in military operations if asked by Hamas. He also offered to use his job as a reporter for Al Jazeera to promote Hamas interests.In 2006, Allawi traveled to Qatar and met with additional Al Jazeera reporters, who the Shin Bet said were also Hamas operatives and discussed the possibility of using their positions to advance Hamas by criticizing the US military in Afghanistan.
During his interrogation, the Shin Bet said he also discussed his activities as a member of the mujahideen in Afghanistan from 1988 to 1992, during which he confessed to participating in a rebel raid on an Afghan military base as well as guerrilla operations against Soviet forces.Allawi rejected the charges against him. “There was no evidence against me," Allawi told Reuters upon returning to the West Bank. "The whole arrest episode was a charade aimed at extorting Al Jazeera. I was not the target."He met with Hamas, Allawi said, because "I meet people everywhere from whom I can get the news."
