TEL AVIV Ñ The Palestinian Authority plans to establish
a factory for the mass production of military-grade explosives, according to a memo by a Agriculture Ministry official dated Oct. 21, 2002.
Israeli officials said captured PA documents revealed that Palestinian security forces plan a facility to manufacture vital chemicals required for such military-grade explosives as TNT, RDX amd RETN.
The document seized from the PA's Preventive Security Apparatus headquarters at Tel Al Hawa
earlier this month envisioned that the factory would be at least 100 square
meters and have the capacity to produce 15 tons of nitric acid a year.
The memorandum suggested that the PA Agriculture Ministry remain in
charge of the project. The author of the memorandum was Mohammed Anwar
Bardawil, an agronomist at the Agriculture Ministry official who has served
as a bombmaker for the PPS.
The ministry has imported nitric acid, contained
in fertilizers. Israel has banned the transfer of nitric acid to the PA
areas since mid-2001, Middle East Newsline reported.
The memo urged that Palestinian security officers be kept out of the
facility to retain secrecy. The PPS has been supplying the ruling Fatah
movement and the Islamic opposition with explosives and weapons for the war
against Israel.
"In view of the importance of the acid for the production of strategic
materials, and in view of the difficulties in acquiring them under the
current conditions, and in line with your request that this be available, I
recommend the factory for its production," Bardawil said. "In order to
retain the secrecy of the project, I recommend that they [employees] will
not be identified as belonging to the PPS, and that I determine the
qualifications required for this job."
The PPS has taken responsibility for the production of explosives, officials said. They said the agency has
determined that a factory to produce nitric acid would require $18,500 for
equipment and space. The acid is regarded as the most important chemical in
weapons-grade explosives and the plan called for the plant to operate 24 hours
a day.
Officials said the facility would aim to resolve the shortage of
explosive material by Palestinian insurgency forces. Until now, the bombs
assembled by Palestinians were made from chemicals obtained from Israel.
The captured PA document, dated Oct. 21, 2002, termed the establishment
of the nitric acid facility as strategic. The document, a memorandum
addressed to PPS inspector-general Samir Mashrawi, said the factory could be
begin operations within 40 days of receiving the required funding.
The memorandum said an investment of $30,000 would double production capacity to
30 tons of acid annually.
