The thing that gets me the most is the last paragraph which is the American and British reason of concern. They are concerned that Israel will kill the terrorists. Jacob Americans, PA clash over prison terms in Jericho By Amos Harel http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/344926.html September 29, 2003 Officials from the United States and Britain have clashed during the past week with Palestinian Authority representatives over supervision of terror operatives being held in the PA's Jericho prison. The Americans and British are furious about lax enforcement in the facility; the Palestinians have provided relatively comfortable conditions to the inmates, and allowed them to communicate freely with the outside world. For more than a year, Fuad Shubeiki, who handled finances in the PA security apparatus, and four members of the PFLP have been held at the Jericho facility. The five were moved to the Jericho prison as a result of Israel's siege on Arafat's Muqata compound in Ramallah, during the Israel Defense Forces Operation Protective Shield. U.S. officials served as mediators while the transfer was arranged; under the agreement, American and British officials were to have loosely defined, "external" supervisory powers, whereas substantive, "close" supervision authority would rest with Palestinian officials. According to Israeli security sources, outgoing PA Security Affairs Minister Mohammed Dahlan recently eased supervision of the prisoners. The five live today in what the sources call a "revolving door" prison. A large number of their telephone calls are unmonitored, and they are apparently allowed to leave the prison periodically. The Americans are concerned the Palestinians might release the five prisoners. Should they do so, the U.S. officials fear, Israel might target the five for assassination strikes, in a sequence leading to escalated violence.