Culled from the AP

Bush Amends Terror Doctrine From

Tue Apr 2, 1:26 AM ET
By SONYA ROSS, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Bush (news - web sites) now admits that the one-
size-fits-all "Bush doctrine" on terrorism in fact doesn't fit Yasser
Arafat (news - web sites).


Bush said Monday that the Palestinian leader's past as a peace negotiator
exempts Arafat from the post-Sept. 11 U.S. policy that a country or entity
that harbors terrorists will be dealt with as terrorists.

It is a loophole the president was wise to create for Arafat, analysts say,
since a reality-based edit of Bush's edict was inevitable anyway.

"This is the problem with terrorism. Terrorism is applied by all kinds of
different people for all different reasons," said Ken Pollack, director of
national security studies for the Council on Foreign Relations. "The
administration is certainly figuring out that is the case with the
Palestinians; that treating them the way you would treat al-Qaida is simply
not the way you would handle them."

What is likely to happen, Pollack said, is that other countries or groups
will seek similar exceptions, and Bush will be forced to address them on a
case-by-case basis. "They have created the impression that this is how all
terrorists will be treated. That is the critical flaw. You may not want to
treat all of them the same way," Pollack said.

Even as Bush leaned on Arafat to call a halt to the suicide bomb attacks
that have rocked Israel in recent days, he also gave Arafat an out
because "he has negotiated with parties as to how to achieve peace."

The White House carefully drew distinctions between how the United States
approaches Arafat — or, really, any Palestinian organization — and al-
Qaida, the terrorist network that was sheltered by Afghanistan (news - web
sites)'s now-toppled government of the Taliban militia.

"The situation in the Middle East is, indeed, different," said White House
spokesman Ari Fleischer (news - web sites). He noted that Arafat signed the
1993 Oslo accords, under which the Palestinian movement for first time
recognized Israel's right to exist. That set the stage for a series of
Israeli pullbacks on the West Bank and subsequent agreement on day-to-day
security arrangements with Israel and a process for returning to peace
negotiations.

"That was not, is not, the case with al-Qaida. And I understand you want to
compare them, but that's not a comparison that the president accepts,"
Fleischer said.

By exempting Arafat, Bush also made clear to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel
Sharon (news - web sites) that he will not allow Israel to manipulate the
Bush doctrine at will, said Joe Montville, director of the preventive
diplomacy program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

"He implies that Arafat is not running the terrorist initiatives like a guy
sitting at the Worlitzer, controlling the movements," Montville said. "He
is telling Sharon ... for better or worse, Yasser Arafat is the symbol of
the Palestinian nation, and we have to deal with him. Sharon can call
Arafat the enemy of all mankind. And it simply won't work."

The Middle East is not the only area where administration officials see
they must create wiggle room in the Bush doctrine. They see a need for
nuance even in Afghanistan, the only case so far where the Bush doctrine
was applied.

"There are different approaches that you have to take, given the
circumstances that you find on the ground," Bush's national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) told reporters last month while
en route to Peru, scene of a terrorist car bombing just days before Bush
visited there.

For example, Rice said, the eye-for-an-eye aspects of the Bush doctrine
wouldn't apply to Yemen and the Philippines, because the governments are
cooperating with the United States "to improve their capability to go after
terrorists in their midst."

"So clearly (each) approach is different," Rice said. "But what's very
clear is the president believes terrorism is wrong."

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