Fatah's Dirty Little Secrets on Display

Now that Abbas and Fatah have been forceably driven out of Gaza, Hamas is wasting no time in putting Fatah's execution and torture apparatus on display.

The current spin we're getting from the US, Israel and others, including Canada, has Fatah as the West's best friend, the good guys, and Hamas just a bunch of murderous Islamist thugs. Don't eat that stuff Charlie, that's horse shit.

Not only was Fatah corrupt but it ruled by murder, torture and terror. Der Spiegel's Ulrike Putz took a tour through the recently abandoned Fatah installations:

"The cells are small, perhaps six feet by six feet, with only an overhead lamp to provide light. The toilet is a hole in the floor behind a small wall. The prisoners have scribbled graffiti on the walls, including slogans like "Al-Qaida in Jerusalem" and "Islamic Jihad." One inmate even scratched the phrase "Mother, oh my mother" into the plaster.

"The headquarters of the Fatah-controlled security force in Gaza have been open to the public since last Thursday. Every day is open house now.

"For years the complex was a symbol of the horror disseminated by the security forces that reported directly to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. This is where Hamas men were taken after Fatah had arrested them. Some of those lucky enough to be eventually released reported that they had been tortured. Others disappeared forever.

"Human rights organizations like Amnesty International have long voiced criticism of systematic human rights violations in the security force's prisons, both in Gaza and the West Bank. In this respect, the fact that Hamas captured the Fatah headquarters in Gaza last week was more than just strategically significant -- it was also a highly symbolic act.

"'This building is a symbol of injustice in stone,' says Abu Mohammed, an officer in Hamas's militant al-Qassam Brigades, who led the attack on the complex. He and his unit have occupied the compound since the building was captured, and Abu Mohammed is using the gatehouse as his office. 'We came because we wanted to see the place where our brothers were killed,' he says."