Israeli Police Seek Evidence Against PM

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

JERUSALEM (AP) — Police raided more than 20 government buildings and private offices Sunday morning, seeking evidence in a series of criminal investigations of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, potentially weakening his position ahead of a crucial Mideast peace conference in the United States.

The early morning sweep came just as Olmert's popularity, which plummeted after last year's inconclusive war against Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, has begun to rebound.

The raid Sunday targeted more than 20 locations, including the Industry and Trade Ministry, the Postal Authority and Jerusalem's City Hall, said police spokesman Mickey Rosenfeld.

Plainclothes police hauled cardboard boxes full of files out of the offices and loaded them into police vehicles — a scene that has been repeated several times in recent years during police investigations of Israeli premiers.




Read more: http://ap.google.com:80/article/ALeqM5jHxO0KmvqjmyFN039njXdLAIrXUAD8SRLB300

[regnaD kciN]

1. Curious. I wonder who in the police ordered the raids...

...and what their party affiliation is?

(I'm not saying Olmert might not be guilty of these matters, but the timing is indeed suspicious. Weakening Olmert's standing among the Israeli people just before a peace conference seems to be a way to make sure any deals made at that conference have little chance of being ratified.)