Israel had released Yassin from prison a year ago during the fallout from a botched Israeli secret operation in Jordan, and his organization is legal in Gaza. But such niceties are unlikely to figure in Arafat's crackdown. "Neither the Israelis nor the Americans expect Arafat to fight terrorism any differently than he has in the past -- with arbitrary arrests, denial of due process, torture and restrictions on speech, assembly and the press," says TIME Jerusalem bureau chief Lisa Beyer. "The only difference is that this time the CIA will be closely involved." And while they may see it as dirty work that needs to be done, the spooks might have been a little more comfortable doing it from the shadows.