Posted on 11/28/2007 12:41:42 PM PST by america4vr
Jordan's King Hussein sent a secret message to President Richard Nixon in 1970 pleading with him to attack Syria, according to declassified documents released Wednesday by the former president's library.
President Nixon works at his desk in the Oval Office in a June 1972 photograph.
The papers are among about 10,000 documents released by the Nixon Presidential Library, some of which offer harbingers of present-day events, such as concerns about terrorism and Saudi Arabia.
Library director Timothy Naftali said the documents describe challenges such as how to get the Saudis more involved in solving the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, how to get them more engaged against terrorism, how to address the Arab view that the United States always sides with Israel and how to build up moderate Palestinians to counter extremists.
A 1973 diplomatic cable cites this objective: "isolate and undermine terrorisms and commandos by establishing another, more stable and respectable Palestinian political entity and political personality."
Documents detail U.S. efforts to persuade Saudi Arabia to move away from Fatah, the military wing of the Palestine Liberation Organization, because U.S. officials believed the PLO was supporting the terrorist-linked, anti-Israel group Black September (BSO).
The document, a U.S. State Department telegram from the embassy in Jeddah to Washington reads, "BSO and Fatah [are] now linked together in vicious effort to create chaos and uncertainty. One might wonder whether central objective BSO conspiracy was not to erase any slight progress toward Middle East peace."
The document release was intended to coincide with Mideast peace summit among Palestinian, Israeli and other Mideast leaders in Maryland, Naftali said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
The Middle East should’ve never been broken up and made into sovereign states. The colonial powers should’ve just stayed there.
A couple of things about this ... First there is this:
The Nixon White House also was adjusting to Israel's acquisition of a nuclear weapon. "We are declassifying the records today that laid the basis for Richard Nixon's decision in 1969 to accept the fact, a fact of life, that Israel had a bomb, a nuclear device," said Naftali. "That, of course, is very important with what's going on in Annapolis."My view is that revealing this information now cannot be helpful to Israel. I question the timing of this release.
Second we have:
In 1970, as King Hussein dealt with threats by both Palestinian refugees in his country and Syrian military forces crossing Jordan's border, the king asked "the United States and Great Britain to intervene in the war in Jordan, asking the United States, in fact, to attack Syria," Naftali said. "Syria had invaded Jordan and the Jordanian king, facing what he felt was a military rout, said please help us in any way possible."I didn't know or don't recall Syria's role in the Black September Festivities. And also didn't know/recall that Jordan asked us for help. This history from palestinefacts was interesting to me:The telegram indicates that Hussein himself called a U.S. official at 3 a.m. to ask for American or British help. "Situation deteriorating dangerously following Syrian massive invasion...," the document said. "I request immediate physical intervention both land and air ... to safeguard sovereignty, territorial integrity and independence of Jordan. Immediate air strikes on invading forces from any quarter plus air cover are imperative."
Following the June 1967 Six Day War, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) established its major base of operations for the war against Israel in Jordan. Throughout the late 1960s, a cycle of Palestinian guerrilla attacks followed by Israeli retaliatory raids against Jordan caused much damage to Jordan and put major strain on Jordan's relationship with the US and other Western countries. By 1970, it was widely believed that PLO leader Yasser Arafat and other factional heads were attempting to overthrow King Hussein, who viewed their operations against Israel as a threat to Jordan.I find it interesting that the palestinefacts folks seem to know that Jordan asked for our help even though this is just being declassified now. Also interesting is that we apparently sent help via Israel. (Might this be a precedent for Iran? Was it a precedent for the Iraqi reactor at Osiraq?)By 1970, Palestinians, both Jordanian citizens and refugees, were almost as numerous in Jordan as King Hussein's own Bedouins. Arafat used the estimated 20,000 Palestine Liberation Organization fighters in Jordan to exercise control over much of the Palestinian population. In many parts of the country, he was the de facto government. Jordan was seen as a waystation toward defeat of Israel and a united Palestinian Arab state encompassing Israel and Jordan. As many Palestinian Arabs put it: "the road to Tel Aviv lies through Amman".
On September 6, 1970 militant factions of the PLO hijacked four foreign planes. They flew three to Dawson's Field in PLO-controlled northern Jordan and one to Cairo. European governments secured the release of the hostage passangers by agreeing to release PLO terrorists from their prisons. The PLO then blew up the planes.
King Hussein decided it was time to act. Throughout September the Jordanian military launched attacks to push the PLO out of Jordan, attacks now called "Black September" by the PLO. Casualty reports are uncertain, but hundreds or perhaps thousands of PLO fadayeen were killed in the fighting and large numbers of Palestinian Arab civilians died as well. Arafat retreated to northern Jordan, close to his Syrian sponsors. Within 10 months the PLO were driven out of Jordan completely, and re-established themselves in Lebanon, a choice that led to eventual disaster for Lebanon.
Jordan's attack on the PLO led to an escalation of Syrian-Israeli tensions. The wider Arab world, which had long distrusted Hussein as a Western puppet, sided with the PLO. Syria sent tanks into Jordan -- and the king was powerless to stop their steady advance. After Hussein sought American intervention, four Israeli Phantom jets flew low over the Syrian tanks. Without a shot being fired, the tanks turned north and headed back toward Damascus. Israeli troops were also deployed along the Jordan River. These actions were seen in Washington as having deterred a large-scale Syrian invasion of Jordan. As a result, US President Richard M. Nixon increasingly viewed Israel as an important strategic asset, and the Rogers Plan was allowed to die.
ML/NJ
What ‘interesting’ timing to do this document dump right in the middle of the Annapolis conference week. Somehow I don’t think the archivists who just now decided to complete the clearance process are trying to help Israel, unless they think that by getting the Arab govts. distracted with fights over what happened decades ago is helpful to Israel. The particular content of these revelations seems most likely undermine any forces in the Arab/Muslim worlds except the most radical, aligned with Syria, etc. Show the USA accepting Israel with nuclear weapons and show a ‘moderate’ Arab govt. trying to appeal for US support against Syria, which will discredit anyone who now stands against Syria...... very suspicious timing!!
ping
One might wonder whether central objective BSO conspiracy was not to erase any slight progress toward Middle East peace.”
Duh!
Israel started mock attack runs on Syrian tank columns, as the Syrian regime attempted to coordinate its attack with that of the PLO (and probably by collusion). Syria backed off. In 1973, King Hussein tried in vain to warn Israel of the impending October war. Not a coincidence.
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