Arafat's getting away with murder (shocking news alert)

Mpls (red)Star Tribune ^ | 8/15/03 | Scott W. Johnson

[Valin]

In June 2002 I wrote a column for the Star Tribune regarding Yasser Arafat's responsibility for the 1973 assassination of two U.S. State Department officers in Khartoum, Sudan. The column was based on information provided in David Korn's "Assassination in Khartoum," Neil Livingstone and David Halevy's "Inside the PLO," and news accounts of testimony provided by former National Security Agency analyst Jim Welsh, who played a key role in the drama.

According to Welsh, the NSA listening post in Cyprus had picked up radio traffic about a planned PLO operation in Khartoum in late February 1973. Welsh himself received the radio intercepts at the NSA in Washington. An urgent warning intended for the American Embassy in Khartoum was issued by the NSA to the State Department on Feb. 28 but was inexplicably held up as a result of a bureaucratic snafu.

[snip]

Sullivan wrote me: "I can't say I'm impressed with your research or argumentation . . . Evidence clearly points to the terrorist group Black September as having committed the assassinations of Amb. Noel and George Moore, and though Black September was a part of the Fatah movement, the linkage between Arafat and this group has never been established."

After my piece was published I filed a Freedom of Information Act request for State Department cables and reports on the assassination of Noel. Last month -- a year later -- I received copies of 27 previously classified cables, all dating to 1973. The cables directly contradict the department's assertion to me that Arafat's connection to Black September and to the assassinations is in doubt.

[Valin]

ping

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[SJackson]

Arafat is clearly indictable in the US (as is Abbas/Mazen). Interestingly, while not addressing this incident, the PA has contended that the US is a party to the Oslo accords, and thus immunity has been grantied for pre-Oslo crimes. We've rejected that, but it shows you the PA is looking ahead.

Is this paper on the excerpt list, or can I post the rest of the article?

[Slings and Arrows]

I am Jack's total lack of surprise.

[Valin]

For whatever reason the MPLS Star Tribune is on the excerpt list.

[Tom Jefferson]

The State Department has covered up and supported Arab treachery - particularly Saudi Arabian, as well as Palestinian, Syrian, etc. I am not sure what the agenda of State is, but I think the prevailing philosophy since State was supportive of the USSR and other socialist regimes since the 1930's is to be internationalist and to make sure we don't upset our "allies" around the world.

In my view, Bush ought to clean out the State Department, starting from the top down, and put in some loyal real Americans.