(Washington Post)David Ignatius - One of the more improbable chapters in the life of Yasser Arafat was his 30-year wink-and-nod understanding with the CIA. America's dalliance with Arafat began in late 1969, when a CIA case officer in Beirut, Robert Ames, spotted a promising potential recruit in his Fatah organization named Ali Hassan Salameh, known as Abu Hassan, one of Black September's key operatives. CIA-PLO intelligence contacts could never substitute for diplomacy. Peace isn't something that happens in secret.
2004-11-12 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive