Playing by the rules


What happens when the other side decides not to?
I haven't talked about this specific article, but I have talked about the subject before.

In late February 1973, the National Security Agency listening post in Cyprus picked up radio traffic including Arafat, Salah Kalaf (a cofounder of Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization faction, Fatah), and others strongly suggesting that a PLO operation was about to be conducted in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. National Security Agency analyst Jim Welsh received word of the operation at his post in Washington and helped draft a message warning the U.S. embassy in Khartoum that a PLO operation was imminent. Welsh and his NSA colleagues marked the message for transmission with a "flash" (highest) precedence. The State Department watch officer unaccountably downgraded the message for routine transmission. As a result, it arrived several days late.

On March 1, the embassy of Saudi Arabia in Khartoum held a going-away party for U.S. Deputy Chief of Mission George Curtis Moore. A gang of eight who identified themselves as members of the Black September Organization stormed the party. The terrorists seized the embassy and held Moore and two others hostage--U.S. ambassador to Sudan Cleo Noel Jr. and Guy Eid, chargé d'affaires at the Belgian embassy. (Two other diplomats were seized and released.)

The Black September operatives issued several demands: the release of Sirhan Sirhan, the assassin of Robert Kennedy; the release of a Black September leader held in Jordan; and the release of several members of the terrorist Baader-Meinhof gang held in Germany. On March 2, President Nixon and representatives of the other two governments announced that they would not negotiate with terrorists for the release of the diplomats.

Using coded instructions, Arafat's closest Fatah associate in Beirut, Salah Khalaf, directed the murder of Noel, Moore, and Eid. Arafat himself separately confirmed the instructions. At 9:00 P.M. that very night, the Black September operatives marched Noel, Moore, and Eid to the embassy basement and murdered them with forty rounds from Kalashnikov weapons fired from the feet to the head in order to inflict maximum suffering on the victims.

I'd argue that this was one of the jonbar points in American diplomacy. While it certainly wasn't the only factor, there is no question that our inaction proved to the world that we were a paper tiger. At that point, other nations knew that it didn't matter what we did or said, they could get away with murder under the right circumstances and the United States would do absolutely nothing except rage at our own impotence.

Everyone knew that we played by the rules and we let Arafat get away with shattering the rules.

What's more, we rewarded him for his behavior.

Remember that when our foolish politicos insist that Iran and Syria have to be part of the solution in Iraq.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Fri - January 26, 2007 at 03:03 PM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved