[Lillie_Steins]

----- Original Message -----
From: James J Welsh
To: michaele@netvision.net.il
Sent: Thursday, October 25, 2001 23:20 PM
Subject: FW: Outpost, August-September 2000, p. 9

When the U.S. Senate -- including Al Gore -- Sought the Indictment of Yasser Arafat for Murder
(Editor's note: These days, Al Gore refers to Yasser Arafat as America's "parnter in peace." But it wasn't so long ago that Gore and his colleagues in the Senate were seeking to have Arafat indicted for murder...)

February 12, 1986

The Honorable Edwin Meese III
Department of Justice
Washington, D.C. 20530

Dear Mr. Attorney General:
We understand that the Department of Justice has received information linking PLO leader Yasser Arafat to the brutal 1973 slaying of Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charge d'Affaires C.Curtis Moore in Khartoum, Sudan.

The material is reported to include various State Department cables that may confirm Arafat's role in the murders. It is also reported to include an assertion that the U.S. government has a tape recording of an intercepted message in which Arafat allegedly ordered the assassination of Ambassador Noel and Charge d'Affaires Moore, who were taken hostage when Palestinian terrorists seized the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum on March 2, 1973. As you know, press reports indicate that the eight terrorists involved in the incident identified themselves as members of Black September. They demanded the release from prison of Sirhan Sirhan, the Baader-Meinhof gang, and a group of Fatah members being held In Jordan. Press reports indicate that when their demands were not met, the terrorists selected the three Westerners among the hostages -- U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, Charge d'Affaires C.Curtis Moore, and Belgian diplomat Guy Eid -- and machine-gunned them after first allowing them to write farewell notes to their families and then beating them. A day later, the terrorists surrendered to Sudanese authorities after a lengthy round of transoceanic communications involving, among others, Arafat and the Vice President of Sudan.

Press reports indicate that Sudanese President Gaafar Mohammed Nimeiri went public at once with evidence showing that the operation had been run out of the Khartoum office of Fatah. One month after the slayings, the Washington Post reported that according to Western intelligence sources, Arafat was in the Black September radio command center in Beirut when the message to execute three Western diplomats was sent out. The Post also reported that Arafat's voice was monitored and recorded. Although according to the Post's sources, it was unclear if Arafat himself or his deputy gave the order to carry out the executions, Arafat reportedly was present in the Operations center when the message was sent and personally congratulated the guerrillas after the execution. These allegations, if substantiated, leave little doubt that a warrant for
Arafat's arrest should be issued, and a criminal indictment filed against him. To allow other factors to enter into this decision is to make a mockery of our laws and our stated commitment to eradicate terrorism. As President Reagan told an American Bar Association convention this July, "we will seek to indict, apprehend, and prosecute" terrorists. We understand that this matter is presently under review at the Justice Department. We urge the Justice Department to assign the highest priority to completing this review, and to issue an indictment of Yasser Arafat if the evidence so warrants. We would also ask that you keep us advised of the progress of your investigation.

Sincerely,

(Signed by 47 U.S. Senators, including Albert Gore, Democrat of Tennesseee.)

(End of letter of the forty-seven senators to Attorney General Edward Meece.)

But these forty-seven senators were never told the truth, and yes, a mockery was made of our laws and our stated commitment to eradicate terrorism. President Ronald Reagen told an American Bar Association at that time: "We will seek to indict, apprehend and prosecute terrorists." Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

Dear Listeners: James J. Welsh was supposed to be our guest tonight. Unfortunately, something happened on the way to tonight's radio program.

After long trans-atlantic phone conversations with James Welsh, who lives in the United States, and after Mr. Welsh had emailed me much background material, including his letters to members of Congress -- I received yet another email from Mr. Welsh. This email arrived shortly before this program was to go on the air!

This is what it said:

Dear Ms. Matar,
This is to inform you that for personal reasons I have decided not to involve myself in the Arafat-Khartoum subject anymore. For over a year it has taken a substantial amount of my time and energy. I apologize for the short notice. I realize that you scheduled this, but I have decided that I must let this part of my life go away. Again, I apologize for the problem this will cause.

Sincerely,
James J. Welsh

I was stunned! We had had such a friendly phone relationship. Mr. Welsh, in fact, joked with me that since CNN and Sixty Minutes were not excited about his story, he was pleased that a radio station in Jerusalem was interested.

Nothing is as good as hearing Mr. Welsh in his own voice, telling us about these important events. But we will have to make due with selections from the background material which Mr. Welsh sent to me; the 1986 letter from forty-seven senators to Attorney General Edwin Meese which I just read to you; and a letter from Mr. Welsh to a member of Congress, dated October 25, 2000.

It is quite a long letter, but I ask you to pay very close attention. This letter is DYNAMITE!

----- Original Message -----
From: James J Welsh
To: John_Rood@kyl.senate.gov
Sent: Wednesday, October 25, 2000 9:04 PM
Subject: Statement of James J.Welsh

Dear Member of Congress,
My name is James J. Welsh. Twenty-seven years ago I was a Signals Intelligence analyst for the National Security Agency. I was, along with another individual, responsible for the analysis of Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) communications. On approximately 27 March 1973, a NSA field station informed us that it had intercepted a conversation between Yasser Arafat and Salah Khalaf, the leaders of Fatah, in Beirut and Khalil al-Wazir in Khartoum discussing preparations for an imminent operation in Khartoum. This information was immediately passed through the chain of command at NSA and ultimately was brought to the attention of the Director, NSA (DIRNSA). A decision was made to send this message at Flash (highest) precedence to the US Embassy Khartoum via State Department, as channels required. Within three hours this was done and we all felt relieved that at least our embassy personnel in Khartoum would be safe. How wrong we were.

On the morning of March 1, 1973 I was called at home by NSA to turn on the Television and come in to work. As I saw the news my heart sank. The US Ambassador and the Deputy Chief of Mission were being held hostage at the Saudi Arabian Embassy by members of the Black September Organization, a Palestinian terrorist group whose credits included the Munich Olympic Games Massacre. How could this be? We sent them the warning. They would never have gone to that reception under these conditions. There was much confusion at the time and I and other analysts began to try to make sense of the chaotic happenings we were following. Finally the terrible news was revealed - the Ambassador and Chief of Mission were dead. We eventually went home.

On Monday morning the subject in our area was obviously nothing but this topic. (Note that all knew of this tragedy but only a few knew of the warning message). Myself and my co-worker began inquiries into how this had happened. We were told that DIRNSA was at that moment on the way to State Department with a copy of the warning with the intention of discovering why it had apparently not been heeded. At State Department, he was shocked to find out that, on the evening of its transmittal to State Department a Watch Officer, in what is now called the Investigations and Review Section, had downgraded this urgent warning message to a routine cable. It arrived two days after the murders.