[tgs]

WHAT IF the US State Department had not been able to keep one particular dirty little secret from the rest of us for 33 years?

That secret was finally exposed. Last week the State Department Historian declassified and released a cable which clearly shows that Arafat planned and carried out the 1973 Khartoum murders of US Ambassador to Sudan, Cleo Noel, Charges d’Affaires George Curtis Moore, and Belgian Charges d’Affaires Guy Eid.

On March 1, 1973, eight Fatah terrorists, operating under the Black September banner, stormed the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum in Sudan during a farewell party for the US Embassy’s Charges d’Affaires George Curtis Moore. The terrorists took Moore, US Ambassador Cleo Noel, Belgium Charges d’Affaires Guy Eid and two Arab diplomats hostage. They demanded that the US, Israel, Jordan and Germany release PLO and Baader-Meinhof Gang terrorists, including Robert F. Kennedy’s Palestinian assassin Sirhan-Sirhan and Black September Commander Muhammed Awadh (Abu Daud), from prison in exchange for the hostages’ release.

The hostages were tortured by their captors, and the next evening, the Palestinians brutally murdered Noel, Moore and Eid. They released their other hostages on March 4.

Arafat denied any involvement in the attack. The US officially accepted his denial.

Documents reveal that the Fatah leaders never expected their hostage-taking to result in the freeing of the captives. A primary goal of the attack was to strike at the United States because of its efforts to achieve a Middle East peace settlement, which many Arabs believed would be inimical to Palestinian interests. The Khartoum operation was also meant to demonstrate the ability of Arafat’s Black September organization to strike where least expected and to warn the US of the risk of possible future attacks from Fatah.

Why was the US State Department so intent on a cover up of Arafat’s personal involvement in the murder of its diplomats? One of the reasons may be that if there had not been an unforgivable breakdown in communications from the State Department to its personnel in Khartoum, lives might possible been endangered. Another possible reason is that President Nixon was in the throes of the Watergate scandal at the time and did not want another scandal to deal with.

How was it possible to cover up the Arafat-ordered murder of the US diplomats for 33 years? It was brought to my attention sometime in the year 2001 that there was such a cover up by the State Department. At the time, I had a weekly one-hour English radio program on the Arutz Sheva, Israel National News station, The Women in Green Hour. I learned that a Signals Intelligence Analyst for the National Security Agency, James J. Welsh, who had learned to speak Arabic fluently, had taped Arafat’s voice during three days, from February 27 to March 1, 1973.

James J. Welsh charged that these tapes of Arafat ordering the execution of the US diplomats, were deliberately covered up and that subsequent US Administrations have, in fact, been appraised of the authenticity of Arafat’s voice on the tapes. He further charged that US Administrations have chosen, for political reasons, to turn a blind eye to the direct guilt of Yasser Arafat in the cold-blooded murders of Cleo Noel and G. Curtis Moore.

I decided to devote my weekly radio program on October 31, 2001, to the topic “The Cover Up of the Arafat-Ordered Murders of US Diplomats”, featuring a telephone interview with James Welsh, Signals Intelligence Analyst for the National Security Agency.

I don't think I have ever been as excited about a radio program as this particular one. James Welsh and I had a very friendly trans-Atlantic relationship over the several weeks which lead up to the scheduled program. In fact, Mr. Welsh used to joke with me that since CNN and 60 Minutes were not interested in his story, he was pleased that at least a radio station in Jerusalem cared about what he had to say.

You can imagine my disappointment when Mr. Welsh sent me an email just two hours before we were to go on the air. This is what the email 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

The following is the transcript that was made of this October 31, 2001, program entitled "The Cover-Up of the Arafat-Ordered Murder of U.S. Diplomats." This transcript was sent out to my email list on November 1, 2001.


Good evening, dear listeners. This is the Women In Green Hour and I'm your hostess, Ruth Matar. You can hear our program in English, every Wednesday, between 9:07 and 10 PM Israeli time.

The Arutz Sheva English program can be heard at 98.7 FM or 1539 AM. Our live Internet broadcast can now be found at www.israelnationalnews.com

Dear Listeners: Three weeks ago, on October 6, 2001, President George W. Bush made a shocking statement. On behalf of the United States, he officially endorsed the creation of a PalestinianState. He said, and these are his exact words: "A PalestinianState has 'always' been part of the United States vision."

Always? Was a Palestinian State part of the United States vision when United States Ambassador Cleo Noel, and his assistant, G. Curtis Moore, were machined-gunned on Arafat's orders in Khartoum, Sudan, in February of 1973?

Was a PalestinianState part of the United States vision when Yasser Arafat supplied the weapons used by the terrorists who killed two hundred and forty-one American Marines in Beirut in 1983? A National Security Agency phone tap recorded a September 24, 1983 call from the Iranian Ambassador to Abu Haidar. The Ambassador told Abu Haidar to get weapons from Yasser Arafat to "undertake an extraordinary operation against the US Marines in Beirut." The attack on the US Marine barracks in Beirut took place shortly thereafter. Two hundred and forty-one Americans were killed! (This was revealed by Newsweek magazine in its November, 1999 issue.)

Was a Palestinian State part of the United States vision when Yasser Arafat was involved in the planning of the first World Trade Center bombing in New York in February 1993 where six people died and thousands were injured? (Moshe Peled, Israel's Deputy Education Minister in the Netanyahu government, told CIA representatives in early 1997 that Israeli intelligence had concrete evidence about Yasser Arafat's involvement. The official Iranian government newspaper, E-Kihan, as well, accused Arafat of responsibility for the first WorldTradeCenter bombing.)

These are just a few examples of terror perpetrated against the United States and her citizens, in which Arafat played a major role. Arafat has often been referred to as the "Father of Modern-day Terrorism." But this arch terrorist is more than cunning. He is fiendishly clever in covering up his tracks, and in shifting the blame on to others. Me? NOT ME! Somebody else did it! But, on one occasion Arafat slipped up, BIG TIME!, and left unmistakable fingerprints, or rather, voiceprints. Arafat's voice was recorded on tape at the time when he personally ordered the murder of two United States diplomats, Ambassador Cleo Noel, and his assistant, G. Curtis Moore, in 1973 in Khartoum, Sudan. So why has Arafat not been prosecuted? Because the tape with Arafat's voice has conveniently disappeared!

Thirteen years later, on February 12, 1986, forty-seven senators addressed a letter on this matter to then Attorney General Edwin Meese. I'm going to read this letter to you: