A former National Security Agency intelligence analyst in the Middle East is urging the U.S. Congress to reopen an investigation of Yasser Arafat's role in the murders of two U.S. diplomats in Sudan in 1973.
James J. Welsh, a former NSA Palestinian analyst, broke his vow of silence earlier this year to charge the U.S. government was hiding recordings of Arafat planning and directing the murders of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, diplomat Charge d'Affaires George Curtis Moore and Belgian Guy Eid on March 2, 1973.
Now he has taken his campaign a step further -- petitioning U.S. Rep. Henry Hyde, R-Ill., and all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to demand the executive branch find the tapes, transcripts and summaries of the radio transmissions between Arafat and his Black September terrorists and make them public.
"Over the years I have kept my silence about what I know about this tragic episode," Welsh told me. "But recently I began to wonder how recent administrations could overlook something as terrible as this in our dealings with Yasser Arafat. I have decided that my oaths of secrecy must give way to my sense of right and wrong."
Welsh sent a letter detailing his charges to all members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee March 27. He sent another to Hyde March 31 after reading of the congressman's call to re-examine U.S. policy toward the Palestinian Authority headed by Arafat.
Welsh alleges that earlier congressional investigations of the incident were deliberately subverted with false and misleading information provided by the executive branch. He offered to assist investigators in any way he can.
The history of this tragedy began on Feb. 28, 1973, when Welsh was summoned by a colleague about a communication intercepted from Arafat involving an imminent Black September operation in Khartoum. Within minutes, Welsh recalls, the NSA director was notified and the decision was made to send a rare "FLASH" message -- the highest priority -- to the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum via the State Department.
But the message didn't reach the embassy in time. Somewhere between the NSA and the State Department, someone decided the warning was too vague. The alert was downgraded in urgency.
The next day, eight members of the Black September terrorist organization stormed the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum, took Noel, Moore and others hostage. A day later, the U.S. diplomats and Eid were machine-gunned to death -- all, Welsh charges, on the direct orders of Arafat.
Welsh left the Navy and NSA in 1974, keeping quiet about the incident for more than a quarter-century. But no longer.
"These tapes do exist," he says. "I participated in their production. But no one has ever been willing to come forward and acknowledge their existence. I know Yasser Arafat was a direct player in the murder of our diplomats and so has every U.S. administration since Richard Nixon's."
Welsh says the problem with Arafat is not, as is sometimes suggested, occasional lapses of sincerity or honesty.
"If that was the true problem, perhaps we could continue to try to guide him to the desired goal of peace," Welsh wrote to Hyde. "The problem is Arafat himself. He is an unrepentant murderer. To deal with him at any level other than this is hopelessly na?ve or indicative of using this issue for mere political posturing. There can be no peace with Arafat as an active participant in the process."
I don't know if anything will come of Welsh's latest initiative. I've seen the U.S. Congress miss too many opportunities to find the truth and hold wrongdoers accountable in recent years to have any confidence that officials will listen to Welsh. But this courageous whistleblower has laid it all on the line and provided the U.S. government with one more opportunity to do the right thing -- to set the record straight, to honor its fallen public servants and to punish Arafat for his crimes.
Let's hope another opportunity to seek the truth is not subverted, ignored or missed due to a misguided sense of political expediency or in an effort to cover up past mistakes.
Editor's note: For an insightful historical examination of the Mideast conflict, WorldNetDaily recommends Joan Peters' "From Time Immemorial," now available in the WorldNetDaily online store.
Related items
Ex-NSA op asks Congress to probe Arafat murders
Is U.S. hiding Arafat murders?
The 'spontaneous' Arab uprising