Arafat in the White House?

Former U.S. Sen. George Mitchell, former President Clinton's choice to broker a new peace deal in the Middle East, says Yasser Arafat should and will be invited to the White House.

Mitchell told the Jerusalem Post such a meeting is planned and will happen at the "appropriate time."

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Let me suggest to Sen. Mitchell and President Bush that the "appropriate time" for such a meeting is when hell freezes over.

Why?

There are many reasons. Arafat is, despite his Nobel Peace Prize, a murdering terrorist – nothing more, nothing less. Many have been fooled by Arafat's phony pretensions to moderation. But, if you could put a face on the terrible violence of the Middle East, that face would be Yasser Arafat's.

I could talk about Munich. I could mention the Achille Lauro. I could bring up any of dozens of horrors perpetrated and ordered by Arafat over the last 30 years. But, instead, I would like to simplify this decision for President Bush, with whom I plan to meet July 20 – with any luck, before he formally agrees to meet Arafat.

As I reported earlier this year, and as others have confirmed more recently, on March 2, 1973, Yasser Arafat ordered the cold-blooded, machine-gun murders of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charges d'affaires George Curtis in Khartoum, Sudan.

This is no longer a matter of speculation. James J. Welsh, a former National Security Agency operative on Cyprus at the time, was the recipient of communication intercepts between Arafat and his Al-Fatah guerrilla leaders.

Eight members of Arafat's Black September organization raided a reception at the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum on Feb. 27, 1973, rounded up a group of diplomats and held them hostage for days. The kidnappers, operating on the direct orders of Arafat, says Welsh, demanded the release of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the convicted assassin of Sen. Robert F. Kennedy, as well as other Arabs in jails throughout Europe and Israel.

President Nixon refused to negotiate. Arafat's deputy, Abu Iyad, transmitted a message to the terrorists containing the codeword "Nahr al-Bard" – Cold River.

That, says Welsh, was the signal to kill the Western diplomats – including a Belgian, Guy Eid.

That was 27 years ago, but there is no statute of limitations on murder. Arafat is still at large. And unless George W. Bush plans to arrest him during his visit to the White House, such a meeting should be out of the question.

If President Bush has any doubts about what I am saying, he need only request the long-buried NSA intercepts. The evidence is already in the hands of the federal government and has been since 1973.

No amount of wishful thinking about Arafat is going to change him. He remains today what he was in 1973 – a cowardly killer of unarmed American diplomats.

America must never forget its foreign service personnel murdered in the line of duty. To do so would be a tragic betrayal of them, their diplomatic mission and everything for which America stands. It would only compound the tragedy of their violent deaths by inviting the mastermind of the crime to the White House to meet with the president.

But ordinary Americans have never had the chance to forget this incident because they have never been told the truth about it. It's time for President Bush to do just that.

The deaths of Cleo Noel and George Curtis are reasons enough for any U.S. president to refuse to meet with Yasser Arafat – now or in the future.

Worse yet, despite what Sen. Mitchell claims, in recent months Arafat has only proved he is still the principal arsonist in the current Middle East conflagration. Ceasefire agreement after ceasefire agreement is broken by his snipers and suicide bombers. There will be no peace as long as Arafat has a role to play on the international stage.

Arafat was given virtually everything he has demanded in 30 years as the self-proclaimed, un-elected leader of the Palestinian national movement by former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak. Arafat responded with unrestrained street violence and hate-filled rhetorical rejection of every overture by the Israelis.

Mr. President, don't open the White House door for Arafat – unless you are prepared, upon his entry, to read him his Miranda rights, handcuff him and put him on trial for the murders of Cleo Noel and George Curtis.