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Conference taveng::bagels

Title:	BAGELS and other things of Jewish interest
Notice:	1.0 policy, 280.0 directory, 32.0 registration
Moderator:	SMURF::FENSTER

Created:	Mon Feb 03 1986
Last Modified:	Thu Jun 05 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	1524
Total number of notes:	18709

448.0. "use a terrorist to catch a terrorist?" by 43322::LEVY (QA Bloodhound) Mon Apr 11 1988 18:16

    Hi, 

    Having seen pictures of PLO members dealing with terrorists on the
    hijacked plane in Cyprus and then Yassur Arifat (sp?) attending a
    conference in Saudia Arabia I can't help but ask what's going on here? 

    The TV presentation gives an impression that the PLO are the 'goodies'
    talking to the 'badies' who are committing terrorist acts by hijacking
    a plane, and using the passengers as human bargaining chips to do
    with what they like in order to acheive their objectives.

    The questions I ask myself is what are the PLO really doing here? My
    initial ideas are: 

    - they are involved in a public relations stunt with the help of the
    terrorists (with whom they have close ties) 

    - the terrorists, fearing an assault on the plane, have asked to
    negotiate through the PLO, knowing that they wouldn't be part of any
    planned attack by security services aimed at overpowering themselves
    and thus freeing the hostages 

    - the terrorists were trained in PLO bases (probably in Lebanon) and
    are repaying the PLO by returning a favour (which would explain the
    above points) 

    - the terrorists have a secret pact with the PLO who are informing
    them of 'outside' developments
    
    Apart from comments on the above suggestions I'd be interested if
    anyone has any knowledge of terrorist acts committed by the PLO or
    others where Saudia Arabia acted in a way that either implicitly or
    explicitly was in some way helpful or not helpful to the terrorists. 

    Thanks for any insight, 

    Malcolm

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
448.1	for what its worth.	WOODRO::SAADEH	Will there ever be peace over there	`Tue Apr 12 1988 16:22`	16
	Hello 43322::Levy, Maybe what we are seeing here is a act of goodwill on the part of the PLO and ARaFAT. I feel that he is doing the right thing by trying to help Kuwait with this critical situation. The best bet was to storm the plane and hope for survivors from minute it landed on Cypriot terroritory. Kuwait has a right to hold talks, they elected not to come down to the HIjackers level. One must realize that these HIjackers have excused life and chose to create havoc for the innocent. Open and shut case. Good day, -Sultan
448.2	could be a (dangerous!) family affair	DELNI::GOLDSTEIN	Follow flock, become lampchop	`Tue Apr 12 1988 21:49`	6
	Without any particular knowledge of the details, I note that the hijackers want release of a particular group of prisoners.l There have been a number of terroroist acts by the relatives of these 17, who are doing time for trying to blow up the US embassy. This isn't PLO, it's a blood feud between a family and the rest of the world...
448.3		CIRCUS::KOLLING	Karen, Sweetie, Holly; in Calif.	`Wed Apr 13 1988 12:35`	25
	The PLO is well situated to be an intermediary in this situation because it has the trust of all three parties involved -- Kuwait, the hijackers, and Cyprus. Kuwait has a large population of Palestinian exiles and is a strong supporter of the PLO. The hijackers appear to be from one of the groups operating in Lebanon which the military branch of the PLO has been allied with from time to time. The PLO negotiators seem to be mainly from the PLO diplomatic delegation to Cyprus; I believe the PLO ambassador was actually involved in the discussions at one point. Humanitarian grounds aside, it's in the PLO's interest to bring this to a conclusion because it takes attention away from the Palestinian uprising and fosters the image of Arabs as terrorists. I'm a little fuzzy about the details here, but something similar happened in a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon a few weeks ago -- my recollection is that Abu Nidal's people had captured a couple of westerners who were taking pictures of Nidal's people, and the other camp people made Nidal's men release them. The PLO has acted as an intermediary in other situations in the past, for example for the United States in Lebanon before and during the 1976 evacuation.
448.4		PLDVAX::PKANDAPPAN		`Fri Apr 15 1988 12:36`	16
	As Karen pointed out, this is not the first time that the PLO has played a mediating role; before being forced out of Beirut, the PLO apparently had a 'strong relationship' with the US agencies and helped resolve 'several problems the US had in Lebanon'! Yasser Arafat has picked up a deadly quarrel with the Khomeini regime by directly accusing them of masterminding the hijacking. So I doubt that the PLO had anything to do with this other than playing a negotiators' role. The PLO has a large delegation in Cyprus; and deadly 'games' go on there between them and the Israelis - three people whom the PLO accused of being Mossad agents (a charge denied by Israel) were killed by PLO members a few years back; three top level PLO officials were killed by a car bomb in what was claimed to be an Israeli attempt to stop the sailing of the PLO chartered ship. -parthi