LIFE AND DEATH OF A TERRORIST

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605750001-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 20, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: July 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605750001-9
1 hRTIC~~ r.FP :ABED
o~~ BCO' R~vIEwT_3
iLV7 YORK TIr~S
to truly' 1983
Life and Death of a Terrorist
r~ QUF~S? FO8 T~ 8FD PBIIITCE
By Michael Bar-ZoFearm~d Eitan I,[abe~
William Morrow & Co. tI5.95. '~
. By JAMES M. MARSHAM
Abu Ha-ssaa, as the flamboyant Fatah chief was
lmown, was the son of SheikHassaa Salameh, a Pales_
tinian warlord who died in 1948 fighting the emergence
of Israel. The sheik's sa?.wss no scnitfy unshaven
gun'toter but a sleek German-educated playboywho
shortly before his death married a former Miss Uni-
verse, aLebanese Christian named .Georgina Rizak.
He was also a terrorist, one of the mA~*r'+**~~ of
Black September, the Fatah subgroup that shoved the
Palestinian cause into the world's horrified conscious
ness by murdering-21 Israeli athletes during the Mw
LI HASSAN SAt.n~u, one of Yasir Arafat's
most trusted lieutenants, was blown up is his ,
car as it passed abooby-trapped parked Voiles
wages in west Beirut m Jan. 22, 1979. m "Tbe Quest
for the Red Prince," Michael Bar,Zohar end Eitaa
Saber, two Israeli writers. give a fasLpaoed scootimt
of bow the Mossad, the Israeli intelligence servtoe,
tracked Salameh-for months and assassinated him.
'They have also tried to blend into the tale of the Pales
tinian leader's violent life and death a history of the
struggle between Arabs and Jews in Palestine before_
1995, in the young state of Israel and in shadowy thea-
book As the boss of-Sq~~'f; ttie' Fates sec~uity out-
fit, he was Mr. Arafat's contact with the United States
Embassy in Beirut sad the Central Intelligence Agen-
But Salameh's most fascinating sideline and the one
moss- relevant to his death is not mentioned in this
aech Olyt=gics is 1972.
' cy. While Mr. Bar-Zohar and Mr. Haber would have us
believe that in "the i~tusiim-inhabited part of war-torn
Beirut all foreigners were distnisted" and "ail Wit..
erners were suspected of being Israeli spies or secret
agents; 'the truth was far more subtle and paradoxi-
cal. During Mr. Arafat's persistent efforts to open a
dialogue with the United States, Al Fatah took it on it-
self to protect American diplomats in chaotic west
Beirut aftertdvIl war erupted in 2975.
Salameh 5 men
guarded?Americans and other foreigners ss they were
evacuated from a Nest Beiirut seaside swimming club.
by the U~ted States Siarth Fleet on Jame Zo, 1976. An
American diplomat'I knew in Beiratt ~ those bix$rre .
Years liked to show off with.a-chuckle a gift from Abu
Hassan - a heavy Palestine Liberation organization
keychain.? -
As .David Ignatius reported recently in The wall
Street Jtxuaal, Salameh was ?`a backdoor channel be-
tween the U.S. and the P.L.O., ?' and he hirnished sen-
ior American diplomats, including former Secretary
of State Henry Kissinger, with tips about assassins.
tion plots planned by radical Palestinian sad other
terrorist groups. He is also said to have supplied simi-
lar.information to security organizations in West Ger-
many, Maly and Japan to demonstrate that.Al Fatah
had gone out of the termr business and become a valid
diplomatic interlocutor,
One rrvealing and heretofore untold anecdote is that
not leg before Salameh's death
-a grateful C
I
A
,
.
.
. took .
him to Florida's Walt Disney World, a place he had al-
ways wanted to visit This uniquely American gesture ;
compounded Mr.. Arafat's bitterness and sense of be.
trayai when Salameh was slain..
-There was nothing angelic about Al Fatah's stealthy
i
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/20 :CIA-RDP90-005528000605750001-9