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1 The Southern Israelite Vol. LXII The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, May 2, 1986 Since 1925 No. 18 The Arafat connection Senate subcommittee sets secret sessic > 2 C. C l r rn c c. > c. by Joseph Polakoff ISTs Washington correspondent WASHINGTON- Whether the Senate directs the Department of Justice to reconsider its decision not to seek indictment of Yasir Arafat for complicity in the murder of two American diplo mats appears to rest on a secret session of a Senate judiciary sub committee headed by a Southern conservative, Sen. Jeremiah Den ton (R.-Ala.). Presiding at an April 24 sub committee hearing on the issue, Denton asked the Department’s chief witness. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Mark Richard, to testify about a reported tape recording allegedly bearing Ara fat’s orders to eight gunmen of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s “Black September” division to ex ecute the diplomats. Richard replied he was concerned about entering into this phase of Arafat’s activities “in public ses sion.” He proposed an “executive session” for discussion and Den ton, the subcommittee’s chairman agreed. After the three-hour hear ing, Denton declined to designate an approximate date for the closed door hearings when asked by The Southern Israelite if it would be held during this session of Congress. “I have the impression there is a Frank Lautenberg tape," Denton said to several re porters. He then added, “My impres sion is derived from the hearing today.” In the voluminous statements available at the hearing, many of them gathered under the direction of Steven Rosen, research director of the American-lsrael Public Af fairs Committee, it appeared that on March 7, 1973, a cable from the U.S. Embassy in Khartoum to the State Department, signed “Fritz,” said the embassy had obtained information of a radio conversa tion between Beirut and the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Khartoum. The cable, whose exhibit was partially censored, indicated that the Palestinians did not murder U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel and Charge D’Affaires Curtis Moore, and Belgian Ambassador Guy Eid, until they had received instructions allegedly from Arafat, whose head quarters were then in Beirut. The three diplomats were seized at a reception on March 1, 1973, at the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum and killed in cold blood on March 3. The issue of indictment was brought to light last November when Charles Lichtenstein, a former U.S. ambas sador to the United Nations, sent a letter to the Justice Department. Richard testified to the subcom mittee: “Regretfully we have con cluded as a result of exhaustive legal analysis there is no statutory authority upon which to predicate a prosecution in this country against any person for the 1973 murders. “The U.S. did not even sign the United Nations convention on the prevention and punishment of crime against internationally-protected persons until Dec. 28, 1973, nine months after the murders in Khar toum,” Richard told the subcom mittee. In 1973, he noted, “There was no federal criminal liability for the murder of U.S. diplomats abroad. It was not until 1976 (when) Con gress amended a statute that such Jeremiah Denton attacks on our diplomats abroad became a federal crime.” In opening the hearing, Denton noted that the subcommittee “will review the need for legislation to give the Justice Department strong er weapons to fight terrorism and give the victims of terrorism means by which they may attach $6 bil lion of PLO holdings in this coun try.” The review, he said, will in clude “the status of propriety of convening a special grand jury to investigate the pattern of PLO criminal and terrorist activity,” and “which existing laws may be used to bring civil and criminal actions against the PLO, by cur tailing its illegal activities.” Denton emphasized, “Just PLO attempted to usurp the 1 tinian cause from the Palest people, and to pursue its griev ances against Israel and its princi pal ally, the United States, with terrorism, there remains the legit imate issue of the Palestinian ques tion which must be addressed." He added that the subcommittee would review “the relative ease” with which PLO members and “groups such as the African National Con gress (ANC) and the Southwest Africa People’s Organization (SWAPO) are liberally granted visas to enter this country.” In addition the subcommittee will “examine the propriety and legality of permitting the PLO to maintain its information office here in Washington, and permit ting the PLO to maintain its ob server mission to the U.N. as SWAPO does and as the ANC maintains an information office in New York City. These latter two areas of inquiry are of particular importance if we are to be success ful in preventing the PLO from building a terrorist infrastructure and expanding the propagada ma chine within this country.” Denton added that, “In the past 20 years the PLO has fashioned a cult of right- See Arafat, page 25. The generations who will never forget This photo of Atlanta survivors of the Holocaust, children and grandchildren of survivors will be the focal point of the Hall of Survivors of the Zachor Holocaust Center of the Atlanta Jewish Federation. In addition to celebrating Atlanta’s survivor commun ity, the Center will include a permanent and traveling exhibit, literature and film libraries, a speakers bureau, outreach programming and scholarly research. The Zachor Holocaust Center, located at the Atlanta Jewish Community Center, opens to the public Monday, May 5. For more information, contact Jane Leavey, 873-1661.