Israel Matzav

Exclusive: Condi ignores Congressman's letter on Gaza murders

Last Monday, I reported on the fourth anniversary of the murder of three Americans by 'Palestinians' in the Gaza Strip.

On October 15, 2003, a U.S. embassy convoy was on a visit to Gaza to interview Palestinian candidates for Fulbright scholarship programs in the United States. The convoy consisted of three fully armored but unmarked Suburbans. The first vehicle was occupied by the diplomats on the interview mission. The second vehicle was occupied by American contract protective security specialists: John Branchizio (36), John Linde (30), and Mark Parsons (31). The third vehicle had agents of the Diplomatic Security Service on a “route and area familiarization” trip.

Just after the convoy entered the Gaza Strip from the Erez checkpoint, an explosion totally destroyed the second vehicle in the motorcade, killing the three specialists. A U.S. embassy document states that the device appeared to have been “placed under the road and remotely detonated as the vehicles passed.”

I have stated in several posts whom I believe to be responsible for the murders - Muhammed Dahlan and his deputy Rashid Abu Shbak. The same two terrorists were responsible for the attack on an Israeli school bus near Kfar Darom in November 2000, which was a similar attack. Just yesterday I reported that the United States was pressuring 'moderate' 'Palestinian' President Mahmoud Abbas Abu Mazen to appoint Dahlan as his deputy with a view to eventually making Dahlan the leader of the 'Palestinian Authority.'

Today, I received a copy of the letter below which was sent to Secretary of State Rice six weeks ago. The letter came from Congressman Bill Pascrell (D-NJ). Ironically, Congressman Pascrell represents the district in which I lived before I moved to Israel in 1991. It should enlarge and be readable if you click on it.

You will note that the date on the letter is September 6, 2007. According to an email from one of the Congressman's legislative assistants that was forwarded to me,

Because we had not yet received a response in the nearly six weeks since the letter was sent, I contacted the State Department today. They confirmed that the letter was received, and indicated that we should receive a response soon.

That was last Monday, the fourth anniversary of the murders. As of this morning, there's still no word. But we all know that Condi has been busy for the last week....

The person who sent me this information is John Parsons. John is the brother of Mark Parsons, one of the three Americans who was murdered by Dahlan and Co. Here's what John wrote me (I've added the emphases):

My brother Mark Parsons was one of the people killed in the bombing. In the past 4 years the United States government has not been in contact with our family about the investigation of the bombing. And what's being done to bring those responsible to justice. Mean while we are still funding the PLO was monetary aid. Since this story took place in Israeli and only 3 people were killed the US media has really never covered this story. Maybe if a lot of people were killed they would gotten off their butts and do something about it. So the 3 dead don't really mean anything to the State Department.No one has followed up story of the bombing.. So the United States government really has no public pressure to do anything about this because of no media coverage. A lot of people who I have been in contact about this tragedy during these past 4 years have never heard of the story.

In May, I wrote a post in which I discussed the introduction of HR 2293 in the US House of Representatives. That provision would require Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice to report to Congress on what is being done to bring the murderers of Branchizio, Parsons and Linde to justice. On July 16, 2007, that bill passed the House of Representatives by voice vote, and the following day it was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. In the three months since, nothing has happened.

It took thirty-three years for the State Department to admit that two American diplomats and a Belgian diplomat were murdered in Khartoum in 1973 on the orders of none other than Yasser Arafat. As Caroline Glick pointed out, there was a price for thirty-three years of cover-up:

On the face of it, the released cable, which calls into question the very foundation of US Middle East policy for the past generation is simply stunning. The cable concludes, "The Khartoum operation again demonstrated the ability of the BSO to strike where least expected. The open participation of Fatah representatives in Khartoum in the attack provides further evidence of the Fatah/BSO relationship. The emergence of the United States as a primary fedayeen target indicates a serious threat of further incidents similar to that which occurred in Khartoum."

The media's silence on the issue does not merely raise red flags abut their objectivity. By not availing the American public to the knowledge that Fatah and the PLO have been specifically targeting Americans for 33 years, the media has denied the American people basic knowledge of the world in which they live.

The media's abject refusal to cover the story raises an even more egregious aspect of the episode. Specifically, what does the fact that under seven consecutive administrations, the US government has covered up Arafat's direct responsibility for the murder of American diplomats while placing both Arafat and Fatah at the center of its Middle East policy, say about the basic rationale of US policy towards Israel and the Palestinians? What would US Middle East policy looked like, and what would have been the results for US, and international security as a whole, if rather than advancing a policy that made Arafat the most frequent foreign visitor to the White House during the Clinton administration, the US had demanded his extradition and tried him for murder?

How many lives would have been saved if the US had not been intent on upholding Arafat's big lie? How would such a US policy have impacted the subsequent development of sister terror organizations like Hizbullah, al-Qaida and Hamas, all of which were founded by members of Arafat's terror industry?

Sadly, the release of the cable did not in any way signal a change in the US policy of whitewashing Fatah. In contravention of US law, for the past 13 years, the State Department has been denying that Fatah, the PLO and the Palestinian Authority are terrorist organizations, and has been actively funding them with US taxpayer dollars.

This policy went on, unchanged even after Fatah gunmen murdered three US embassy employees in Gaza in October 2003. This policy continues, unchanged still today, as Fatah's current leader, Arafat's deputy of 40 years Mahmoud Abbas works to form a unity government with Hamas. Indeed, the central component of the US's policy towards the Palestinians today is the goal of strengthening Fatah by arming, training and funding its Force 17 terror militia.

Fellow bloggers, it's time for the truth about Fatah and its leadership to be told. Will it take another thirty-three years?

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:35 PM