Scenes from a miscarriage

The forthcoming issue of the Weekly Standard will (I think) carry my article telling the story of the State Department’s 33-year silence and denial regarding Yasser Arafat’s responsibility for the 1973 murders of U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel, Jr. and George Curtis Moore, his deputy chief of mission. The article is based on my own research, a review of the relevant literature, and my recent interviews conducted for the article with former NSA analyst James Welsh, former assistant attorney general (!) John Bolton, former State Department chief of staff Charles Hill, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack, former foreign service officer David Korn, former chief Middle East negotiator Ambassador Dennis Ross, and the Director of the State Department’s Office of the Historian as well as the editor of the office’s Foreign Affairs Series.
All those with whom I spoke were generous with their time, gracious and informative. Only former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and State Department Bureau of African Affairs press officer Gregory Sullivan did not respond to my request for interviews.
I learned a lot researching and writing the piece and arrived at a slightly different destination than I anticipated. I’m too close to the piece right now to say much about it, but if you are intersted in the subject I hope you’ll check back tomorrow for a look at it.

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