Atef Bseiso
Atef Bseiso | |
|---|---|
 Atef Bseiso | |
| Native name | عاطف بسيسو |
| Born | 23 August 1948 |
| Died | 8 June 1992 (aged 43) Paris, France |
| Occupation | Palestine Liberation Organization head of intelligence |
Atef Bseiso (
His death was seen at the time as damaging PLO attempts to strengthen their credentials by sharing intelligence information with Western countries on terrorist operations hostile to Western interests.[5] Several assassinations of PLO intelligence officials are thought to reflect the desire of that organization to discourage PLO members from developing close links with Western intelligence agencies.[6][a]
Background
Bseiso hailed from one of the largest and most respected Palestinian clans in the Gaza Strip.[8] He became a member of the Black September organization, a group from which the perpetrators behind the Munich Massacre were eventually recruited. From that time, his name was on a "red list" of people to be targeted for assassination, signed by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and confirmed by Yitzhak Shamir,[4] though Nahum Admoni gave the green light in 1988 for removing his name from Israel's hit list. Robert Baer, a CIA field officer who sought via French contacts to handle Bseiso, remained agnostic on the question.[b] A Lebanese friend present at the assassination dismissed the claim saying Bseiso was far too young at the time of the Munich operation to have been involved in it.[c]
By 1992 Bseiso was considered a rising star in the PLO ranks. He had been appointed the PLO's liaison man with the
Assassination
After contacts with the German intelligence agency,
Bseiso intended, on finishing business in Paris, to drive down to Marseilles, and ferry back to Tunis, and surprise his wife Dima and their three children with the new car.[17]
An Israeli surveillance team had been tracking Bseiso ever since his arrival in Berlin three days earlier.
Aftermath
According to a Mossad section chief in Brussels, who was shocked at news of Bseiso's killing, Bseiso had been removed from the list in 1988 with the approval of Nahum Admoni. It had apparently been put back on the personal initiative of Shabtai Shavit, who then directed the operation.[23] Shavit was convinced Bseiso was implicated in the Munich attack, and Aaron J. Klein's account endorses this theory, as does John Macintyre in reviewing Klein, though he adds that many Palestinians assassinated for involvement in the Munich massacre were not directly linked to it.[d]
The CIA agent Robert Baer, one of the officials Bseiso was to meet the following day, stated that one primary reason for Mossad's killing of Bseiso was to block the growing international recognition of the PLO arising in part from the organization's links with key Western intelligence agencies. The operation to assassinate him relied on key details concerning Bseiso's movements supplied to a Mossad agent, posing as an Iranian government official, by Adnan Yassin in exchange for money.[4] Other sources state he was turned by the Tzomet ("Crossroads") unit while in France where his wife was undergoing treatment for cancer.[24] Israeli sources suggest Yassin was greedy for money: the French investigators concluded that Yassin passed on information in exchange for assistance in paying his wife's medical expenses for cancer treatment in a Paris hospital.[3]
French intelligence, while privately fingering Mossad,
The CIA was furious with Israel for killing one of its key contacts within the PLO. The French were outraged that Mossad had performed a targeted assassination on French soil, and began to crack down on Mossad infrastructure and operations in that country. From Mossad's perspective, the information provided by Yassin allowed them to hamper PLO operations against Israel: they managed to hack into PLO financial accounts and transfer funds from one account to another, sowing suspicions that members were stealing funds, and distracting their external operations as PLO officials tried to root out apparent moles and traitors within their organization. Mossad had been out of the loop of the secret negotiations between the Israeli government and the PLO that lead to the Oslo Accords. They had learnt of these talks via a microphone planted in the offices of Mahmoud Abbas, and when the government learned of the intercepts, according to one theory, they tipped off the PLO which then dismantled the listening devices and arrested Yassin as a traitor. Another version states, to the contrary, that it was the French who tipped off the PLO.[23] The listening devices had been planted by Ahmad Yassin, one in an orthopedic airchair Yassin's son had had shipped from Marseilles.[3] Given the peace talks, Yassin, the deputy to the PLO Ambassador in Tunisia Hakam Balawi, was arrested by the Tunisian authorities on 25 October 1993.[24] He was not executed but sentenced to 15 years in prison.[4] According to Aaron J. Klein, he was never heard of again.[25]
Legal follow-ups
The Palestinian National Authority appealed the decision made by a Paris court on 9 December 2014 dismissing the case on the base of a lack of evidence. The French court of Appeal confirmed the decision on 8 October 2015.[3] A lawyer for the plaintiffs stated that the verdict was "a simple admission that a political assassination can remain unpunished, something which can only add to the sense of resentment and injustice experienced by Palestinians."[f]
Wreath-laying
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn was present in 2014 when wreaths were laid at the graves of several Palestinian victims of violence, and photographed holding a wreath at Bseiso's gravesite. One of the graves was that of Bseiso.[26] Four years later, his participation caused a media furore when it was cited as evidence for suspicions Corbyn was friendly with terrorists, with claims being made by
Personal life
Bseiso was married and had three children.[14]
Notes
- ^ "Mossad realized he was one of the main links between the PLO and intelligence agencies in the West, including those of Germany, France, and America, and top Israeli intelligence officials believed that these ties were one more step toward the West's bestowment of full international diplomatic legitimization upon Arafat and the PLO, and the isolation of Israel...Their protests to the Western states fell on deaf ears, so Israel decided to convey its displeasure in a more direct manner."[7]
- ^ "Israelis privately accused him. I never got a good look at the Munich evidence, which left me basically agnostic on Atef's role. Not to mention that the Israelis aren't exactly infallible when it comes to the Palestinians."[9]
- ^ "I asked Claude about Munich.'He was a kid,' he said. 'He had no idea what was going on. It's bullshit'."[10]
- ^ "Klein, who interviewed dozens of Mossad agents, estimates that the majority killed were not directly linked to the massacre. Many who were had taken refuge in the communist bloc where even Mossad found it difficult to reach them. But Klein says the agency, which believed it was having a powerful deterrent effect, was not always fussy about its targets. 'Our blood was boiling,' Klein quotes one intelligence source as saying. 'When there was information implicating someone, we didn't inspect it with a magnifying glass.'."[22]
- ^ Immédiatement prévenue, la DST n'a guère de doute sur l'implication du Mossad. "Pour nous, c'était aussi un signal à l'égard de la France, témoigne sous couvert de l'anonymat un ancien du service. Les Israéliens avaient le loisir de supprimer Bseiso au cours des mois précédents, lors de ses déplacements en Espagne ou à la Havane. Ils ont choisi de le faire à Paris."[3]
- ^ "on a tout simplement admis qu'un assassinat politique puisse rester impuni, ce qui ne peut qu'ajouter au ressentiment et au sentiment d'injustice vécu par les Palestiniens."[3]
Citations
- ^ a b c d Tempest 1992.
- ^ a b Klein 2007, pp. 6–7.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Hugeux 2015.
- ^ a b c d Bergman 2018.
- ^ a b c Ibrahim 1992.
- ^ Reeve 2000, p. 284,n.52.
- ^ a b Bergman 2018, p. 335.
- ^ Klein 2007, p. 9.
- ^ Baer 2014, p. 111.
- ^ Baer 2014, p. 112.
- ^ West 2017, p. 33.
- ^ a b c d Evans 1992.
- ^ Klein 2007, p. 3.
- ^ a b c Klein 2007, p. 5.
- ^ a b Baer 2014, p. 119.
- ^ Reeve 2000, p. 216.
- ^ Klein 2007, p. 6.
- ^ Baer 2014, pp. 119–120.
- ^ Klein 2007, pp. 7–8.
- ^ Klein 2007, p. 11.
- ^ Klein 2007, p. 4.
- ^ a b Macintyre 2010.
- ^ a b Klein 2007, pp. 10–11.
- ^ a b Andraos 2014.
- ^ Klein 2007, p. 12.
- ^ Corbyn 2014.
- ^ Sabbagh 2018.
Sources
- Andraos, Zuhair (25 January 2014). "Double agent Adnan Yasin avoided sentence under Israeli pressure". Middle East Monitor.
- ISBN 978-0-297-86817-0.
- ISBN 978-1-473-69472-9.
- Corbyn, Jeremy (5 October 2014). "Palestine United". Morning Star.
- Evans, Helen (8 June 1992). "Senior PLO security official killed in Paris". United Press International.
- Hugeux, Vincent (8 October 2015). "Fin de l'enquête sur l'assassinat d'un cadre de l'OLP à Paris". L’Express.
- Ibrahim, Youssef M. (14 June 1992). "Intriguing Theories; a Murder in Paris Thins P.L.O. Leadership". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-1-588-36586-6.
- Macintyre, Donald (21 February 2010). "Mossad: Inside the spying game". The Independent.
- Pontaut, Jean-Marie (19 February 2010). "Quand le Mossad tuait à Paris". L'Express.
- ISBN 978-1-559-70547-9.
- Sabbagh, Dan (14 August 2018). "Jeremy Corbyn: I was present at wreath-laying but don't think I was involved". The Guardian.
- Tempest, Rone (9 June 1992). "PLO Official Assassinated on Paris Street". Los Angeles Times.
- ISBN 978-1-538-10239-8.