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Time - Man of the Year
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Time_Man_of_the_Year_Compact_Publishing_3YX-Disc-1_Compact_Publishing_1993.iso
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042092
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0420998.000
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1992-09-10
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THE WEEK, Page 29WORLDThe Ultimate Survivor
Arafat walks away from a desert crash that kills three others
Even before his latest brush with eternity, Yasser Arafat was
described by allies and enemies alike as the Middle East's
ultimate survivor. His 23-year tenure as chairman of the
Palestine Liberation Organization has been marked by repeated
political defeats, accidents and assassination plots. So after
his plane was reported missing over Libya last week, political
leaders restrained themselves from dwelling on what life might
be like without him.
Sure enough, he was rescued 12 hours later with only minor
injuries. Three crewmen on his Russian-built turboprop plane
were killed when it crash-landed during a sandstorm over the
southern Libyan desert. He and his staff of nine had been flying
from the Sudan to Libya when the storm closed in. Libyan search
planes found the downed craft the next morning. "I'm well,"
Arafat said.
When the plane vanished, the p.l.o. appealed for
international help, and former President Jimmy Carter phoned the
White House with the request for American assistance. The p.l.o.
later expressed its gratitude to the U.S., which has no official
relations with the organization. But officials in Washington
insist they were still only "evaluating" the request when Arafat
was rescued. The U.S., they said, did "absolutely nothing" to
help locate him.