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- From: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu (Rich Winkel)
- Subject: CENSORED: SYRIAN OFFERS TO FREE HOSTAGES IGNORED BY THE US
- Message-ID: <1992Nov13.091535.29364@mont.cs.missouri.edu>
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- Originator: rich@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
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- Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 09:15:35 GMT
- Approved: map@pencil.cs.missouri.edu
- Lines: 98
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- SYRIAN OFFERS TO FREE HOSTAGES IGNORED BY THE U.S.
-
- Despite a promise to "leave no stone unturned," the Reagan ad-
- ministration failed to pursue a series of Syrian offers to help get
- American hostages out of Lebanon, according to a confidential Pentagon
- memo and sources involved in the affair.
-
- The Syrian overture centers around Robert D. Ladd, an American
- businessman with CIA contacts. According to the memo, Ladd, in the
- summer of 1985, was introduced (through an associate) to Fasih Mikhail
- Achi, a visiting judge from Syria's inspector general's office. Achi
- claimed that "The Syrians were prepared to assist in the release of the
- hostages if the U.S. president (Ronald Reagan) called Syrian President
- Hafez al-Assad and requested his support. After a call from the U.S.
- president, the Syrians would facilitate the release and transfer of the
- hostages without any quid (pro quo) from the U.S."
-
- According to Ladd, he arranged for the Syrian to be interviewed in
- Washington by representatives of the DIA and the CIA, and that Achi was
- interviewed three separate times over two days in July 1985. In the
- interviews Achi said that he spoke for Gen. Ghazi Kenaan, the head of
- Syrian military Intelligence in Lebanon. A former Pentagon official
- told the Examiner that a subsequent identity check of Achi by the CIA
- and the DIA verified his identity as an aide to Kenaan.
-
- After a month passed with no answer from the Americans, Ladd says he
- brought the Syrian offer to Lt. Col. Oliver North of the NSC, but
- North's promised follow up never materialized.
-
- Achi contacted Ladd again in February 1987 to renew Syria's offer.
- Ladd, in turn, attempted to persuade U.S. officials to have a meeting
- in Paris, at which Achi could prove that his overture was both genuine
- and feasible. "They told me there wasn't enough substance from Achi to
- run it upstairs," said Ladd, "But Achi was willing to provide the
- substance in Paris. They wouldn't even meet him for that. " A former
- Pentagon official familiar with the affair, and speaking on condition
- of anonymity, agrees with Ladd, "That part should have been followed
- through. There was no reason not to. ..we meet all the time with
- "walk-ins" who have less than what Achi had.''
-
- Ladd says U.S. intelligence officials reluctantly agreed to meet Achi
- in Paris late summer of 1989, but CIA canceled the meeting without
- explanation. Despite the cancellation, Achi called Ladd yet again and
- said the hostages would be delivered if Ladd would come to Damascus for
- them. In early August, American intermediaries were finally ready to
- fly to Damascus when Achi called to withdraw the offer. An internal
- tug-of-war had developed over the hostages. Although Associated Press
- ran a summary of the Examiner's story on July 22, not one national media
- outlet picked it up.
-
- (SSU CENSORED RESEARCHER: RACHAEL KINBERG)
-
- SOURCE:SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER 110 Fifth Ave.. San Francisco, CA 94103
-
- DATE: 7/21/91
-
- Title: "Hostage Offer Ignored By U.S."
-
- AUTHOR: Jonathan Broder
-
- SOURCE: EXTRA! 130 West 25th st., NewYork, NY 10001
-
- DATE:September/October 1991
-
- Title: "Bush, Syria and the Hostages"
-
- AUTHOR: Jane Huntar
-
- COMMENTS: Author Jane Hunter noted that the issue was ignored by the
- mass media "even after AP picked it up from the San Francisco Examiner."
- She added that the general public would benefit from more coverage about
- the Syrian hostage offer since it would help the "Iran-contra affair"
- shrink into "the far larger, more scandalous picture of secret foreign
- policy activity during the Reagan-Bush administrations."
-
- Hunter, who is also the editor of Israeli Foreign Affairs, rhetorically
- asked, "What if George Bush, as vice president, had made another offer
- of arms for hostages -- not to Iran, but to Syria? What if he and other
- Reagan administration officials later rebuffed Syrian offers to free
- those hostages? Wouldn't a congressional investigation into
- allegations of such events be worth front-page headlines and network
- news coverage?"
-
- Noting that although the story appeared in the Washington Jewish Week,
- on June 27, 1991, and the San Francisco Examiner, on July 21, and
- portions of it later were carried on the Associated Press wire, Hunter
- charged "it didn't even register with most of the press corps. For most
- national media outlets, the story didn't exist. "
-
- Hunter went on to say the television networks and the leading na-
- tional newspapers missed the story. "Although Associated Press ran a
- summary of the Examiner's story on July 22, not one of the national
- media outlets picked up on it.... According to editors and reporters at
- a number of national media outlets contacted by EXTRA!, the story was
- probably lost in the shuffle of vacations and breaking news concerning
- the Iran-contra affair, the Gates nomination to the CIA and the 1980
- October Surprise. Most said they were not familiar with the story."
-
-