U.S. Refuses To Give Up On Israeli-Palestinian Talks
The U.S. is working behind the scenes to open a secret channel to revive long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, a senior Palestinian negotiator told this column.
The negotiator said Martin Indyk, U.S. special envoy for Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, presented the potential channel for the continuation of quiet talks to both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Norway has volunteered to serve as a conduit between Netanyahu, Abbas, and the U.S., the negotiator said.
The use of Norway may not go over well with Netanyahu since the country’s sovereign wealth fund has supported the boycott of Jewish goods manufactured in the West Bank, divesting recently from two Israeli companies.
The secret channel for talks was proposed by Indyk even as Abbas attempts to broker a national unity government with Hamas.
The Benghazi Plot Thickens
Adding yet another layer of mystery to the killing of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens, a just-released Obama administration e-mail states a phone call from a local Libyan hospital reported Stevens was at the medical center and “alive and well” in the immediate aftermath of the Benghazi attacks.
The e-mail contradicts the State Department’s Accountability Review Board investigation into the attack, which states the caller at the hospital said a man matching Stevens’s description was brought to the medical center and was “unresponsive.”
Stevens was said to have died of asphyxiation from smoke inhalation.
The e-mail in question was from Eric Pelofsky, senior adviser to United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. It was contained in the 112 pages of documents released to Judicial Watch as part of a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit.
On Sept. 11, 2012, at 8:51 p.m. Eastern, or 2:51 a.m. in Libya, Pelofsky sent an email to Rice and other administration officials about a call purportedly received from a cell phone that was with Stevens.
The e-mail was sent after the initial assault at the U.S. special mission and just prior to the second assault at the nearby CIA annex, according to administration timelines.
The e-mail says: “Post received a call from a person using a RSO phone that Chris was given saying that the caller was with a person matching Chris’s description at a hospital and that he was alive and well.”
RSO is a Regional Security Officer, who was part of Stevens’s security detail.
Pelofsky added: “Of course, if he were alive and well one could ask why he didn’t make the call himself.”
The caller’s description of Stevens as “alive and well” in Pelofsky’s e-mail stands in contradistinction to State Department’s ARB report.
The relevant section of the ARB states: “At approximately 0200 local, Embassy Tripoli received a phone call from ARSO 1’s cell phone, which he had given to the Ambassador while they were sheltered in the safe area. A male, Arabic speaking caller said an unresponsive male who matched the physical description of the Ambassador was at a hospital.”
The hospital was later determined to have been the Benghazi Medical Center, where the Al Qaeda-linked Ansar al-Shariah yielded influence.
The hospital was said to have been so dangerous for Americans that a decision was made not to send any U.S. personnel to retrieve Stevens’s body.
The State Department declared Ansar al Shariah a terrorist organization for its reported central role in the Benghazi attacks.
Benghazi Terrorists May Have Intended To Kidnap Ambassador Stevens
A U.S. government e-mail contained in the batch of those released last week regarding the Benghazi attack reveals a top Obama administration official was immediately concerned the attack was a concerted effort to kidnap U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens.