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By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

By Way of Deception

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BY WAY OF DECEPTION 251In any event, Arafat wanted small arms to expand Force 17. Theinevitable power struggles were going on within the organization,and Arafat felt he needed more personal firepower. But when heasked General Khadra, the army chief <strong>of</strong> staff, he was turneddown. Khadra told Arafat not to worry, he'd protect him. Arafatworried.It was because Khadra controlled the weaponry coming in fromthe East Bloc to the PLO that all the factional organizations wentthrough other Arab countries, such as Libya and Iraq, to obtaintheir weapons from the East.On January 17, 1981, Arafat flew to East Berlin to meet EastGerman President Erich Honecker, who gave him 50 German"advisers" to help train PLO people in Lebanon. On January 26,Arafat again met East German representatives, this time in Beirut,and again asked for weapons, trying to arrange a quiet dealwithout going through Khadra. Thanks to constant reports fromKasim, the Mossad knew Arafat was deeply worried aboutproblems from within and a possible Israeli attack.On February 12, Arafat met Vietnamese representatives inDamascus, trying to arrange a deal. They <strong>of</strong>fered missiles, but hewanted small arms. Three days later, he went to Tyre, Lebanon,for a meeting with the heads <strong>of</strong> various PLO factions, trying topersuade them to stop fighting each other and concentrate on thereal enemy, Israel. <strong>By</strong> March 11, Arafat was becoming increasinglynervous, hoping to get a commitment before the April 15 generalPLO meeting in Damascus. On that single day in Beirut he heldthree separate meetings with the ambassadors from Hungary,Cuba, and Bulgaria, but still failed to obtain any specificcommitments.The Mossad was by now very nervous itself, assuming thateventually Arafat would get his weapons. What really spookedthem was that the PLO leader was beginning to say he wanted tohave someone meet with Israeli diplomats on his behalf to beginnegotiations toward stopping an attack on Lebanon. The Mossadknew the big secret long before the Israeli government did, whichwas usually the case.On March 12, Arafat met in Beirut with Naim Khader, the

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