Assassination in Khartoum: An Institute for the Study of Diplomacy Book [Hardcover]

David A. Korn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 22, 1993 | Series: An Institute for the Study of Diplomacy Book

"Korn has written a fast-pased and absorbing account of the murder of two American diplomats held hostage in the Saudi embassy in Khartoum in 1973."
—Foreign Affairs

"... engrossing... well-crafted... a gripping story of personal courage and tragedy." —Foreign Service Journal

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In 1973, Palestinian Black September gunmen stormed the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum where two U.S. diplomats and a Belgian colleague were attending a reception and threatened to kill them unless their demands were met. Among their demands were the releases of Sirhan Sirhan, convicted killer of Robert Kennedy, and of Palestinians imprisoned in Jordan and Israel. President Richard Nixon--establishing a policy which remains in effect--refused to negotiate. This dire decision, as Korn reveals, doomed the three captives, set off an internal furor within the State Department and caused the White House to issue preemptive statements defending Nixon against accusations that the policy was a shocking display of indifference to Americans abroad in distress. The Belgian government attempted to ransom with money the release of its diplomat, Guy Eid. Korn, a former Foreign Service officer, presents a tense, compelling, carefully researched account of the abduction, the 59-hour siege of the Saudi embassy, the assassination of the diplomats, the surrender of the gunmen and their unexpected release by the Sudanese government. Korn explores the intriguing theory that Eid was used by Black September to trap Ambassador Cleo Noel and George Moore, deputy chief of mission, and was betrayed by the Palestinians. Korn is the author of Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-1970.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Using declassified documents and personal interviews, Korn, a former Foreign Service officer and author of Stalemate: The War of Attrition and Great Power Diplomacy in the Middle East, 1967-70 ( LJ 6/1/92), chronicles the events surrounding the murders of Cleo A. Noel Jr. and George Curtis Moore, two U.S. diplomats taken hostage in the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum by Black September terrorists in March 1973. The people and events are described in remarkable detail, and the reader is drawn into the history and politics of the Middle East and the U.S. State Department. The book also fills some important gaps in our understanding of the time. Korn's account of diplomatic and intelligence failures and successes will certainly appeal to specialists on Middle Eastern politics and diplomacy, while his description of the development and bungled application of America's "no negotiation, no compromise" antiterrorism policy will interest terrorism experts. Informed lay readers will find the character studies of interest.
- William Waugh, Georgia State Univ., Atlanta
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 284 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (November 22, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253332028
• ISBN-13: 978-0253332028
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #414,737 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #58 in Books > History > Africa > Sudan

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Arafat Assasinates US Diplomats, Media Sleeps, February 18, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Assassination in Khartoum: An Institute for the Study of Diplomacy Book (Hardcover)

...Author David Korn reveals a compelling tale of how Arafat and his PLO organization kidnapped and assasinated two American diplomats. In the minutes before 7 p.m. on March 1, 1973, a routine diplomatic reception was breaking up at the Saudi embassy in Khartoum, the capital of Sudan. But as the ambassadors left the party and disbursed to find their drivers, a volley of machine-gun bullets suddenly interrupted the quiet scene. Eight masked gunmen of "Black September", a covert Palestinian organization, burst into the embassy's main reception room. There, the diplomats were forced to sit on the floor and identify themselves by nationality. The masked men then proceeded to release most of the reception attendeed, keeping just five: two Americans (Ambassador Cleo Allen Noel, Jr. and Chargé d'Affaires George Curtis Moore), a Belgian, a Jordanian, and a Saudi. The gunmen then sent out a list of their demands, which included the freeing of jailed Palestinian terrorists, including Abu Daoud, a leader of the "Black September" organization; the freeing of Sirhan Sirhan, Robert Kennedy's killer, from jail in California; and the freeing of "Palestinian women in prison in Israel."

Twenty-six hours of feverish negotiations then went by. On the evening of the 2nd, the Beirut headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) sent an order of execution to the terrorists via radio broadcast: "Why are you waiting? The people's blood in the Cold River cries for vengeance" ("Cold River" was the code word for executing the captives). Yasir Arafat, chairman of the PLO then as now, personally delivered this order to murder. Soon after he did, the two Americans and the Belgian were bound, lined up against a basement wall, and executed in gangland fashion -- all eight gunmen simultaneously pulling on their triggers.

A decade earlier, the author David Korn, had worked Moore, one of the two dead Americans. During the siege at the Khartoum embassy, Korn worked at the Department of State's Operations Center, doing what little he could to save the lives of his two colleagues. Unsuccessful in that effort, he kept the story in mind and now, twenty years later, has published a study which suitably remembers the victims and honors their memory.

But Assassination in Khartoum does more: it has a current significance the author could not possibly have anticipated. Korn's meticulous inquiry into the killings at Khartoum raises important questions about the PLO as an institution, the character of its chairman Arafat, and American policy towards them.

Bringing the murder of Noel and Moore back to public attention highlights the unpleasant fact that the PLO has on a number of occasions attacked American citizens. Probably the best-known of these attacks took place in October 1985 when Leon Klinghoffer, an elderly invalid, was shot in the chest, and the other passengers were forced to throw his body and wheelchair over the side of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. In contrast, the most costly incident in terms of American lives is also one of the most completely forgotten: the bombing of TWA flight 707 in September 1974 en route from Tel Aviv to New York. A high-explosive bomb went off in a rear cargo compartment, sending the plane into the Ionian Sea and killing all eighty-eight persons aboard.

Korn's work clearly reveals that Americans have their own, serious problem with the PLO quite independent of Israel's.

5.0 out of 5 stars assissination in khartoum, February 17, 2011

By 

ernie - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Assassination in Khartoum: An Institute for the Study of Diplomacy Book (Hardcover)

Very factual account of events.Research of the facts was very well done.Since I knew some of the people written about I was able to understand the events.