Saudis Provided $45 Million to Fatah

Sen. Clifford Case (R.NJ) told the Senate Foreign Relation Committee that Saudi Arabia in 1976 provided $45 million to El Fatah, the military arm of the PLO that took credit for the terrorist attack on Israeli civilians March II. Case’s statement came during a hearing of the Committee where Sen. John Sparkman (D.Ala.), the Committee’s chairman, bore down on Saudi Arabia’s continuing financing of the PLO and two top State Department officials conceded they have been unable to persuade the Saudis to stop funding the terrorist organization.

Sparkman, who had not joined in the two letters that 10 members of the Committee had sent to President Carter in opposition to his proposed sale of war planes to Saudi Arabia, indicated at the hearing that he was reconsidering his position in view of the PLO massacre. Saying that he was “very troubled” by the Saudis’ financing, Sparkman observed that Saudi support of the PLO and the proposed planes sale create a situation that places Senators in a quandary.

The two State Department officials, Alfred Atherton, Assistant Secretary of State for Middle Eastern and South Asian Affairs, who is being promoted to Ambassador-at-large in his role as chief U.S. mediator in the Arab-Israeli negotiations, and Harold Saunders, who is slated to succeed Atherton, appeared for confirmation of their appointments. A decision on this is expected late this week.

Atherton said that the Senators should consider the “totality” of the U.S. relationship with Saudi Arabia in suggesting that the sale of the aircraft not be set aside because of their financing of the PLO. He said that the U.S. had discussed over the years with the Saudis their financing of the terrorists and they have explained their money was for economic and not military purposes.

On this point Saunders acknowledged that the Saudis’ funding was “fundgible,” a bureaucratic term that means money earmarked for one purpose allows an equal amount to be diverted to another.