You wonder why jihadists seem less than convinced when US officials proclaim that they don't negotiate with terrorists? Sophistication:

Henry Kissinger instructed the CIA to continue diplomatic contacts with Yassir Arafat's PLO representatives before the 1973 Yom Kippur War, even after Arafat ordered the kidnapping and murder of the American ambassador and his deputy in Khartoum, Sudan. The diplomatic contacts, described only as related to security issues - which had been revealed previously but not their contents - were exposed in the papers of former CIA chief Richard Helms that were made available to the public last week... The Helms' documents reveal that Arafat sent Salameh to the talks without hiding his responsibility for killing American diplomats in Khartoum in March 1973. Ames also agreed to Salameh's requests and asked Washington about various diplomatic issues, such as the Nixon administration's intentions relating to Palestinian interests... [Arafat] threatened, via Ames, that he would burn Beirut if the Lebanese government acted against the PLO.

When Arafat died, Lileks wrote that "all you need to know about Arafat was that he insisted on wearing a pistol when he addressed the UN General Assembly. And all you need to know about the UN, I suppose, is that they let him." Apparently Turtle Bay wasn't the only place where Arafat was negotiating with a pistol. It does mean, though, that there's a certain irony in Fatah begging people like Carter not to negotiate with Hamas because Hamas is filled with intransigent terrorists.

References:
* CIA papers show Arafat ordered murder of U.S. diplomats in Sudan [Ha'aretz]
* The Bleat
* Abbas: "Please Cut Off Hamas". Carter: "US Should Embrace Hamas" [MR]

Previously:
* EU Discovers That Arafat Is A Terrorist
* Newsflash: Arafat Wrecked the Peace Process
* Oh Look - Another American Intelligence Chief Blames Arafat For the Collapse Of the Peace Process