🚀 go-pugleaf

>jsast@unix.cis.pitt.edu (Jonathan S. Anderson) writes:

>The real interesting question here is the rumor I've heard saying that
>the US gave satellite photos to Libya in order to help find the plane.  It
>seems very unlikely to me given the current state of relations, but one never
>knows.  Anybody know the truth?
 
>-Jon Anderson
    
   From what I've seen it seems that the only contact was between the US and
the PLO, Libya seems not to have been directly involved.
 
   According to an Associated Press report the PLO requested that former
president Carter intercede with the White House to urge US assistance in
locating Arafat's plane.

   The downed aircraft was in fact located before the US had sufficient 
time to decide on a course of action. An unnamed US official is quoted as
saying "we were in the process of evaluating a request to see what we
could do when Arafat was located". In an interview with NBC-TV PLO spokesman 
Bassam Abu Sharif said that he had contacted Carter "and asked him to use
his good offices with the White House to use American satellites to spot
the plane of chairman Arafat".

   In fact, the plane could have been located by either of two search-and-
rescue instruments mounted on weather satellites upon emission of a distress
call without the necessity of US government intervention. 
  
                         
                               David Rodriguez
 
                            also CERLPDR@TECHNION