Atef Bseiso
Atef Bseiso (, 23 August 1948 – 8 June 1992) was the Palestine Liberation Organization's (PLO) liaison officer with foreign intelligence agencies. He was assassinated in Paris in 1992. Several theories exist regarding the reason for his murder. According to one, alleging he played a role in the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre, his execution was part of a Mossad assassination campaign. Others argue it was an Israeli operation aiming to disrupt relations of the PLO with Western intelligence agencies. The PLO denied Bseiso had any connection to the Munich operation. His death was seen at the time as damaging PLO attempts to strengthen their credentials by sharing intelligence information with Western countries on terrorist operations hostile to Western interests. Several assassinations of PLO intelligence officials are thought to reflect the desire of that organization to discourage PLO members from developing close links with Western intelligence agencies. Background Bseiso hailed from one of the largest and most respected Palestinian clans in the Gaza Strip. He became a member of the Black September organization, a group from which the perpetrators behind the Munich Massacre were eventually recruited. From that time, his name was on a "red list" of people to be targeted for assassination, signed by Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir and confirmed by Yitzhak Shamir, though Nahum Admoni gave the green light in 1988 for removing his name from Israel's hit list. Robert Baer, a CIA field officer who sought via French contacts to handle Bseiso, remained agnostic on the question. A Lebanese friend present at the assassination dismissed the claim saying Bseiso was far too young at the time of the Munich operation to have been involved in it. By 1992 Bseiso was considered a rising star in the PLO ranks. He had been appointed the PLO's liaison man with the CIA, but also had contacts within German intelligence and France's Direction de la surveillance du territoire. Just before his trip to Europe, he had visited Havana and Spain, and his travel arrangements, down to his final visit to Paris, were all organized by Ahmad Yassin. In June of that year he left Tunis, where he had been based for the last decade, for a series of appointments with these agencies in Europe. The primary purpose of Bseiso's visit to Paris was to discuss with French police arrangements for the security of PLO members in that country. Assassination After contacts with the German intelligence agency, Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV), in Bonn in early June, Bseiso purchased a Jeep Renegade, which he had arranged to be imported from the United States to Germany, and drove it to Paris where he booked at the last moment into the Hôtel Méridien Montparnasse, which caused the Caesarea assassination squad tailing him to make some rapid retouches to their plan. Bseiso realized he was being tracked after noticing a suspicious figure in his hotel lobby and requested protection from the French, who replied that none was available until the following morning. He had arranged an