Arafat & the Original 'October Surprise'  By Morgan Strong
November 2, 2004  A top aide to Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat
has dropped a new clue about the original October Surprise
mystery of 1980: the name of the Republican operative who sought
the Palestine Liberation Organizations help to block President
Jimmy Carters negotiations to free 52 Americans then being held
hostage in Iran.  Longtime Arafat confidant Bassam Abu Sharif
said that in mid-1980, he met in Paris with John Shaheen, a
friend to both Ronald Reagan and Reagans campaign chief,
William J. Casey. Abu Sharif told me that Shaheen, a former U.S.
intelligence officer of Lebanese origin, extended a Republican
offer of improved U.S. relations with the PLO if the Arafat-led
organization would assist in persuading the Iranians to delay
the hostage release until after the November 1980 elections.
Shaheen, who died in 1985, has long been a central figure in the
so-called "October Surprise" case, allegations that Republicans
sabotaged Carters ho