Word: palestinians
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Middle East, where too much publicity about what the agency does can get a spy killed. Over nine days of grueling negotiations at Wye, however, Tenet and a small group of agency operatives became the key diplomats who hammered out the most contentious part of the interim accord: the Palestinians' promise to crack down on terror- ists so Israel would withdraw from more West Bank land. Tenet, said Bill Clinton, "had an unusual, almost unprecedented role to play because of the security considerations." His spies are venturing into uncharted waters as well. The CIA will monitor the Israeli and Palestinian...
...Thursday morning, Clinton climbed from his helicopter and told aides, "It's now or never." With agreement on the land-for-security swap in hand, the emotional issues of returning Palestinian prisoners and revising the P.L.O. charter calling for Israel's destruction became the focus. At the end of lunch, Arafat and Netanyahu sat down without Clinton and slogged through details for two hours. When they got testy, Clinton stepped back...
...they got back to work. No one slept. The Israelis agreed to a phased release of some Palestinian prisoners. The Palestinians agreed to rethink the language of their charter but couldn't see a way to amend it. Once before, Arafat had summoned the Palestine National Council, many of whose members loathe the peace process, to change the charter. Reconvening them would be an embarrassment--and a danger. Clinton suggested a way out: he would fly to Gaza to speak to the council when it met. At dawn Friday, Arafat, Netanyahu and Clinton shook on a deal...
...outraged at the deal but have nowhere else to go. The Prime Minister seemed to be grasping for a big chunk of the center, whose support depends on continued progress with Arafat. Another factor, the Americans at Wye observed, was how well the next generation of Israeli and Palestinian officials got along. While the leaders sometimes screamed and raged, the younger ones, who know one another from joint service on technical committees, called one another by their first names, joked around and never raised their voices...
Never before has the agency been so involved or so visible in a negotiating assignment. The process began in 1996 when Israeli-Palestinian talks broke down and the CIA station chief in Tel Aviv began playing host at weekly meetings between officials from both sides to share intelligence on terrorists. Tenet has since flown four times to Israel and the Palestinian territories, and the CIA has set up a satellite office in the Gaza Strip, along with "operations rooms" in Jericho, Hebron, Ramallah and Nablus, to help in communications with Arafat's agents...