Final_Judgment

452 Retribution? [355]
returned from China and won Senate confirmation, argued in his testimony
that the balance of power in the Middle East was shifting in Israel's favor.
His testimony, which disputed figures offered by Israeli officials, was widely
seen as having damaged the administration's own pending request before the
Congress for $1.5 billion in military aid for Israel during that fiscal year.
A SERIOUS SETBACK
"Israel's cause in the CIA bureaucracy, of course, had suffered a serious
setback earlier that year when Colby fired Angleton . . . [whose] strong
stance against the Soviets led him to believe that American national
interests demanded a strong Israel in the Middle East to counter increasing
Soviet gains . . . [and as a consequence] . . . Colby's controversial
testimony against Israel was the further expression of the same attitudes that
had drawn Angleton from the CIA.
"Washington correspondent Daniel Schorr, working in 1975 for CBS,
reported that there was a strong pro-Arab faction in the CIA and only a
small pro-Israel faction, and he said this pro-Arab group strongly influenced
decisions . . . [as a result that Secretary of State Henry Kissinger attempted
to] weaken Colby's arguments on the Middle East arms balance" 902 citing
previous errors in CIA assessments relating to the Middle East that were
perceived to be "pro-Arab" in their stance.
So it was that William Colby himself was ultimately fired from the
CIA, having run afoul of Israel and its lobby in Washington. Thus, it
should be no surprise for readers to learn that shortly before his "accidental"
death, Colby had entered into negotiations to begin high-level consulting
work for Arab interests—an interesting little detail that seems to have been
forgotten in much of the speculation surrounding Colby's death.
COLBY AND THE ARABS
In the spring of 1996, Colby contacted a veteran journalist whom he
knew to be friendly to top Arab diplomatic, military and intelligence
officials and requested that the journalist arrange for Colby to meet with a
certain high-level Arab officia1. 903 The first meeting was held at the
exclusive (and infamous) Watergate Hotel in Washington, D.C.
(The author of Final Judgment learned of Colby's meeting with the
Arab official after Colby's initial disappearance but before Colby's dead
body surfaced on May 5, 1996. The author's source for the information was
the very journalist who had arranged the meeting.)
According to a former federal security administrator who attended one of
the meetings, Colby and his Arab associate "had shared concerns. Both men
knew that their respective governments were being infiltrated and
manipulated by Israeli agents. Both of them had long fought this trend." 904
Following these meetings, Colby agreed to go to work as a confidential
advisor to Arab interests. One can only imagine Israel's reaction to this