Looks like it.
MARCH 2005 : (ALISTAIR CROOKE ORGANIZES ANOTHER SECRET MEETING WITH REPRESENTATIVES OF HAMAS, HEZBOLLAH, MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD, JAMAAT-AL-ISLAMY AND "SOME AMERICANS"---- SEE DPTY HAMAS LEADER MUSA ABU MARZOUK, FREDERIC HOF {see Armitage Associates & GEORGE MITCHELL 2001 COMISSION on the Palestinian intifada}, BOBBY MULLER {see VVAF [INDOCHINA PROJECT]}) the Sunday Times [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-1543330,00.html] reported that Mr Crooke had organised another secret meeting, this time between Hamas, Hezbollah, Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, Pakistan’s Jamiat-i-Islami and -- wait for it -- the Americans.
------------- "The crooked response to terror," April 19, 2005, http://www.melaniephillips.com/diary/archives/001143.html as retrieved on Jan 21, 2007 10:30:50 GMT.
Americans? Who would participate in this?
IN an underground car park in the centre of Beirut, a bald man emerged from his Mercedes, surrounded by a phalanx of armed bodyguards.Hmm . Frederic Hof & Bobby Muller... who are they?
As deputy leader of Hamas, the Palestinian militant group, Musa Abu Marzouk is a potential target for assassination by Israel. Yet there to greet him last week was Alistair Crooke, a veteran of nearly 30 years with MI6 and until recently a European Union negotiator with the Palestinians.
As they made their way upstairs, they were joined by several Americans, some of them former members of the CIA and others with links to the US administration. They had gathered in the Lebanese capital for an initiative launched by Crooke: the first talks for more than 10 years between senior Americans and radical groups denounced as terrorists by Washington.
....Among the US delegates was Frederic Hof, staff director of a 2001 commission on the Palestinian intifada led by George Mitchell, a former senator. They also included Bobby Muller, a Vietnam veteran and joint winner of the 1997 Nobel peace prize for his campaign against landmines.
Israel was not slow to condemn the meeting, accusing the American delegates of “extreme naivety” in imagining that they could draw groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah on to a peaceful path. “It does no good to appease or negotiate with such terrorists,” a government spokesman said.
Crooke said the Americans were there to listen and not to give advice, and emphasised that they did not represent “anyone but themselves”. The results of the two-day meeting would be passed to the Bush administration, he said. ...
------------- "Ex-MI6 man starts US-Hamas talks," by Stephen Grey in Beirut, From The Sunday Times [UK] March 27, 2005 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article438334.ece
* Frederic Hof, a partner in Armitage Associates L.C., left government in 1993 as a member of the Senior Executive Service of the United States. ... www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/67line.htmland
* Bobby Muller is the President of the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation. ... Raised in a New York City suburb, Bobby Muller's commission with the US ... www.theglobalist.com/DBWeb/AuthorBiography.aspx?AuthorId=426 - 61k -
Please see my post # 20. Mitchell’s family background seems to have had a lot of influence on his thinking and activities in the Middle East. Didn’t know about the link to obvious terrorist groups, though. Good post.
Thanks for updating this thread piasa.
BO is like BJ — they both give one headaches and indigestion.