October 15, 2003 to October 15, 2007

Today is the fourth anniversary of an unresolved event in Gaza that is emblematic of U.S. policy with respect to the Palestinians.

On October 15, 2003, a U.S. embassy convoy was on a visit to Gaza to interview Palestinian candidates for Fulbright scholarship programs in the United States.   The convoy consisted of three fully armored but unmarked Suburbans.  The first vehicle was occupied by the diplomats on the interview mission.  The second vehicle was occupied by American contract protective security specialists:  John Branchizio (36), John Linde (30), and Mark Parsons (31).  The third vehicle had agents of the Diplomatic Security Service on a “route and area familiarization” trip.

Just after the convoy entered the Gaza Strip from the Erez checkpoint, an explosion totally destroyed the second vehicle in the motorcade, killing the three specialists.  A U.S. embassy document states that the device appeared to have been “placed under the road and remotely detonated as the vehicles passed.”

On January 9, 2004, Deputy Chief of Mission Richard LeBaron went to Gaza to meet with Palestinian Authority officials.  He told them that “we are not satisfied that enough is being done to solve this crime” and emphasized that “we know that there is not a huge number of people who have the proven capability to carry out an attack like that executed against our motorcade.”  He told them the U.S. would soon offer a $5 million reward for information regarding the murders, and that without the arrest and conviction of those responsible the U.S. could not continue its full range of assistance to the Palestinian people.

Here is what happened next, as reported by Matthew Levitt on October 18, 2004 in the Baltimore Sun:

A hastily arranged military trial for three PRC members – convened less than 48 hours after Washington offered up to a $5 million reward for information on the attack – charged the three not with murder or attempted murder but with manslaughter in connection with possessing explosive devices.  The trial was convened on only a few hours’ notice; the defendants had no attorneys, and neither their families nor the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv were informed in advance.

Palestinian judges delayed the trial a month so defense attorneys could be present and the case moved to a civilian court.  When the trial convened, the court announced that the defendants would be released since “no evidence was offered against” them.  They remained in jail despite the judge’s order, however, pending the approval of their release by Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.  That approval never came, leading fellow PRC members to storm the jail the next month and free the suspects.

Following her visit to Israel and the West Bank on February 7, 2005, Secretary of State Rice announced that she had been “assured by President Abbas of the Palestinian Authority’s intention to bring to justice those who murdered three American personnel in the Gaza in 2003.”

As of today — nearly three years after Abbas made that personal assurance to Rice — the Palestinian terrorists who killed John Branchizio, Mark Parsons, and John Linde have still not been brought to justice.  Not a single Palestinian terrorist group has been dismantled by Abbas.  No terrorist infrastructure has been dismantled. 

Today, Secretary Rice will meet with Abbas in Ramallah, part of her ongoing efforts to lay a foundation for (in the words of the State Department announcement of her trip) “serious negotiations on the establishment of a Palestinian state as soon as possible.” The Palestinians have been given a pass on their Phase I and II obligations that were supposed to precede such negotiations, as well as their commitment to identify and dismantle the people and group that attacked an American convoy with an IED four years ago.

It is doubtful that the case of John Branchizio, Mark Parsons, and John Linde is even on Rice’s agenda.

In the December 2004 issue of the Foreign Service Journal, one of the U.S. diplomats in the first vehicle, William Roebuck, published a lengthy poem entitled “On the Road to Gaza,” from which the following is an excerpt:

Like so many trips before, some completed and reported on,

With this or that minister or snaggle-toothed PA security officer;

Many others aborted over obviously idle security concerns.

This one proceeded two miles into sunny Gaza,

Until we in the lead car were suddenly showered with dark dust

And strange debris and heard the explosion . . .

A temple of sorts had come tumbling down,

Crashing on our assumptions of safety and normality and

Our sense of importance that we were among friends, that we were spreading good will

And processing peace . . .

Several bloggers have done extraordinary work on this story, adding many important details not covered above, including:  Boker tov, Boulder! (start here, and then here here here here here here here and here.), Daled Amos, and Israel Matzav.   H.R. 2293, which would require the Secretary of State to submit to Congress a report on the case, is pending in Congress.

On December 28, 2006, I filed a Freedom of Information request with the State Department, asking for all documents relating to murder of Branchizio, Mark Parsons and John Linde, noting that the issue was of current importance since it bears on U.S. relations with the Palestinian Authority.  I sent two follow-up letters and placed a phone call.  By letter dated July 10, 2007, the State Department provided me with immaterial information from the Central Foreign Policy Records (the principal record system of the State Department) and told me that their search of records in the American Embassy in Tel Aviv is "continuing."

UPDATE: Soccer Dad and Israel Matzav also have posted on this subject today.

UPDATE: Anne Lieberman forwarded a copy of a letter that Congressman Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-N.J.) sent on September 6, 2007 to Secretary of State Rice, urging her to “bring the full weight of the Department of State to bear in this case.” As of today, no response had been sent by the State Department. One of Congressman Pascrell’s staff persons contacted the State Department today regarding the letter, and the Department stated there would be a response soon. We’ll see.

UPDATE 10-23-07: Still no word from the State Department. Carl in Jerusalem urges the blogosphere to get on this.