Editing Ali Hassan Salameh (section)

== Biography ==
Salameh was born in the Palestinian town of [[Qula]], near the city of [[Jaffa]], to a wealthy family on 1 April 1941.<ref name="book1">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TGAEDgAAQBAJ&pg=PT83|script-title=ar:موسوعة المصطلحات والمفاهيم الفلسطينية|date=1 January 2011|publisher=دار الجليل للنشر والدراسات والأبحاث الفلسطينية |trans-title=Encyclopedia of Palestinian Terms and Concepts |language=ar |page=83}}</ref> He was the son of Shaykh [[Hasan Salama|Hassan Salameh]], who was killed in action by the [[Israel Defense Forces|Israeli army]] during the [[1948 Palestine war]] near [[Lydda]]. Ali Salameh was educated in [[Germany]] and is thought to have received his military training in [[Cairo]] and [[Moscow]].<ref name="book1"/>

He was known for flaunting his wealth, being surrounded by women and driving sports cars, and having popular appeal among [[Palestinian people|Palestinian]] young men; his nickname underlined his popularity—the "Red Prince" ({{Langx|ar|الأمير الاحمر}}). He served as the security chief of [[Fatah]].<ref name=abaan>{{cite news|title=Other Voices: Time for Arafat to retire|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-478849311.html|access-date=3 October 2013|newspaper=Arab American News|date=27 March 1998|first=Ali |last=Baghdadi|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131011162738/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-478849311.html|archive-date=11 October 2013|url-status=dead|via=Highbeam}}</ref> After the [[Munich massacre]] during the 1972 [[Olympic Games]], he was hunted by the Israeli [[Mossad]] during its [[Mossad assassinations following the Munich massacre|assassination campaign]]. In 1973, Mossad agents killed an innocent [[Morocco|Moroccan]] waiter, [[Ahmed Bouchiki]], in what became known as the [[Lillehammer affair]] in Norway, mistaking Bouchiki for Salameh, and resulting in the arrest of some of the Israeli agents.<ref>{{cite news |date=2013-07-22 |title=Witness History: The Lillehammer Hit |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01c4qfs |newspaper=[[BBC World Service]] |access-date=20 June 2024}}</ref>

As a result of the failure in Lillehammer and his alleged CIA protection, Salameh felt relatively safe. Having lived under cover in various parts of the Middle East and Europe, in 1978, he married [[Georgina Rizk]], a [[Lebanese people|Lebanese]] celebrity who had been [[Miss Universe]] seven years earlier. The couple spent their honeymoon in [[Hawaii]] and then stayed at [[Disneyland]] in [[California]].<ref name=CBS/> When Rizk became pregnant, she returned to her flat in [[Beirut]] where Salameh also rented a separate apartment. Rizk was six months pregnant at the time of his death.<ref name=google7100>{{cite news|title=How Mossad got the Red Prince|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1946&dat=19790201&id=3pQuAAAAIBAJ&pg=7100,5559702|access-date=20 June 2024|newspaper=The Montreal Gazette |date=1 February 1979}}</ref> Their son Ali Salameh is a political science graduate who studied in Canada.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.voy.com/29828/1589.html |title=Ali Salamah, Georgina Rizk's son got married in Cairo, Egypt |access-date=4 December 2016 |archive-date=4 December 2016 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20161204193849/http://www.voy.com/29828/1589.html |url-status=live }}</ref> By a prior marriage he was a grandson-in-law of [[Mohammad Amin al-Husayni]]. He had two sons from his first marriage to Um Hassan.<ref name=google7100/><ref name=Reeve>{{cite book|first=Simon |last=Reeve|title=One Day in September: The Full Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and the Israeli Revenge Operation "Wrath of God"|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BcAsBHZ4DLwC&pg=PA189|year=2000|publisher=Arcade Publishing|isbn=978-1-55970-547-9|page=189}}</ref>

Salameh served as the key bridge between the [[Palestine Liberation Organisation]] (PLO) and the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] (CIA) from 1970 until his death after being recruited as a CIA asset by [[Robert Ames (CIA official)|Robert Ames]]. The PLO, at the request of the US, had undertaken steps to help ensure the security of both the US Embassy—Salameh responded by posting a PLO guard unit there<ref name=Bergman>{{cite book |author-link=Ronen Bergman |first=Ronen |last=Bergman |title=[[Rise and Kill First]] |publisher=[[Random House]] |date=2018 |pages=215–224}}</ref>—and, more generally, American citizens resident in Lebanon. The contacts later developed more extensively as the PLO offered its intelligence assistance in regard to larger regional issues.<ref name="Khalidi2020" >{{cite book |author-link=Rashid Khalidi |first=Rashid |last=Khalidi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xXlwDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT88 |title=The Hundred Years' War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017 |publisher=[[Metropolitan Books]] |date=2020 |isbn=978-1-627-79854-9 |page=88}}</ref><ref name="bbc_hunt"/><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34478-2001Sep14?language=printer|title=Penetrating Terrorist Networks|first=David |last=Ignatius|date=16 September 2001|newspaper=The Washington Post|page=B07|access-date=24 August 2017|archive-date=4 June 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110604225635/http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A34478-2001Sep14?language=printer|url-status=dead}}</ref> The US had undertaken with Israel to avoid contacts with the PLO, but US security interests under [[Gerald Ford]], on the advice of [[Henry Kissinger]], enabled an unofficial relationship which, when discovered by Israel, deeply disturbed Israeli officials.  When asked by the Israelis, US officials denied the relationship.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041112/news_lz1e12ignatiu.html|title=In the end, CIA-PLO links weren't helpful|first=David |last=Ignatius|date=12 November 2004|work=[[U-T San Diego]] |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20121015131618/http://www.utsandiego.com/uniontrib/20041112/news_lz1e12ignatiu.html |archive-date=15 October 2012}}</ref> The desire to disrupt the channels between the US and the PLO was one of the motivations behind his assassination.<ref name="Khalidi2020" />

Salameh received dozens of CIA alerts of the Mossad's intention to assassinate him. The CIA also provided him with encrypted communications equipment and considered sending him an armored car. He was also warned by the CIA that his practice of driving around Beirut in convoys of vehicles carrying bodyguards left him vulnerable to an Israeli assassination.<ref name=Bergman/>