John K. Cooley
Encyclopedia
John Kent Cooley was an American journalist and author who specialized in terrorism
and the Middle East
. Based in Athens
, he worked as a radio and off-air television correspondent for ABC News
and was a long-time contributing editor to the Christian Science Monitor.
Cooley was one of only a handful of Western journalists widely regarded and trusted in the Middle East as an expert on the area's history and politics. He interviewed several of the region's heads of state and was personally acquainted with the senior leadership of the PLO
. His many awards include the Council on Foreign Relations
' Fellowship for American Foreign Correspondents, and the coveted George Polk Award for distinguished career achievement in international reporting. He was a key part of the ABC News
Prime Time Live team that won an Emmy in 1990 for its investigation into the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
.
, Cooley served with the U.S. Army in postwar Germany
and Austria
from 1946-7. Returning to America, he undertook his postgraduate studies at the New School University in New York
, then began his journalistic career at the New York Herald Tribune
. He lived in North Africa from 1953 to 1964, covering the Algerian War for UPI
, NBC News
and The Observer
, and in 1965 became Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor in Beirut
.
, Muammar Gadaffi
, Anwar al-Sadat, David Ben-Gurion
, and the Shah of Iran
. He interviewed Yasser Arafat
many times and was acquainted with the senior leadership of Fatah
and the other secular Palestinian groups.
Cooley and his wife Vania were among 90 foreign residents of the Intercontinental
and Philadelphia hotels in Amman
who were taken hostage in June 1970 by George Habash
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
and released after the personal intervention of King Hussein.
Cooley worked with Pierre Salinger
on the Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
.
and Pakistan
i-trained Arab
guerrillas, intercepted an al-Qaeda
communication between July 5 and August 6, 2001 deemed so important that it was relayed immediately by King Abdullah's
men to Washington
through the CIA station in the U.S. Embassy in Amman. It was also passed through an Arab intermediary to a German
intelligence agent, allegedly to make sure it reached Washington.
The communication stated that a major attack was planned for inside the U.S. and that aircraft would be used. The code name of the operation, wrote Cooley, was Al Ourus al-Kabir — "The Big Wedding."
He wrote for the Monitor.
Terrorism
Terrorism is the systematic use of terror, especially as a means of coercion. In the international community, however, terrorism has no universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition...
and the Middle East
Middle East
The Middle East is a region that encompasses Western Asia and Northern Africa. It is often used as a synonym for Near East, in opposition to Far East...
. Based in Athens
Athens
Athens , is the capital and largest city of Greece. Athens dominates the Attica region and is one of the world's oldest cities, as its recorded history spans around 3,400 years. Classical Athens was a powerful city-state...
, he worked as a radio and off-air television correspondent for ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
and was a long-time contributing editor to the Christian Science Monitor.
Cooley was one of only a handful of Western journalists widely regarded and trusted in the Middle East as an expert on the area's history and politics. He interviewed several of the region's heads of state and was personally acquainted with the senior leadership of the PLO
Palestine Liberation Organization
The Palestine Liberation Organization is a political and paramilitary organization which was created in 1964. It is recognized as the "sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people" by the United Nations and over 100 states with which it holds diplomatic relations, and has enjoyed...
. His many awards include the Council on Foreign Relations
Council on Foreign Relations
The Council on Foreign Relations is an American nonprofit nonpartisan membership organization, publisher, and think tank specializing in U.S. foreign policy and international affairs...
' Fellowship for American Foreign Correspondents, and the coveted George Polk Award for distinguished career achievement in international reporting. He was a key part of the ABC News
ABC News
ABC News is the news gathering and broadcasting division of American broadcast television network ABC, a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company...
Prime Time Live team that won an Emmy in 1990 for its investigation into the December 21, 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103 was Pan American World Airways' third daily scheduled transatlantic flight from London Heathrow Airport to New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport...
.
Background
A graduate of Dartmouth CollegeDartmouth College
Dartmouth College is a private, Ivy League university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. The institution comprises a liberal arts college, Dartmouth Medical School, Thayer School of Engineering, and the Tuck School of Business, as well as 19 graduate programs in the arts and sciences...
, Cooley served with the U.S. Army in postwar Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
and Austria
Austria
Austria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
from 1946-7. Returning to America, he undertook his postgraduate studies at the New School University in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, then began his journalistic career at the New York Herald Tribune
New York Herald Tribune
The New York Herald Tribune was a daily newspaper created in 1924 when the New York Tribune acquired the New York Herald.Other predecessors, which had earlier merged into the New York Tribune, included the original The New Yorker newsweekly , and the Whig Party's Log Cabin.The paper was home to...
. He lived in North Africa from 1953 to 1964, covering the Algerian War for UPI
United Press International
United Press International is a once-major international news agency, whose newswires, photo, news film and audio services provided news material to thousands of newspapers, magazines and radio and television stations for most of the twentieth century...
, NBC News
NBC News
NBC News is the news division of American television network NBC. It first started broadcasting in February 21, 1940. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is...
and The Observer
The Observer
The Observer is a British newspaper, published on Sundays. In the same place on the political spectrum as its daily sister paper The Guardian, which acquired it in 1993, it takes a liberal or social democratic line on most issues. It is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper.-Origins:The first issue,...
, and in 1965 became Middle East correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor in Beirut
Beirut
Beirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon, with a population ranging from 1 million to more than 2 million . Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's Mediterranean coastline, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport, and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan...
.
Middle East
A personal friend of the late King Hussein of Jordan, Cooley interviewed most of the Middle East's heads of state, including Saddam HusseinSaddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein Abd al-Majid al-Tikriti was the fifth President of Iraq, serving in this capacity from 16 July 1979 until 9 April 2003...
, Muammar Gadaffi
Muammar al-Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar Gaddafi or "September 1942" 20 October 2011), commonly known as Muammar Gaddafi or Colonel Gaddafi, was the official ruler of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then the "Brother Leader" of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011.He seized power in a...
, Anwar al-Sadat, David Ben-Gurion
David Ben-Gurion
' was the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946...
, and the Shah of Iran
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi
Mohammad Rezā Shāh Pahlavi, Shah of Iran, Shah of Persia , ruled Iran from 16 September 1941 until his overthrow by the Iranian Revolution on 11 February 1979...
. He interviewed Yasser Arafat
Yasser Arafat
Mohammed Yasser Abdel Rahman Abdel Raouf Arafat al-Qudwa al-Husseini , popularly known as Yasser Arafat or by his kunya Abu Ammar , was a Palestinian leader and a Laureate of the Nobel Prize. He was Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization , President of the Palestinian National Authority...
many times and was acquainted with the senior leadership of Fatah
Fatah
Fataḥ is a major Palestinian political party and the largest faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization , a multi-party confederation. In Palestinian politics it is on the left-wing of the spectrum; it is mainly nationalist, although not predominantly socialist. Its official goals are found...
and the other secular Palestinian groups.
Cooley and his wife Vania were among 90 foreign residents of the Intercontinental
Intercontinental
Intercontinental may refer to:* anything spanning several continents* Intercontinental ballistic missile* the InterContinental hotel chain* InterContinental Hotels Group* Intercontinental Cup * Intercontinental Championship...
and Philadelphia hotels in Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...
who were taken hostage in June 1970 by George Habash
George Habash
George Habash also known by his laqab "al-Hakim" was a Palestinian nationalist. Habash, a Palestinian Christian, founded the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which pioneered the hijacking of airplanes as a Middle East militant tactic...
of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine is a Palestinian Marxist-Leninist organisation founded in 1967. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation Organization , the largest being Fatah...
and released after the personal intervention of King Hussein.
Cooley worked with Pierre Salinger
Pierre Salinger
Pierre Emil George Salinger was a White House Press Secretary to U.S. Presidents John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson...
on the Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
Investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
The investigation into the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 began at 19:03 on December 21, 1988 when Pan Am Flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. The perpetrators had intended the plane to crash into the sea, destroying any traceable evidence, but the late departure...
.
September 11, 2001 attacks
Cooley wrote in the Christian Science Monitor on May 23, 2002 that Jordan's General Intelligence Division (GID), which since the early 1990s has been tracking CIACentral Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...
and Pakistan
Pakistan
Pakistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan is a sovereign state in South Asia. It has a coastline along the Arabian Sea and the Gulf of Oman in the south and is bordered by Afghanistan and Iran in the west, India in the east and China in the far northeast. In the north, Tajikistan...
i-trained Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
guerrillas, intercepted an al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda
Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...
communication between July 5 and August 6, 2001 deemed so important that it was relayed immediately by King Abdullah's
Abdullah II of Jordan
Abdullah II ibn al-Hussein is the reigning King of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. He ascended the throne on 7 February 1999 after the death of his father King Hussein. King Abdullah, whose mother is Princess Muna al-Hussein, is a member of the Hashemite family...
men to Washington
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
through the CIA station in the U.S. Embassy in Amman. It was also passed through an Arab intermediary to a German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
intelligence agent, allegedly to make sure it reached Washington.
The communication stated that a major attack was planned for inside the U.S. and that aircraft would be used. The code name of the operation, wrote Cooley, was Al Ourus al-Kabir — "The Big Wedding."
He wrote for the Monitor.
Books and articles by John K. Cooley
- Baal, Christ, and Mohammed: Religion and revolution in North Africa, Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1965
- Green March Black September: The Story of the Palestinian Arabs, Frank Cass & Co., 1973, ISBN 0-7146-2987-1
- Libyan Sandstorm: The Complete Account of Qaddafi's Revolution, Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1982, ISBN 0-03-060414-1
- Payback: America's Long War in the Middle East, Brassey's, 1991, ISBN 0-08-040564-9
- Unholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International TerrorismUnholy WarsUnholy Wars: Afghanistan, America and International Terrorism is a book by John K. Cooley, a news correspondent. The book presents a systematic account of U.S...
, 1999, Pluto Press, ISBN 0-7453-1917-3 - With Said, EdwardEdward SaidEdward Wadie Saïd was a Palestinian-American literary theorist and advocate for Palestinian rights. He was University Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and a founding figure in postcolonialism...
, CIA et Jihad, 1950-2001: Contre l'URSS, une disastreuse alliance, Autrement, 2002, ISBN 2-7467-0188-X - An Alliance against Babylon: The U.S., Israel and Iraq, Pluto Press, 2005, ISBN 0-7453-2282-4
- How Hate Replaced Hope Cooley's response to 9/11, Christian Science Monitor, September 27, 2001
- Other unheeded warnings before 9/11?, Christian Science Monitor, May 23, 2002