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 Hussein, 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.
Read more about this topic: John K. Cooley
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