Informed Sources

* The Other Secret Middle East Peace Talks

Jerusalem -- The world was stunned when the P.L.O. and Israel announced that secret talks in Oslo had produced a peace deal; now Knesset member Abdul-Wahab Darawshe, head of the Arab Democratic Party, says similar clandestine talks are under way in Europe between Israel and Syria. Previously, Israeli officials had denied that such talks were ongoing (while acknowledging they wouldn't confirm them even if they were taking place). But Darawshe says that the negotiations are real, and even include the Lebanese. "The participants believe that by the end of the year, the talks will result in agreements," he says.

Only Too Happy to Help

Washington -- When MOHAMMED FARRAH AIDID's top aide Osman Hassan Ali was arrested by U.S. troops last month, he had a letter in his pocket from the Toronto Star's Paul Watson and journalists from three prestigious London papers, the Times' Sam Kiley, the Guardian's Mark Huband and the Daily Telegraph's Scott Peterson, begging Ali for an interview with Aidid. The sympathetic letter read in part, "Now is the time for the General to speak to us and make his point to the Media ... the timing for now is perfect -- it would allow General Aidid to take the political initiative -- he already has the military initiative."

Marine Spy Eyes Freedom

Washington -- CLAYTON LONETREE, the former Marine sentenced to 30 years in jail in 1987 for spying for the Soviets, may soon be a free man. Lonetree, whose sentence had already been reduced to 25 years, is up for resentencing again next month, and the betting is that he'll be released from prison shortly thereafter.