Abu Nidal..Roast in Hell [Archive] - The WoodenBoat Forum

Donn

08-19-2002, 07:10 AM

Palestinian Guerrilla Leader Dead in Baghdad-Source
Mon Aug 19, 6:24 AM ET

RAMALLAH, West Bank (Reuters) - Abu Nidal, a Palestinian guerrilla leader and long-time foe of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat ( news - web sites), was found dead from gunshot wounds in his Baghdad home, senior Palestinian sources said on Monday.

Abu Nidal, 65, had a reputation as one of the most ruthless Palestinian guerrilla commanders.

The Palestinian sources confirmed a report in the Palestinian Al-Ayyam newspaper which said on Monday Abu Nidal's death was apparently a suicide and occurred three days ago.

The militant leader, Sabri al-Bana, was widely known by his nom de guerre Abu Nidal as the head of the Fatah ( news - web sites)-The Revolutionary Council group that broke with the Palestine Liberation Organization ( news - web sites) in 1974, saying it was too moderate.

His group was considered responsible for dozens of attacks in 20 countries against Middle Eastern, European and U.S. targets which killed hundreds of people, including PLO officials.

He was sentenced to death in absentia by a Fatah military court. In 1982, his group tried to assassinate Israel's ambassador to Britain, setting off Israel's invasion of Lebanon to root out Palestinian guerrilla groups.

Scott Rosen

08-20-2002, 07:16 PM

The killing of Abu Nidal falls under the heading of "Too little, Too late." Or "justice delayed is justice denied." The following excerpts are from Kenneth Timmerman's piece in today's WSJ.

"For much of the 1970s and '80s, Nidal's Palestinian Revolutionary Council presented itself as an alternative to Yasser Arafat, whom Nidal accused of being too willing to compromise with Israel. At the urging of several Arab dictators (not just Saddam), Nidal launched his terrorists against Palestinian "moderates" (none of whom was close to Arafat) who were holding secret discussions with Israeli leftists in an effort to lay the groundwork for peace talks between Israel and the PLO. His operatives murdered Ezzedine Kalak in Paris, Said Hamami in London in 1978, and Issam Sartawi in Portugal in 1983.

He attacked Jewish schoolchildren in Antwerp in 1980, and a synagogue in Vienna in 1981. On June 2, 1982, an Abu Nidal hit team shot Israeli Ambassador Shlomo Argov in the head as he was leaving a dinner at London's Dorchester Hotel.

On Sept. 8, 1982, Abu Nidal struck again in Paris. The machine-gun attack on diners at the Jo Goldenberg restaurant on the rue de Rosiers left six persons dead and 22 wounded. For the past 20 years, French counter-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguière has attempted to bring Abu Nidal to justice for this attack, and told me not long ago he would pursue him "to the ends of the earth." Abu Nidal's planet just ended.

In December 1985, commandos from his group machine-gunned the El Al ticket counter at the Vienna airport, killing three persons, while a more successful assault on the Rome airport killed 15 and wounded 100. In 1986, Nidal struck the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and hijacked Pan Am flight 73 in Karachi.

Over the years, Israel's Mossad has attempted to infiltrate Abu Nidal's group, and in 1988 engaged in a shootout with an Abu Nidal hit squad on board the Greek day-excursion ship, the City of Poros. According to information I gathered at the time from a variety of intelligence sources, two Mossad teams boarded the ship in Piraeus at the same time as the Abu Nidal hit squad, while a third Mossad team sabotaged a car that was supposed to bring additional explosives onto the ship. When one of the Abu Nidal operatives on the ship saw a television report on the car explosion he pulled out a Beretta machine-pistol and began to spray passengers out on the sun deck. Before the Mossad teams could neutralize the killers, they had murdered nine passengers and wounded 98 others.

So who killed Abu Nidal? If it was the Israelis, then fasten your seat belts, because it shows that Israel's Mossad is back after a series of stunning reverses in recent years and has demonstrated a capability of operating in Baghdad, one of the most hostile environments on earth. You-know-who is next on the list.
In reality, there are few other intelligence services or terrorist groups who have demonstrated such a capability. The only others are Iran's Ministry of Information and Security (MOIS), which regularly assassinates Iranian dissidents in Baghdad and elsewhere in Iraq, and their prime target, the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran, also known as the Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK). The MEK, run by Iranian dissident Massoud Rajavi, is armed and equipped by Saddam Hussein. Neither the Iranians nor the MEK would appear to have a motive in eliminating Abu Nidal.

That leaves the Iraqi opposition, eager perhaps to impress upon its reluctant suitors at the CIA that it maintains active intelligence networks in Baghdad capable of operating under the moustaches of Saddam Hussein's fearsome and effective intelligence agencies.

Of course, as my wife says, it might simply have been a jealous husband who offed the aging terrorist. She may be right. One thing's for certain, murderers like Abu Nidal usually don't have the courage to kill themselves."