Abu Nidal 73331 216118577 2008-05-31T04:11:09Z 72.136.11.140 [[Image:AbuNidal3.gif|right|thumb|180px|Abu Nidal in 1976 in a photograph released by the [[Israeli Defense Forces]], one of only a handful of photographs of him known to exist.]] '''Abu Nidal''' ([[Arabic language|Arabic]]: أبو نضال) May 1937<ref>''The Guardian'' has written that he was born in 1939; ''The Times'' says 1940; the Truman Institute of the [[Hebrew University of Jerusalem]] says 1934. Dr. [[Issam Sartawi]] told [[Yossi Melman]] it was 1936. Melman concludes it was 1937.</ref>&ndash;[[August 16]], [[2002]]), born '''Sabri Khalil al-Banna''',<ref>According to [[Yossi Melman]], there is some disagreement about his name. The ''Daily Telegraph'' has written that he was Hasan Sabri al-Banna; the ''Middle East International'' has said he was Muhammad Sabri al-Banna. According to Stewart Steven, who has written about the [[Mossad]], he was Sabri Khalil al-Banna or Mazan Sabri al-Banna. The name Khalil comes from his father; it is an Arab tradition that the father's name be added to the son's. Al-Banna means "the builder." ([[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 44-45.) He was also known as Amin al-Sirr and Sabri Khalil Abd Al Qadir.</ref> (Arabic: صبري خليل البنا) was a [[Palestinian]] political leader, mercenary, and the founder of Fatah - The Revolutionary Council (Arabic: فتح المجلس الثوري), more commonly known as the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO).<ref>The organization used different names for attacks on different countries. It called itself Fatah &mdash; the Revolutionary Council; the Palestinian National Liberation Movement; Black June; Black September; The Revolutionary Arab Brigades; The Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims; The Egyptian Revolution; Revolutionary Egypt; Al-Asifa (The Storm), a name also used by Fatah; Al-Iqab (The Punishment); and The Arab Nationalist Youth Organization. It is most commonly referred to as the Abu Nidal Organization or Abu Nidal group. ([[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]] 1986, p. 213.)</ref> At the height of his power in the 1970s and 1980s, Abu Nidal, or "father of the struggle," <ref name=Melman53>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 53.</ref> was widely regarded as the world's most dangerous terrorist leader.<ref>See, for example: *MacAskill, Ewen & Nelsson, Richard. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/israel/Story/0,2763,777566,00.html "Mystery death of Abu Nidal, once the world's most wanted terrorist"], ''The Guardian'', August 20, 2002. *[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 4. *Davison, Phil & Nundy, Julian. "Terrorist groups on call to aid Baghdad's global war," ''The Independent'', September 30, 1990. *McLaughlin, Abraham. [http://www.csmonitor.com/2001/1005/p2s1-usju.html "A matter of ethics for cloak-and-dagger set"], ''The Christian Science Monitor'', October 5, 2001. *[http://www.cfr.org/publication/9153/ "Abu Nidal Organization"], Council on Foreign Relations, October 2005. *[http://europa.eu.int/eur-lex/lex/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2005/l_340/l_34020051223en00640066.pdf "Council Decision"], Council of the European Union, December 21, 2005.</ref> Part of the secular, left-wing, Palestinian [[Rejectionist Front|rejectionist front]], so-called because they reject proposals for a peaceful settlement with Israel, the ANO was formed after a split in 1974 between Abu Nidal and [[Yasser Arafat]]'s [[Fatah]] faction within the [[Palestine Liberation Organization]] (PLO). Setting himself up as a freelance contractor, Abu Nidal is believed to have ordered attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring over 900 people.<ref name=StateDeptprofile> [http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/abu.htm "Abu Nidal Organization"], ''Country Reports on Terrorism, 2004. [[United States Department of State]], 2005.</ref> The group's most notorious attacks were on the [[El Al]] ticket counters at [[Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks|Rome and Vienna]] airports in December 1985, when Arab gunmen doped on [[amphetamine]]s opened fire on passengers in simultaneous shootings, killing 18 and wounding 120. [[Patrick Seale]], Abu Nidal's biographer, wrote of the attacks that their "random cruelty marked them as typical Abu Nidal operations."<ref name=Seale243>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 243.</ref> Abu Nidal died of between one and four gunshot wounds in Baghdad in August 2002, believed by Palestinian sources to have been killed on the orders of [[Saddam Hussein]],<ref name=Whitaker22>Whitaker, Brian. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,778571,00.html "Mystery of Abu Nidal's death deepens"], ''[[The Guardian]]'', August 22, 2002.</ref> but said by the Iraqi government to have committed suicide.<ref name=BBC19>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2203004.stm "Abu Nidal 'found dead'"], BBC News, August 19, 2002.</ref> ''The Guardian'' wrote on the news of his death: "He was the [[Patriotism|patriot]] turned [[Antisocial personality disorder|psychopath]]. He served only ... the warped personal drives that pushed him into hideous crime. He was the ultimate mercenary."<ref name=Hirst20>Hirst, David. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4484907-103684,00.html "Abu Nidal"], ''The Guardian'', August 20, 2002.</ref> ==Early life== [[Image:Jaffa.JPG|right|thumb|350px|Abu Nidal was born in the port of [[Jaffa, Israel|Jaffa]], where he was raised in a large stone house near the beach. The building is now an Israeli military courthouse.]] Abu Nidal was born in May 1937 in the port of [[Jaffa, Israel|Jaffa]], now part of [[Tel Aviv]], on the [[Mediterranean]] coast of what was then the [[British Mandate of Palestine]]. His father, Hajj Khalil al-Banna, was a wealthy merchant who made his money from the 6,000 acres (24 km²) of orange groves he owned, which extended from the south of Jaffa to Majdal, today [[Ashkelon]] in Israel. He raised his large family in luxury in a three-storey stone house with a large porch overlooking the beach, now used as an Israeli military court. <ref name=Melman46>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 46.</ref> According to Abu Nidal's brother, Muhammad Khalil al-Banna, their father was the richest man in Palestine. He told journalist [[Yossi Melman]]: <blockquote>[My father] marketed about ten percent of all the citrus crops sent from Palestine to Europe &mdash; especially to England and Germany. He owned a summer house in Marseilles, France, and another house in [[İskenderun]], then in Syria and afterwards Turkey, and a number of houses in Palestine itself. Most of the time we lived in Jaffa. Our house had about twenty rooms, and we children would go down to swim in the sea. We also had stables with [[Arabian horse]]s, and one of our homes in Ashkelon even had a large swimming pool. I think we must have been the only family in Palestine with a private swimming pool. <ref name=Melman47>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 47.</ref></blockquote> Al-Banna told Melman that the family also owned orchards in Majdal, [[Yavneh]], Abu Kabir, and near the village of Tirah. The Ramat Hakovesh [[kibbutz]] contains a tract of land to this day called "the al-Banna orchard," he said. "Of course this used to belong to us. My brothers and I still preserve the documents showing our ownership of the property, even though we know full well that we and our children have no chance of getting it back. <ref name=Melman47/> {{rquote|left|'''''[Our] father was the richest man in Palestine ... The kibbutz named Ramat Hakovesh has to this day a tract of land known as "the al-Banna orchard." ... My brothers and I still preserve the documents showing our ownership of the property even though we know full well that we and our children have no chance of getting it back.''''' &mdash; Muhammad al-Banna, brother of Abu Nidal <ref name=Melman46/>}} Khalil's money meant he could afford to take several wives. According to Abu Nidal in a rare interview with ''Der Spiegel'' in 1985, his father had 13 wives, who gave birth to 16 sons and eight daughters. <ref name=SpiegelMelman>Interview with Abu Nidal, ''Der Spiegel'', 1985, cited in [[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 46.</ref> Abu Nidal's mother was the second wife, according to Abu Nidal's British biographer [[Patrick Seale]], and the eighth, according to Melman. <ref name=Melman46/> She had been one of the family's maids, a young [[Alawite]] girl just 16 years old when Khalil married her against the wishes of his family. She gave birth to Sabri, Khalil's 12th child. Because the family disapproved of the marriage, Abu Nidal was allegedly scorned from an early age by his older half-brothers and half-sisters. Khalil sent him to Collège des Frères, a French [[Roman Catholic]] mission school in the Old Jaffa quarter, the records of which show he completed the first grade, according to the school keeper, although the school administration refuses to allow journalists to view them. <ref name=Melman47/> However, when Khalil died in 1945, when Abu Nidal was seven years old, the family turned his mother out of the house. The older brothers, more devout [[Muslim]]s than the father had been, took Abu Nidal out of the mission school and enrolled him in a Muslim school in Jerusalem, now known as al-Umaria, at the time one of the most prestigious private schools in the country. He attended the school for about two years. <ref name=Melman48>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 48.</ref> Seale suggests that Abu Nidal's unhappy childhood, and the early loss of both his father and mother, explains his difficult personality, described by journalists as [[psychopath]]ic and [[Paranoia|paranoid]], and as "chaotic" by [[Abu Iyad]], the late deputy chief of Fatah. [[Issam Sartawi]], the late Palestinian heart surgeon, called him a psychopath <ref name=Melman3>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]] 1986, p.3.</ref> whose mental world was one of plots and counterplots, <ref name=Melman52>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 52.</ref> which was later reflected in his tyrannical leadership of the ANO, trusting no one, and at one point suspecting even his own wife of working for the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. <ref name=Colvin>Colvin, Marie & Murad, Sonya. "Executed", ''The Sunday Times'', August 25, 2002.</ref> ===War=== [[Image:ChaimWeizmann1948.jpg|right|frame|Abu Nidal's family had good relations with the Jewish community and used to visit [[Chaim Weizmann]], later the first [[president of Israel]], at his home in Rehovot. <ref name=Melman48/>]] When the Arabs rejected the [[November 29]], [[1947]] [[UN Partition Plan|United Nations partition plan]] &mdash; which aimed to partition Palestine into two states, one Jewish, one Arab &mdash; war broke out between the Palestinian-Arab and Jewish militias, and Jaffa found itself under siege. Life became unbearable, according to Melman, and the disruption of the citrus fruit business hit the family's income. Booby-trapped cars were exploding in the center of Jaffa and there were food shortages. The al-Banna family had had good relations with the Jewish community. Abu Nidal's brother told Melman: "My father was a close friend of Avraham Shapira, one of the founders of [[Hashomer]], the Jewish self-defense organization. He would visit [Shapira] in his home in [[Petah Tikva]], or Shapira riding his horse would visit our home in Jaffa. I also remember how we visited [[Chaim Weizmann|Dr. Weizmann]] [who became the first president of Israel] in his home in [[Rehovot]]." <ref name=Melman48/> It was war, however, and the relationships didn't help them. The family fled Jaffa and moved into their house near Majdal, intending to be away from Jaffa for only a few days, but the Jewish militias arrived in Majdal too, and they had to flee again. This time they ended up in the al-Burj refugee camp in [[Gaza]], then under the control of Egypt. There the family spent nine months living in tents, dependent on [[UNRWA]] for their weekly allowance of oil, rice, and potatoes. The experience had a powerful effect on Abu Nidal, who was used to wealth and servants, but who now found himself living in abject poverty. <ref name=Melman49>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 49.</ref> The family's skill in commerce, and the small amount of money they had managed to take with them, meant they were able to set themselves up in business again as merchants, although the orange groves had gone, now part of the new [[State of Israel]], which had declared its independence on [[May 14]], [[1948]]. They decided to move to [[Nablus]] in the [[West Bank]], then ruled by [[Jordan]], where Abu Nidal spent his teenage years. He completed elementary school and graduated from high school in 1955. Melman writes that he loved reading, particularly adventure stories, and was regarded as studious, although not particularly bright. <ref name=Melman50>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 50.</ref> Seale writes that his education was elementary and his childish handwriting a source of great embarrassment to him throughout his life. He applied to study engineering at Cairo University, but returned to Nablus after two years without a degree, although he would later describe himself as having one, part of his constant embellishment of his past, according to Melman. <ref name=Melman50/> He joined the Arab nationalist [[Ba'ath party]] when he was 18, but [[King Hussein of Jordan]] closed the party down in 1957. Abu Nidal made his way to Saudi Arabia, where in 1960 he set himself up as a painter and electrician in [[Riyadh]], according to Seale, or [[Jedda]], according to Melman, and later went on to work as a casual laborer for [[Saudi Aramco|Aramco]]. <ref name=Hudson>Hudson, Rex A. [http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/frd.html "The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?"], Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, September 1999.</ref> Abu Nidal remained very close to his mother and returned to Nablus from Saudi Arabia every year to visit her. During one of those visits in 1962, he met his future wife, Hiyam al-Bitar, whose family had also fled from Jaffa. They had a son, Nidal, and two daughters, Bisan and Na'ifa. Decades later, in the 1980s, he boasted that his daughter Bisan had no idea he was Abu Nidal. <ref name=Melman3/> ==Political life== In Saudi Arabia, he helped found a small group of young Palestinians who called themselves the Palestine Secret Organization. His political activism and vocal denunciation of Israel drew the attention of his employer, Aramco, which fired him, and then the Saudi government, which imprisoned, tortured, and expelled him as an unwelcome radical. <ref name=Hudson/> He returned to Nablus with his wife and young family, and it was around this time that he joined [[Yasser Arafat]]'s [[Fatah]] faction of the PLO, although the exact timing and circumstances are unknown. <ref name=Melman51>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 51.</ref> He worked as an odd-job man until June 1967, committed to Palestinian politics but not particularly active, until Israel won the 1967 [[Six Day War]], capturing the [[Golan Heights]], the [[West Bank]], and the [[Gaza Strip]]. The sight of Israeli tanks rolling into Nablus, after he had already been forced to flee from Jaffa because of the war, and from Saudi Arabia because of his activism, was a traumatic and pivotal experience for him, according to Melman, and his passive involvement in Palestinian politics was transformed into a deadly hatred of Israel. [[Image:Hussein of Jordan 1997.jpg|left|thumb|200px|When [[Hussein of Jordan|King Hussein]] expelled the PLO during [[Black September in Jordan|Black September]], Abu Nidal was in Iraq, leading to suspicion that he was interested only in saving his own skin.]] He moved to [[Amman]], [[Jordan]], setting up a trading company called Impex, and joining the Fatah underground, where he was asked to choose a ''[[nom de guerre]]''. He chose Abu Nidal, in part after his son, Nidal &mdash; it's a custom in the Arab world for men to call themselves "father of" (Abu), followed by their first son's name &mdash; but also because the name means "father of the struggle." <ref name=Melman53>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 53.</ref> He was described by those who knew him at the time as a tidy, well-organized leader, not a guerrilla; during skirmishes in Jordan between the ''[[fedayeen]]'' and King Hussein's troops, he stayed indoors, according to Seale, never leaving his office. Impex soon became a front for Fatah activities, serving as a meeting place for members and as a conduit for funds with which to pay them. This was to become a hallmark of Abu Nidal's business career. Companies controlled by the ANO served to make him a rich man by engaging in legitimate business deals, while acting as cover for his political violence and his multi-million-dollar arms deals, mercenary activities, and protection rackets. Seeing his talent for organization, Abu Iyad appointed him in 1968 as the Fatah representative in [[Khartoum]], [[Sudan]], then to the same position in [[Baghdad]] in July 1970, just two months before [[Black September in Jordan|Black September]], when King Hussein's army drove the ''fedayeen'' out of [[Jordan]], with the loss of between 5,000 and 10,000 Palestinian lives in just ten days. Abu Nidal's absence from Jordan during this period, where it was clear that King Hussein was about to act against the Palestinians, raised the suspicion within the movement that he intended only to save his own skin. ===Criticism of the PLO=== Just before the PLO expulsion from Jordan, and during the three years that followed it, several radical Palestinian and other Arab factions split from the PLO and began to launch their own military or terrorist attacks against Israeli military and civilian targets, as well as civilian targets overseas. These included [[George Habash]]'s [[PFLP]], [[DFLP]], [[Arab Liberation Front]], [[as-Sa'iqa]], [[Palestine Liberation Front]], at that time headed by [[Ahmed Jibril]] who went on to set up the radical [[PFLP-GC]], and [[Black September (group)|Black September]], a group of radical ''fedayeen'' associated with Arafat's Fatah, who carried out operations using Black September as a cover. Shortly after King Hussein expelled the ''fedayeen'', Abu Nidal began broadcasting criticism of the PLO over ''Voice of Palestine'', the PLO's own radio station in Iraq, accusing them of cowardice for having agreed to a ceasefire with Hussein, and during Fatah's Third Congress in Damascus in 1971, Abu Nidal emerged as the leader of a leftist alliance against Arafat. Together with Abu Daoud (one of Fatah's most ruthless commanders, who was later involved in the 1972 [[Black September (group)|Black September]] kidnapping and killing of [[Munich Massacre|11 Israeli athletes]] at the Olympic Village in [[Munich]]) and Palestinian intellectual Naji Allush, Abu Nidal called for Arafat to be overthrown as an enemy of the Palestinian people, and demanded more democracy within Fatah, as well as violent revenge against King Hussein. Seale writes that it was the last Fatah congress Abu Nidal would attend, but he had made his mark. ===First operations and expulsion from Fatah=== {{main|List of attacks attributed to Abu Nidal}} [[Image:Mahmoud abbas.jpg|right|frame|[[Mahmoud Abbas]], now president of the [[Palestinian National Authority]], flew to Iraq to reprimand Abu Nidal for seizing the Saudi Embassy. He was told by the Iraqis: "We asked him to mount it for us." <ref name=Seale92/>]] Abu Nidal's first operation took place on [[September 5]], [[1973]], when five gunmen, using the name ''Al-Iqab'' (The Punishment), seized the Saudi embassy in Paris, taking 11 hostages and threatening to blow up the building if Abu Dawud was not released from jail in Jordan, where he had been arrested in February 1973 for an attempt on King Hussein's life. <ref name=Melman69>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 69.</ref> In [[Algiers]] that same day, 56 heads of state had gathered for the 4th conference of the [[Non-Aligned Movement]] (NAM). Patrick Seale writes that Iraq's president, [[Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr]], was jealous of [[Algeria]] for hosting it, and so Abu Nidal was commissioned to sabotage the proceedings with the distraction of a high-level hostage situation. Seale writes that one of the hostage-takers later admitted that his orders had been to fly the hostages back and forth until the NAM conference had ended. After a three-day siege and the intervention of the PLO, the gunmen surrendered, though not before the Kuwaiti government had agreed to pay King Hussein $12 million in exchange for Abu Dawud, according to an interview the latter gave to Seale. <ref name=Seale92>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson 1992, p. 92.</ref> {{rquote|left|'''''Mahmoud Abbas was so angry that he stormed out of the meeting, followed by the other PLO delegates, and from that point on, the PLO regarded Abu Nidal as a mercenary'''''. &mdash; [[Patrick Seale]] <ref name=Seale92>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson 1992, p. 92.</ref>}} Although the media blamed the attack on [[Black September (group)|Black September]], a Fatah front, Melman writes that Abu Nidal had carried out the operation without the permission of [[Abu Iyad]], Arafat's deputy, who acted as the liaison between Fatah and Black September. Far from having given it the go-ahead, Abu Iyad and [[Mahmoud Abbas]] &mdash; now president of the [[Palestinian National Authority]] &mdash; flew to Iraq to reason with Abu Nidal that operations such as these harmed the movement, Abu Iyad later condemning it as "illogical adventurism." <ref name=Melman69/> According to Seale, the Iraqi government made it clear that the idea for the operation had been theirs. Abu Iyad told Seale that an Iraqi official at the meeting said: "Why are you attacking Abu Nidal? The operation was ours! We asked him to mount it for us." <ref name=Seale92/> Abbas was so angry, writes Seale, that he stormed out of the meeting, followed by the other PLO delegates, and from that point on, the PLO regarded Abu Nidal as a mercenary. <ref name=Seale92/> Two months later, just after the October 1973 [[Yom Kippur War]], during discussions about convening a peace conference in Geneva, the ANO hijacked a KLM airliner, using the name the Arab Nationalist Youth Organization. The operation was intended to send a signal to Fatah not to send representatives to any peace conference. In response, Arafat expelled Abu Nidal from Fatah in March 1974, and the rift between the two groups, and the two men, was complete. <ref name=Melman70>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 70.</ref> ==The ANO== [[Image:AbuNidal.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Abu Nidal in the early 1980s]] By all accounts, the ANO reflected Abu Nidal's [[Paranoia|paranoid]] and possibly [[Antisocial personality disorder|psychopathic]] personality, more of a mercenary group willing to act on behalf of diverse interests, than one guided by political principle.<ref>Dobson and Payne 1986.</ref> A variety of names were used as cover for different operations: :Fatah — the Revolutionary Council; the Palestinian National Liberation Movement; Black June; Black September; The Revolutionary Arab Brigades; The Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims; The Egyptian Revolution; Revolutionary Egypt; Al-Asifa (The Storm), a name also used by Fatah; Al-Iqab (The Punishment); and The Arab Nationalist Youth Organization. Abu Nidal originally chose the name Black June for the group, in order to mark his disapproval of the 1976 Syrian intervention in Lebanon in support of the [[Christianity|Christians]], but changed it to Fatah-Revolutionary Council when he switched bases from Iraq to Syria in 1981. The group is now most commonly referred to as the Abu Nidal Organization or Abu Nidal group. <ref name=Melman213>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 213.</ref> [[As`ad AbuKhalil|As'ad Abu Khalil]] writes in the ''Encyclopedia of the Palestinians'' that the group was based on terror and intimidation, with members not being allowed to leave once recruited, and everyone living under suspicion of being a double agent. The ANO's official newspaper ''Filastin al-Thawra'' regularly carried stories announcing the execution of [[traitor]]s within the movement. <ref name=AbuKhalil>[[As`ad AbuKhalil|Abu Khalil, As'ad]]. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jaffa/Jaffa/Story163.html "Biography Of Abu Nidal &mdash; Sabri al-Bana"], November 12, 2000.</ref> According to ''The Sunday Times'', Abu Nidal even came to believe that his own wife worked for the [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]]. <ref name=Colvin/> {{rquote|left|'''''According to ANO members who were able to escape, recruits were buried alive, fed through a tube forced into their mouths, then finally killed by a bullet fired down the tube. Some had their genitals placed in skillets of boiling-hot oil.''''' &mdash; [[Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge]] <ref name=Ledeen>[[Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge|Clarridge, Duane]]. ''A Spy for all Seasons: My Life in the CIA''. Scribner, 1997, cited in [[Michael Ledeen|Ledeen, Michael]]. [http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen082002.asp "Dead Terrorist in Baghdad"], ''National Review online'', August 20, 2002. </ref>}} Each new recruit was given several days to write out his entire life story by hand, including names and addresses of family members, friends, and lovers, then was required to sign a paper saying he agreed to be executed if anything was found to be untrue. Every so often, the recruit would be asked to rewrite the whole thing; any discrepancies were taken as evidence that he was a spy, probably for Israel or [[Yasser Arafat|Arafat]], and he would be asked to write it out again, often after days of being beaten and nights spent forced to sleep standing up. By 1987, Abu Nidal had turned the full force of his terror tactics inwards on the ANO itself. Members were tortured until they confessed to betrayal and disloyalty. According to recruits who were able to escape, victims were buried alive, fed through a tube forced into their mouths, then finally killed by a bullet fired down the tube. Some had their genitals placed in skillets of boiling-hot oil. <ref name=Ledeen>[[Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge|Clarridge, Duane]]. ''A Spy for all Seasons: My Life in the CIA''. Scribner, 1997, cited in [[Michael Ledeen|Ledeen, Michael]]. [http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen082002.asp "Dead Terrorist in Baghdad"], ''National Review online'', August 20, 2002. </ref> There were several mass purges. During one night in November 1987, 170 members were tied up, blindfolded, machine-gunned, and buried in a mass grave. Another 160 met the same fate in Libya shortly afterwards. ===Relationship with Gaddafi=== [[Image:Muammar al-Gaddafi-30112006.jpg|right|thumb|180px|Libya's [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]] and Abu Nidal allegedly became great friends, Gaddafi sharing what ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]'' called "Abu Nidal's dangerous combination of an [[inferiority complex]] mixed with the belief that he was a man of great destiny."<ref name=Colvin/>]] Abu Nidal started his move from Syria to Libya in the summer of 1986. He was ''[[persona non grata]]'' in Syria as a result of his operations, which brought embarrassment and danger to the Syrian government. His own operations apart, Abu Nidal was taking credit for operations he had nothing to do with, adding to Syria's unease. Seale writes that Abu Nidal claimed responsibility for the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army|Provisional IRA]]'s attempted assassination of [[Margaret Thatcher]] and much of the cabinet of the [[United Kingdom]]s' government in the [[Brighton hotel bombing]] in November 1984. He did the same in March 1986 when the [[Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine|PFLP]] assassinated Zafir al-Masri, the mayor of [[Nablus]]. When the [[Space Shuttle Challenger]] exploded in 1986, he published a congratulatory note in his magazine and ordered sweets to be distributed to the ANO membership, leading the new recruits to think he had a hand in the disaster.<ref name=Seale254>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, pp. 254.</ref> His move to Libya was completed by March 1987. Settling in Tripoli, Abu Nidal and Libya's leader, [[Muammar al-Gaddafi]], allegedly became great friends, Gaddafi sharing what ''[[The Sunday Times (UK)|The Sunday Times]]'' called "Abu Nidal's dangerous combination of an [[inferiority complex]] mixed with the belief that he was a man of great destiny."<ref name=Colvin/> It was a relationship that Gaddafi and Abu Nidal both made good use of. Abu Nidal had a steady sponsor, while Gaddafi had a mercenary in place for any operations Libyan intelligence could not carry out directly. Seale reports that Libya brought out the worst in Abu Nidal; whereas before he had been dictatorial, in Libya, he became a tyrant. He would not allow members to socialize with each other; all meetings between members had to be reported to him, the prohibition applying to even the most senior members. An unreported meeting could mean death. He ordered all passports to be handed over to him. No one was allowed to travel without his permission. Ordinary members were not allowed to have a telephone; the leadership were allowed to make local calls only. Anyone traveling overseas had to stay away from duty-free stores; even the purchase of a bar of chocolate at an airport could lead to trouble. Seale writes that the pettiness was Abu Nidal's way of consolidating his power through humiliation. <ref name=Seale258>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, pp. 258-9.</ref> His members did not know where he lived, knew nothing about his daily life. If he wanted to entertain a guest, he would commandeer the home of another member, whose wife was expected to cook and serve the meal at short notice. <ref name=Seale260>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, pp. 260.</ref> ===Rome and Vienna=== {{main|Rome and Vienna airport attacks}} [[Image:Rome airport 1985.jpg|left|frame|Aftermath of ANO attack on the [[El Al]] ticket counter in Rome.]] It was with the help of Libyan intelligence, while still living in Syria, that Abu Nidal carried out his most spectacular operation, and the one most damaging to the PLO. The Syrian government allegedly had no knowledge of the operation. <ref name=Seale246>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 246.</ref> At 08:15 GMT on [[December 27]], [[1985]], four gunmen approached Israel's [[El Al]] ticket counter at the [[Leonardo Da Vinci International Airport]] in Rome, and opened fire, killing 16 people and wounding 99 others. A few minutes later, in [[Vienna International Airport]], three men threw hand grenades at passengers waiting to check-in to a flight to [[Tel Aviv]], killing two and wounding 39. Austria and Italy were the two European countries with the closest ties to the PLO, and both governments were actively involved at the time of the attacks in trying to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together for peace talks. The PLO believed that the object of the attacks was to force Austria and Italy to sever ties with the Palestinians.<ref name=Seale243/> Seale writes that the gunmen were "Palestinian youngsters, the bitter products of refugee camps, who had been brainwashed into throwing away their lives ..." <ref name=Seale244>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 244.</ref> The gunmen had been told to throw their grenades and open fire blindly at the check-in counter and that the people they saw there in civilian clothes would be Israeli pilots returning from a training mission. A former close aide of Abu Nidal told Seale that originally Frankfurt had been part of the operation too. The man who organized the attacks was the ANO's head of the Intelligence Directorate's Committee for Special Missions, Dr. Ghassan al-Ali. Sources close to Abu Nidal said that Libyan intelligence had supplied the weapons. The Libyan news agency hailed the attacks as "heroic operations carried out by the sons of the martyrs of Sabra and Shatila." <ref name=Seale245>[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992, p. 245.</ref> The damage to the PLO was enormous, according to [[Abu Iyad]], Arafat's deputy. Most people in the West and even many Arabs could not distinguish between the ANO and Fatah, he said. "In their minds, all Palestinians are guilty." <ref name=Seale245/> ===Bombing of Libya=== On the night of April 15 — 16, 1986, U.S. warplanes launched a [[Operation El Dorado Canyon|series of bombing raids]] from British bases <ref name=Global>[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/el_dorado_canyon.htm "Operation El Dorado Canyon"], GlobalSecurity.org.</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.stm "US launches air strikes on Libya"], BBC News, April 15, 1986.</ref> &mdash; the first U.S. military strikes from Britain since [[World War II]] &mdash; against Tripoli and [[Benghazi]], killing dozens, including Hanna Gaddafi, a baby girl Gaddafi had adopted, in retaliation for the bombing on April 5 of a [[1986 Berlin discotheque bombing|Berlin nightclub]] used by U.S. service personnel. <ref name=Malinarich>Malinarich, Natalie. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1653848.stm "The Berlin Disco Bombing"], BBC News, November 13, 2001.</ref> ====Alleged revenge attacks==== According to Atef Abu Bakr, a former senior member of the ANO, Gaddafi asked Abu Nidal to organize a series of revenge attacks against the U.S. and Britain, in cooperation with the head of Libyan intelligence, Abdullah al-Senussi. Abu Nidal first arranged for two British school teachers, Leigh Douglas and Philip Padfield, and an American, Peter Kilburn, to be kidnapped in Lebanon. Their bodies were found in a village east of Beirut on [[April 17]], [[1986]], wrapped in white cloth and with gunshot wounds to the head. A note left nearby said: "The Arab Commando Cells are carrying out the death sentences on a CIA official and two British intelligence officers." British hostage John McCarthy was kidnapped the same day. <ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/17/newsid_4693000/4693188.stm "1986: British journalist McCarthy kidnapped"], BBC On This Day, April 17.</ref> Abu Nidal then allegedly suggested to Senussi that an aircraft be hijacked or blown up. On [[September 5]], [[1986]], an ANO team hijacked [[Pan Am Flight 73]] at [[Karachi Airport]] on its way from Bombay to New York. The gunmen held the hostages, 389 passengers and crew, for 16 hours in the plane on the tarmac before shooting and detonating grenades inside the dark cabin. Someone was able to open an emergency door, and passengers covered in blood tumbled down the vinyl chute; 16 died and over 100 were wounded.<ref name=Melman190>[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986, p. 190.</ref> British media reported in March 2004 (days after Prime Minister [[Tony Blair]] visited Tripoli) that Libya was behind the hijacking.<ref>[http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article1052614.ece Revealed: Gaddafi's air massacre plot]</ref> Pakistani media, as reported by ''South Asia Tribune'', said that one of the hijackers in Adiala jail, Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim al-Fahid, had confirmed the ''Sunday Times'' story (via his counsel). Al-Fahid said that the Libyan leader Gaddafi "''masterminded the attack''" and "''he had taken the responsibility of executing the hijacking at the behest of Colonel Gaddafi''." In August 1987, Abu Nidal tried again to hijack a plane, this time using an unwitting bomb mule to carry a bomb on board a flight from [[Belgrade]], airline unknown, but the bomb failed to explode.{{Fact|date=November 2007}} [[Image:PA103cockpit4.png|right|thumb|220px|A senior member of the ANO says Abu Nidal supplied the [[Pan Am Flight 103|PA 103]] bomb.]] Allegedly angered by this failure, according to Abu Bakr, Senussi told Abu Nidal to supply a bomb and Libyan intelligence would arrange for it to be placed on a flight. Abu Bakr told ''Al Hayatt'' that the flight that was chosen, was [[Pan Am Flight 103]], the scheduled Pan Am evening service between Frankfurt and New York via London.<ref>http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/2211327.stm "Abu Nidal 'behind Lockerbie bombing',"], BBC News, August 23, 2002.</ref> On [[December 21]], [[1988]], it exploded over [[Lockerbie]], Scotland, when a bomb was detonated in its forward cargo hold, killing all 259 passengers and crew, and 11 people in the town. On [[January 31]], [[2001]], a [[Scottish Court in the Netherlands|Scottish court]] convicted [[Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi]], the former head of security for [[Libyan Arab Airlines]], for his role in the attack. The allegations of an Abu Nidal link had not been made by the time of the trial and remain unconfirmed. In June 2007, the [[Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission]] granted Megrahi leave to appeal against his conviction on the grounds that he may have been a victim of a [[miscarriage of justice]]. The appeal is expected to be heard in 2008 by the [[Court of Criminal Appeal]]. ===Other attacks=== ====Istanbul synagogue massacre==== On September 26, 1986, attackers believed to be associated with Abu Nidal stormed the [[Neve Shalom synagogue]] in [[Istanbul]] during [[Shabbat]] services. A gun attack left 22 people dead, among them 7 rabbis.<ref>[[Judith Miller (journalist)|Miller, Judith]]. [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9B0DEED9173EF937A35752C0A961948260&scp=2&sq=Istanbul+Synagogue+Massacre THE ISTANBUL SYNAGOGUE MASSACRE]. January 4, 1987.</ref><ref>Kamm, Henry. [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40715F63D5F0C748CDDA00894DE484D81&scp=2&sq=Istanbul+Synagogue+Massacre TERROR IN ISTANBUL; 2 GUNMEN KILL 21 IN SYNAGOGUE]. September 7, 1986.</ref> ===Banking with BCCI=== In the late 80s, Britain's [[MI5]] and [[Secret Intelligence Service|MI6]] discovered that the ANO held several accounts with the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI). The bank was raided in July 1991 in seven countries because of massive fraud and its willingness to open accounts for dubious customers. The Bank of England asked financial consultants [[Price Waterhouse]] to conduct an investigation, and on [[June 24]], [[1991]], the company submitted their [[Sandstorm report]] showing that the bank had engaged in "widespread fraud and manipulation," and that it had allowed organizations regarded as terrorist groups, including the ANO, to set up accounts in London. [[Image:LordBingham3.jpg|right|thumb|200px|[[Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill|Lord Justice Bingham]]'s report showed that MI5 had known as early as 1987 that Abu Nidal was banking with [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International|BCCI]] in London.]] The Sandstorm report showed that the manager of the [[Sloane Street]] branch of BCCI, near [[Harrods]], had passed information about the Abu Nidal accounts to MI5, and had told them Abu Nidal himself had visited London using the name Shakir Farhan; the manager did not realize who he was dealing with until he later saw a photograph of Abu Nidal. The manager reportedly drove Abu Nidal round London's most expensive stores, including [[Selfridges]], a tailor's on Oxford Street, and a cigar store on [[Jermyn Street]]. <ref name=Adams90>Adams, James, & Frantz, Douglas. ''A Full Service Bank''. Simon and Schuster, 1992, p. 90.</ref> When [[Thomas Bingham, Baron Bingham of Cornhill|Lord Justice Bingham]] completed his 1992 public inquiry into the closure of BCCI, he wrote a secret 30-page appendix, called Appendix 8, about the role of the intelligence services. The appendix shows that MI5 had learned in 1987 that Abu Nidal had been using a company called SAS Trade and Investment in Warsaw as a cover for ANO business deals, <ref>Adams, James, & Frantz, Douglas. ''A Full Service Bank''. Simon and Schuster, 1992, p. 135; and Walsh, Conal. [http://www.borrull.org/e/noticia.php?id=26379&PHPSESSID=a2478de8b1b0de31e39302c53c9b8f04 "What spooks told Old Lady about BCCI"], ''The Observer'', [[January 18]], [[2004]]).</ref> with the company director, Samir Najmeddin based in [[Baghdad]]. All SAS's deals went through BCCI in Sloane Street, and consisted largely of selling guns, night-vision goggles, and armored [[Mercedes-Benz]] cars with concealed grenade launchers, each deal often worth tens of millions of dollars, the finance consisting of misleading [[Letter of credit|letters of credit]] arranged by the Sloane Street branch of BCCI. <ref name=Adams89>Adams, James, & Frantz, Douglas. ''A Full Service Bank''. Simon and Schuster, 1992, pp.89-91, 136.</ref> Bank records showed ANO arms transactions with many Middle Eastern countries as well as with East Germany. There was no shortage of European and American clients willing to sell equipment, including British companies, one of which unwittingly sold the ANO riot guns it believed were intended for an African state, though documents show half the shipment went to East Germany and half was kept by Abu Nidal. <ref name=Adams89/> From 1987 until the bank was closed in 1991, British intelligence and the CIA monitored these transactions, rather than freezing them and arresting the ANO operatives and the suppliers. ==Death== After Libyan intelligence operatives were indicted with the [[Pan Am Flight 103]] bombing, Gaddafi sought to distance himself from terrorism in an effort to re-establish diplomatic ties with the West. He expelled Abu Nidal, who returned to Iraq, where he had planned his first terrorist attack 26 years earlier. The Iraqi government later said Abu Nidal had entered the country using a fake [[Yemen]]i passport and was not there with their knowledge, but by 2001, at the latest, he was living there openly, and in defiance of the Jordanian government, whose state security court had sentenced him to death ''[[in absentia]]'' in 2001 for his role in the 1994 assassination of a Jordanian diplomat in [[Beirut]]. [[Image:Saddam Hussein at trial, July 2004.JPEG|left|thumb|170px|[[Jane's Information Group|''Jane's'']] suggests that [[Saddam Hussein]] ordered Abu Nidal killed in 2002 in case Abu Nidal acted as a mercenary for the U.S. in the event of an [[American invasion of Iraq|invasion]].]] On [[August 19]], [[2002]], ''al-Ayyam'', the official newspaper of the [[Palestinian Authority]], reported that Abu Nidal had died three days earlier of multiple gunshot wounds in his home in the wealthy al-Masbah neighborhood of al-Jadriyah, [[Baghdad]], where the villa he lived in was owned by the [[Iraqi Intelligence Service|''Mukhabarat'']], or Iraqi secret service. <ref name=Colvin/> Iraq's chief of intelligence, Taher Jalil Habbush, held a press conference on [[August 21]], [[2002]], at which he handed out photographs of Abu Nidal's bloodied body, along with a medical report purportedly showing he had died after a single bullet had entered his mouth and exited his skull. Habbush said that Iraq's internal security force had arrived at Abu Nidal's house to arrest him on suspicion of conspiring with the [[Kuwait]]i and [[Saudi Arabia|Saudi]] governments to bring down [[Saddam Hussein]]. Saying he needed a change of clothes, Abu Nidal went into his bedroom and shot himself in the mouth, Habbush said. He died eight hours later in intensive care. <ref name=CNN21>[http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/08/21/iraq.nidal/"Iraq details terror leader's death"], CNN, August 21, 2002.</ref> He is known to have been suffering from [[leukemia]]. Other sources disagree about the cause of death. Palestinian sources told journalists that Abu Nidal had in fact died of multiple gunshot wounds. Marie Colvin and Sonya Murad, writing in ''The Sunday Times'', say that he was assassinated by a hit squad of 30 men from Office 8, the Iraqi ''Mukhabarat'' assassination unit. <ref name=Colvin/> [[Jane's Information Group|''Jane's'']] reported that Iraqi intelligence had been following him for several months and had found classified documents in his home about a U.S. attack on Iraq. When they arrived to raid his house on August 14 (not August 16, according to ''Jane's''), fighting broke out between Abu Nidal's men and Iraqi intelligence. In the midst of this, Abu Nidal rushed into his bedroom and was killed, though ''Jane's'' writes it remains unclear whether he killed himself or was killed by someone else. ''Jane's'' sources insist that his body bore several gunshot wounds. ''Jane's'' suggests that Saddam Hussein may have ordered him arrested and killed because he regarded Abu Nidal as a [[mercenary]] who would have acted against him in the event of an American invasion, if the money had been right. <ref name=Najib>Najib, Mohammed. [http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jwit/jwit020823_1_n.shtml "Abu Nidal murder trail leads directly to Iraqi regime"], ''Jane's Information Group'', August 23, 2002.</ref> ==References== {{reflist|2}} ==Further reading== <div class="references-small"> *Abadi, Jacob. [http://www.lib.unb.ca/Texts/JCS/bin/get7.cgi?directory=Fall00/&filename=Abadi.htm "Pragmatism and Rhetoric in Libya's Policy Toward Israel"], ''Journal of Conflict Studies'', Volume XX Number 1, Fall 2000. *[[As`ad AbuKhalil|Abu Khalil, As'ad]]. [http://www.palestineremembered.com/Jaffa/Jaffa/Story163.html "Biography of Abu Nidal &mdash; Sabri al-Bana"], ''Encyclopedia of the Palestinians'', November 12, 2000. *Adams, James, and Frantz, Douglas. ''A Full Service Bank''. Simon and Schuster, 1992. *[[Duane 'Dewey' Clarridge|Clarridge, Duane]]. ''A Spy for all Seasons: My Life in the CIA''. Scribner, 1997. ISBN 0-684-80068-3 *Colvin, Marie & Murad, Sonya. [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2089-393455_1,00.html "Executed"], ''The Sunday Times'', August 25, 2002. *Dobson, Christopher, and Payne, Ronald. ''The Terrorists: Their Weapons, Leaders and Tactics''. Facts on File, 1979. *Dobson, Christopher, and Payne, Ronald. ''War Without End''. Harrap, 1986. *Hirst, David. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4484907-103684,00.html "Abu Nidal"], ''The Guardian'', August 20, 2002. *Hudson, Rex A. [http://www.fas.org/irp/threat/frd.html "The Sociology and Psychology of Terrorism: Who Becomes a Terrorist and Why?"], Federal Research Division, Library of Congress, September 1999. *Karmon, Ely. [http://www.iraqwatch.org/perspectives/winep-pw652-082902.htm "Terrorist links of the Iraqi regime"], Washington Institute for Near East Policy, Policywatch no. 652, August 29, 2002. *[[Michael Ledeen|Ledeen, Michael]]. [http://www.nationalreview.com/ledeen/ledeen082002.asp "Dead Terrorist in Baghdad"], ''National Review online'', August 20, 2002. *Malinarich, Natalie. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/1653848.stm "The Berlin Disco Bombing"], BBC News, November 13, 2001. *[[Yossi Melman|Melman, Yossi]]. ''The Master Terrorist: The True Story Behind Abu Nidal'', Mama Books, 1986. *Najib, Mohammed. [http://www.janes.com/security/international_security/news/jwit/jwit020823_1_n.shtml "Abu Nidal murder trail leads directly to Iraqi regime"], ''Jane's Information Group'', August 23, 2002. *[[Daniel Pipes|Pipes, Daniel]]. [http://www.danielpipes.org/article/881 "Abu Nidal: A Gun For Hire"], ''Wall Street Journal'', February 18, 1992. *[[Patrick Seale|Seale, Patrick]]. ''Abu Nidal: A Gun for Hire''. Hutchinson, 1992. *Walsh, Conal. [http://www.borrull.org/e/noticia.php?id=26379&PHPSESSID=a2478de8b1b0de31e39302c53c9b8f04 "What spooks told Old Lady about BCCI"], ''The Observer'', [[January 18]], [[2004]]. (This article has been removed from ''The Observer's'' website.) *Whitaker, Brian. [http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,778571,00.html "Mystery of Abu Nidal's death deepens"], ''The Guardian'', August 22, 2002. *[http://library.nps.navy.mil/home/tgp/abu.htm "Abu Nidal Organization"], ''Country Reports on Terrorism, 2004. [[United States Department of State]], 2005. *[http://www.fas.org/irp/world/para/ano.htm Abu Nidal Organization], FAS Intelligence Resource Program. *[http://www.libyen-news.de/ano_abu_nidal_organisation.htm "ANO Abu Nidal Organisation"], Libyen-News, undated. *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/december/27/newsid_2545000/2545949.stm "Gunmen kill 16 at two European airports"], BBC News, December 27, 1985; includes videotaped interview with one of the gunmen. *[http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/08/19/mideast.nidal/ "U.S. welcomes news of Abu Nidal's death"], CNN, August 19, 2002. *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/2203004.stm "Abu Nidal 'found dead'"] BBC News, August 19, 2002. *[http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/08/21/iraq.nidal/"Iraq details terror leader's death"], CNN, August 21, 2002 *[http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/el_dorado_canyon.htm "Operation El Dorado Canyon"], GlobalSecurity.org *[http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/15/newsid_3975000/3975455.stm "US launches air strikes on Libya"], BBC News, April 15, 1986. *Miller, Aaron David. "Sabri Khalil al-Banna" in Reich, Bernard. (ed.) ''Political Leaders of the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa: A Biographical Dictionary''. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1990. *Steinberg, Matti. "The Radical Worldview of the Abu Nidal Faction." ''Jerusalem Quarterly'' 48 (Fall 1988): 88&ndash;104. *Yallop, David. ''To the Ends of the Earth''. Random House, UK, 1993. *[http://www.cfr.org/publication/9153/ Abu Nidal Background Q&A], Council on Foreign Relations. </div> {{DEFAULTSORT:Nidal, Abu}} [[Category:1937 births]] [[Category:2002 deaths]] [[Category:Deaths by firearm in Iraq]] [[Category:Palestinian Muslims]] [[Category:Palestinian militants]] [[Category:Palestinian terrorists]] [[Category:U.S. State Department designated terrorist organizations]] [[Category:Canada Public Safety designated terrorist entities]] [[Category:European Union designated terrorist organizations]] [[Category:UK Home Office designated terrorist groups]] [[ar:صبري البنا]] [[de:Abu Nidal]] [[es:Abu Nidal]] [[fr:Sabri al Banna]] [[it:Abu Nidal]] [[he:אבו נידאל]] [[nl:Aboe Nidal]] [[ja:アブ・ニダル]] [[no:Abu Nidal]] [[nn:Abu Nidal]] [[pl:Abu Nidal]] [[pt:Abu Nidal]] [[ru:Абу Нидаль]] [[fi:Abu Nidal]] [[sv:Abu Nidal]] [[zh:阿布·尼達爾]]