Word: nidal
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...weapons of mass murder, the protestations of those opposed to a pre-emptive strike sound all too familiar. Despite the mountains of evidence indicting the Iraqi government as a grave threat to American and world security—including links to terrorists such as the now-deceased Abu Nidal and terror groups such as al Qaeda, known stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons, reports from Iraq’s former bomb-maker that its scientists could be months away from producing a nuclear weapon, Hussein’s gassing of the Kurds, his wanton slaughter of Iraqi dissidents and civilians...
...Nidal formally broke with Arafat, protesting his old comrade's decision to consider diplomacy over violence. That year, the newly formed Abu Nidal Organization (also known as Fatah Revolutionary Council) planted a bomb on a TWA plane flying from Athens to Rome, killing all 88 people on board. Abu Nidal went on to mastermind attacks on a Jewish school in Antwerp, synagogues in Vienna and Istanbul, and a Greek tourist ship. In December 1985 his group ambushed the El Al ticket counters at Rome and Vienna airports, killing 14 bystanders...
...great irony of his career was that he did more to destabilize and stigmatize the Palestinians than to cause permanent harm to Israel--his declared enemy. In the mid-'70s, Abu Nidal was sentenced to death by the P.L.O. for plotting to kill Arafat. Between 1978 and 1983, he was responsible for the assassination of six of the P.L.O.'s most moderate diplomats. In 1982 the attempted assassination of Israel's ambassador to Britain was attributed to his group--giving the Israelis a convenient pretext to invade Lebanon, in which Arafat had set up headquarters, and kick the P.L.O...
During the past decade, the Abu Nidal Organization, splintered by internal feuds, grew quiet. Abu Nidal was said to be seriously ill. In 1998, after proving too onerous a political burden to his host, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, he resurfaced in Egypt. The next year, he moved to Iraq, relying on his fragile alliance with Saddam Hussein...
Despite the questions about how Abu Nidal died, everyone seems glad to be having the debate. Rumors of his demise started circulating 18 years ago, when he was first reported to have died in Baghdad. Now that the end seems certain, "there is a collective sigh of relief everywhere that he no longer exists," says Abdul Bari Atwan, editor of the pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, based in London. Sometimes the enemy of my enemy is still the enemy. --Reported by Azadeh Moaveni/Cairo, Matt Rees/Jerusalem and Douglas Waller/Washington