Word: rashid
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Awad's case began on Aug. 30, 1982, when he walked into the U.S. embassy in Bern, Switzerland. He claimed he was a prosperous Baghdad-based businessman whom Rashid had coerced, by blackmailing Awad's business, to blow up Geneva's Noga Hilton. The story sounded farfetched, but when Swiss police went to the Noga Hilton, they found a bomb-rigged suitcase in Awad's room. As Awad volunteered more detail about Rashid's modus operandi, U.S. officials began to detect a link between the bomb in Awad's suitcase and the one that had blown a hole...
...Monday, Adnan Awad felt both exhilaration and melancholy. A long, unhappy chapter of his life was about to end, but it would not be sealed by the recognition Awad knew he had earned. For 10 years, the Palestinian businessman had helped U.S. officials to track down and prosecute Mohammed Rashid, a notorious Palestinian terrorist. In all that time, Awad felt, the U.S. had treated him shabbily. While he had been hailed by a Senate panel as "a hero for the American people," Washington had taken seven years to issue him a green card -- and still would not honor his request...
...Awad the receiver. At the other end was retired airline captain Ron Hawk, the pilot of a Pan Am passenger jet on which a bomb had exploded en route to Hawaii in August 1982, killing a teenage passenger. Hawk extended warm thanks to Awad for his role in convicting Rashid for that murder. All told, the event lasted 45 minutes. Admitted a U.S. official: "It was kind of the Motel 6 version of a ceremony...
...years later, Awad was approached by a U.S. prosecutor. Would he enter the Witness Protection Program and testify against Rashid? Awad was told the Rashid case would be wrapped up in two years, after which he could receive a State Department reward of as much as $500,000. More interested in the prospect of U.S. citizenship than in a hefty reward, Awad asked only that he be able to live as well as he had in Switzerland...
...after Awad moved to America, he was shunted from city to city. Little effort was made to help him learn English or start a new life. In 1986 he quit the witness program and opened a convenience store. After Rashid was arrested in Greece in 1988, Awad was persuaded to return to the witness program. While Athens and Washington wrangled over Rashid's extradition for the next three years, Awad was refused a passport and permission to visit his relatives abroad. He grew so depressed that he threatened to kill himself...