PLO'S WAR BASE MOVES TO IRAQ

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100480002-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: November 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100480002-0
ART; ' z _ P ,
NEW YORK POST
8 November 1985
PLO'S was BASE.
MOVES TO IRAQ
By MICHAEL J. BERLIN
PASSER Arafat has
a~.1.Q~mili
tar operations cen-
ter from-Tunisia to
Iraq. Western Intelli-
gence sources told
The Post yesterday.
The shift was com-
pleted Nov. 1 with the
transfer of the last 150
PLO members by plane
from Tunis to a mili-
tary camp outside the
capital city of Baghdad.
The move came after
Israeli warplanes raided
PLO headquarters out-
side the Tunisian capital
last month in retaliation
for the murder of three
Israelis by PLO agents
in Cyprus.
The Tunisian govern-
ment of Habib Bourguiba
then gave Arafat a list of
PLO fighters who were
ordered out of the country.
The Tunisians, the
sources said, told Arafat
that only the PLO's polit-
ical leadership and an
administrative crew
could remain at his
headquarters near
Tunis.
Before the Nov. 1 shift
of the group that runs
military operations, hun-
dreds of armed Palestin-
ian fighters had been
shifted to Iraq from
Tunisia and Jordan.
The government of Jor-
dan's King Hussein ord-
ered the expulsion of Abu
Tayeb, the commander of
the Force 17 terror squad,-
and other PLO members,
fearing Israeli retaliation
for operations they had
staged. the sources said.
Arafat still maintains a
military operations base
in Jordan, but it is
limited to actions on the
Israeli-occupied West
Bank, it was learned.
All other PLO terror
strikes likely are to be
run from the-base in the
Iraqi town of Mousayed,
which is south of Bagh-.
dad.
Auocialsd Pnu
Sidearm at the hip, Yasser Arafat
fields questions at a press confer-
ence yesterday in Cairo, where he
met with President Hosni Mubarak.
Iraq was also the
haven for Mohammed
Abbas, the Palestinian
official released by Italy
despite a U.S. charge
that he masterminded
the October hijack of the
cruise ship Achille
Lauro.
Abbas was on the
RAFAT:
ONLY PLAt
IS ISRAEL
CAIRO - PLO chief
Yasser Arafat yester-
day bowed to Egyptian
demands and re-
nounced all acts of ter.
rorism.
However, he also reaf-
firmed the PLO's com-
mitment to armed strug-
gle in Israeli-occupied
Arab lands.
Ending three days of
talks with President
Hosni Mubarak and
Egyptian officials, Ara-
fat said:
"The PLO declares its
condemnation of all
acts of terrorism,
whether by states, indi-
viduals or groups,
against the innocent
and the unarmed any-
where."
But he added: "The PLO
affirms the right of the
people to resist Israeli
occupation of their land
by all available methods,
with the aim of realizing
a withdrawal."
Some 45.000 Jewish set-
tlers live on the West
Bank of the Jordan
River, seized by Israel
from Jordan in the Six-
Day War in 1967.
An Israeli foreign minis-
try spokesman said: "It
is simply an indication
that the PLO is going to
continue terrorism."
Egyptian plane that
carried the four hijack-
ers and was diverted to
Sicily by American war--
planes.
Although the Palestin-
ians who captured the
cruise ship were arrest-
ed, Abbas was allowed to
then Iraq.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100480002-0