ABU NIDAL SUSPECTED IN RECENT ATTACKS DESPITE A LACK OF CONCLUSIVE EVIDENCE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060053-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 53
• Publication Date: September 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060053-7
12 September 1986
Abu Nidal Suspected in Recent Attacks
Despite a Lack of Conclusive Evidence
gan s vows that he won't let attacks on
By JOHN WAtcoTr Americans go unpunished.
STAT
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAC- Z _.
STAT
WASHINGTON-The leading suspect in
both the hijacking of a Pan Am jetliner in
Pakistan last week and the attack on a
synagogue in Istanbul is the shadowy Pal-
estinian terrorist who calls himself Abu Ni?
dal. But intelligence officials said h y
have no conclusive evidence linking his
stoup to the attacks which killed a total of
42 peop1.
In addition, although Libya is the
grotiD s maior patron t
years Abu Nidal hijacking of an E tian
air finer-inte ence o ici s of the Israe an estern uro sal the hive
even less evidence that Moammar Gad i
sponsor t the Karachi hijacking.
Administration officials are studying
how the U.S. could punish both the Abu Ni
dal group and Libya for the hijacking, but
senior officials said the U.S. won't retaliate
unless it gets much better evidence than it
now has on who planned and ordered the
hijacking. Some officials said they expect
eventually to be able to identify the group
responsible for the attack, but they said
they are less certain they will be able to
find a state sponsor behind it.
The frustrating search for the culprits
underscores the great-and growing-diffi-
culty in hunting down and attacking inter-
national terrorists, despite President Rea-
..nur American ornciais suspect the
Abu Nidal group, some Israeli officials be-
lieve another Palestinian terrorist organi-
zation, called Force 17, may be responsi-
ble.
U.S. officials said Pakistani authorities
are holding four young Palestinians sus-
pected of seizing the Pan Am plane a week
ago. But they said three of the alleged hi-
jackers appear to have arrived in Pakistan
only recently and to know little about the
planning of their mission.
The fourth suspected hijacker, who is
believed to be the group's leader, may be
able to reveal more but is too badly
wounded to be questioned intensively, the
officials said.
The four used forged Bahraini passports
and Soviet-bloc automatic weapons, U.S.
officials said, but those clues haven't
proved very useful, either. "What we have
doesn't mean much." one official said.
As a result, U.S. officials said, it was
mostly circumstantial evidence that
prompted Defense Secretary Caspar Wein-
berger to declare that the Karachi hijack-
ing bore the Abu :tidal group's "foot-
prints."
U.S. officials said they couldn't confirm
reports that Pakistani authorities have ar-
rested a man carrying a Libyan passport
in connection with the hijacking.
But U.S. and other intelli ence sources
said there is considerable ccumstantial
evidence of activity by both Abu Nidal and
Limb a in Pakistan, at least since February.
Pakistani aut onUes ex elled a Liby an
trade o ficial suspected of terrorist tivi
ties earlier this-year, and intelligence
sources said known Libyan and Abu Nidal
operatives have been spotted in Pakistan
several times this year.
Even if officials find convincing proof of
Abu Nidal's guilt, they concede that it will
be difficult to retaliate against the group.
Abu Nidal is so elusive that he's frequently
rumored to have died. His group is divided
into small cells that are recruited and
trained in temporary camps in the Libyan
desert. in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley and in
Syria.
And U.S. intelligence officials said the
group's office in npo i, t e Libyan capj-
tal. is located in a crowded apartment
building
Retaliating against Libya itself would
be much easier, senior U.S. officials said.
But proving that Col. Gadhafi sponsored
the hijacking is likely to be even harder
than pin tig the attack on Abu Nidal.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060053-7