PLO DEMANDS IRAQ TURN OVER TERRORIST FIGURE FOR TRIAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP05-01219R000300440060-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 1, 2012
• Sequence Number: 60
• Publication Date: July 13, 1978
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012!03!01 :CIA-RDP05-012198000300440060-9
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Thersday;Jn[y13,I9i8 THE WASHINGTON POST
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e a s ra Tura Uver Terrorist ~', ure
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lty otga?'W;'Lippman
w}e6~top pose PaceiRa Be~oe
BEIBI7T-Tl~e Palestine Liberation
Organization has ,formally acxused
Iraq of guutivating the .Palestinian
cease thr,Iwgh its support of an'int~r?
nationally known Palestinian terrorist
called Abu iyfdat and haa,.delnanded
that :Iraq turn him over! t0 tke PLO
for trial. ;
A strongly; worded statement dis-
trihuted by l the Palestinian news
agency.'~'afa, said that the'PLO exec-
ut[ve coinmittee:had delivered am offi?
eigl pretest about Abu Nidal, who is
bases ?n Baghdad, to the Iraqi Em-
fias: >Iatttasens on July 4,
Tt is unusualfor the PLO to openly
criticize a country like :Iraq, one of
the most. uncompromisingly anti-Is-
rack of the Arab states.+, Palestinian
sonrees here said, however, that fire
'main guerrilla organization. Fatah,
hewed by Passer Arafat, has been
Ch~Mr 10!~ Bali f
port for Abu Nidal, once an ally but
now a foe of Arafat.
Abu Nidal is already under a death
sentence imposed by Fatah fora 1973
terrorist operation that Fatah says
was doge in defiance of Arafat.
The P~0 statement said Abu Nidal
was responsible for three highly pub-
]icized murders in the past year-
those of Said Hammami, the PLO rep?
resentative in London; Ali Nasser
Yassin, the PLO representative in Ku-
wait, and Yussef Sebai, an Egyptian
journalist whose slaying in Cyprus in
March further worsened Egyptian?Pal?
estinian relations. '
This PLO action does not constitute
a formal break between the PLO and
Iraq, and there. has been no official
Iraqi response. But it does represent
another rift in the ranks of the Arab
states and organizations most ada-
mant in their policy toward Israel and
in their dgnugcjation of Egyptian
President Anwar. Sadat's sareh far s
state.
It is considered highly unlikely that
Iraq will grant the PLO request to
turn over Abu Nidal, who is Suspected
of doing the international dirty work
of the ruling Iraqi Baath Party as well
as his own.
The significance of the PLO state?
ment lies more in the split between
the Palestinian leadership and the
Baghdad regime, which has long con-
sidered Arafat too willing to compro-
mise with Israel.
Palestinian officials also believe
Iraq is trying to undermine Arafat
and his allies in the PLO leadership
because they are de facto allies of
Syria, Iraq's implacable ideological
enemy. All three-Iraq, Syria and the
PLO-oppose Sadat's initiative, but
cannot agree among themselves, on
what strategy to follow.
The Palestinian leadership, the PL
statement said; har "always wanted to
maintain good relations with Iraq but
we are now impatient: Therefore we
demand that the Iraqi government
hand over Abu Nidal so that be would
get what he deserves."
Iraq, the PLO charged, has fallen
into the trap of supporting "crimes"
that play into the hands of the ene-
mies of the Palest[nian cause. The
Iraqis should follow the PLO line, it
said, which is to stay away from vio-
lence and acts of terrorism that are
not aimed directly at "the Zionist en-
emy."
Abu Nidal, a native of Jaffa in what
is now Israel, is probably one of the
two most wanted figures in world ter?
rorism, along with the man known as
Carlos.
His real name is Sabry Banns, Abu
Nidal is a Palestinian nom de guerre
meaning "father of struggle." He was
an early leader of Fatah along with
Arafat, but broke away about eight
years ago to form his awn organiza?
lion, operati out gf-the Traq;capital.
In addittto the sjayings lldted in
has been linked to commando attaclts
on hotels in 'Amman and Damascus
and two attempts to kill 6yrisn For?
eign Minister Abdel Halim Ii;hedd8m.
He preaches revolution to the con?
servative sheikhdoms. along the Per?
Sian Gulf. and to Saudi Arabia
through a Bagdad radio station
called "Voieq of Palestinian Revolu?
lion:' ,
Abu Nidal, in an interview recently
with a London magazine, -The Middle
East, denied any involvement in ter-
rorist incidents in Europe `arid re?
jetted airline hijackings as "not use-
fuh" But he did claim respensibilBy
for "the devastation; of the Abga[q;
a reference to a mayor Saudi Arabian
oil field explosion and fire last year
for which the cause has not; been offi?
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012!03!01 :CIA-RDP05-012198000300440060-9
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