August 19, 2002

6:07 AM

Abu Nidal is Dead. The Bin Laden of the 70s and 80s. Having read his biography years ago he makes Kyzer Soze childsplay...possible suicide.. yeah, suicide Israeli style. The War On Terror heats up one more terrorist scum dead.
posted by stbalbach (12 comments total)

Why does the phrase "terrorist scum" make me think of Return of the Jedi?
posted by ZachsMind at 6:37 AM on August 19, 2002

I guess Ollie can take down the security fence.
posted by dhartung at 6:59 AM on August 19, 2002

yeah, suicide Israeli style

Hoy! What a fascinating use of sublte irony! Egads!

Au revoir, scum.
posted by hama7 at 7:24 AM on August 19, 2002

suicide Israeli style
Not too sure: [in 1974] Abu Nidal decided to fight any effort at moderation by continuing international operations against Israeli targets and by targeting pro-Arafat Palestinians and moderate Arab states. The rift between Abu Nidal and Arafat became so intense that Abu Nidal was tried in absentia and sentenced to death by Arafat. [link]
and...
A Jordanian military court has sentenced the Palestinian militant Abu Nidal to death for masterminding the assassination of a Jordanian diplomat in 1994. [BBC Dec. 3 2001]
There were a lot of people waiting in line to off him. I mean check out the first link: the guy has targetted / killed more Fatah members than the bloody Mossad!
posted by talos at 7:25 AM on August 19, 2002

but he was killed in baghdad. doesn't anyone find that interesting.
posted by clavdivs at 8:16 AM on August 19, 2002

Yeah, suicide in Baghdad. Are the Israelis really good enough to pull that off? I think this lends more credibility to tamim's theory that Saddam is a CIA agent.
posted by insomnyuk at 8:22 AM on August 19, 2002

...or Abu was a CIA agent?
posted by niceness at 8:46 AM on August 19, 2002

In his book mentioned above (1992) Seale makes connections between Nidal and Mossad. This is the last paragraph of the book:

Pondering the puzzle of Abu Nidal, I remembered what so many of my sources told me -- that for him, self was all-important, his personal security paramount. His deals with Iraq, Syria, and Libya had all been in return for protection. Protection is what he craved. He could not survive without it. In the terrorist underground he inhabited, one country could protect him better than any other: Israel was the most powerful state in the Middle East, the only one whose planes, commandos, hit teams, and intelligence agents, indiffrent to national boundries, could reach any part of the region. Israel had a long record of seeking out and destroying its enemies. Israel could easily end Abu Nidal's career if they chose to do so. But it had not done so. Why? Was he still usefull? Abu Nidal needed immunity. Israel needed his services.


posted by stbalbach at 9:26 AM on August 19, 2002

What if we're all CIA agents?

*glances around*

I say the Iraqis killed him.

This is just like Clue.. ;)
posted by RobbieFal at 12:39 PM on August 19, 2002

Dick Cheney in Baghdad, with the candleholder.
posted by owillis at 1:06 PM on August 19, 2002

I'm rather confused by Robert Fisk's article on Abu Nidal.

"He has died again. This time, Abu Nidal has killed himself. Ten years ago, he died of cancer. Before that, he was shot to death in Libya. Sabri al-Banna, among the most vicious criminals of the Middle East, seems to go on being reincarnated for the benefit of dying all over again. Now it's by his own hand, of gunshot wounds in Baghdad."

"His "suicide" might come as a gift to an American administration longing to connect Saddam Hussein to "world terror". As for his real death, I suspect it came long ago."

Is he suggesting that he actually died years ago and that this story is a fake? My brain hurts.
posted by ToothpickVic at 4:23 PM on August 19, 2002

Fisk sees American imperialism in his tea leaves.
posted by dhartung at 6:11 PM on August 19, 2002