Palestinian Abu Abbas in U.S. Custody in Iraq

[Monte Smith]

Now this is kinda interesting. What a curious place to find a terrorist.




WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Palestinian guerrilla leader Abu Abbas, who masterminded the hijacking of an Italian cruise ship in 1985, was captured by U.S. special forces and is in U.S. custody in Baghdad, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.

Abbas, also known as Mohammed Abbas, is the leader of the Palestine Liberation Front, which hijacked the Achille Lauro in the eastern Mediterranean, resulting in the death of a disabled elderly American man, Leon Klinghoffer.

Abbas had spent most of the past 17 years in Iraq (news - web sites), beyond the reach of U.S. and Italian officials. He had been sentenced in Italy to five life terms in prison, and is wanted in the United States in connection with the cruise ship hijacking.

There were reports in January that Abbas was in Egypt to take part in talks to end Palestinian attacks on civilians in Israel, but Egyptian authorities denied he was in the country. "He's been captured. My understanding is he was captured during a raid on a house in the outskirts of Baghdad late last night," the U.S. official told Reuters.

"It was conducted by special forces," he said.

The capture of Abbas was first reported by CNN's national security correspondent David Ensor who said Abbas had been taken into custody by U.S. forces "in or near Baghdad."

[Monte Smith]

What will happen to Abu? Italy wants the terrorist extradited, since they have already tried him in absentia and sentenced him to life.

"But Palestinian Cabinet member Saeb Erakat said Wednesday that the United States violated the Oslo peace accords when it apprehended Abbas.

Erakat pointed to the Oslo accords, signed by Israel and the PLO and witnessed by the United States, Russia, Jordan, Egypt, Norway and the European Union, of which Italy is a member.

That agreement specified that no member of the Palestine Liberation Organization will be arrested or brought to court for any action that happened before September 13, 1993, the day the first Oslo accord was signed, Erakat said." -CNN

Abu has already been arrested and tried--doesn't that render this part of Oslo (the only part Saeb Erekat seems to want to enforce) moot? Guess we'll have to let the Special Forces legal team sort that out.

Still, nice to see Saeb stick up for a buddy. Terrorist. Buddy. Terrorist. Here's my favorite picture of Erekat trying to keep his head from exploding.

http://graphics7.nytimes.com/images/2002/09/12/international/MIDEAST-ISRAEL-575-.jpg

It's from last September, when members of the Palestinian Legislative Council dared to jeer at the Supreme Leader, Arafat. Saeb don't like it--thinks its not kosher.

[Scott Dolan]

Monte, what kind of right wing propaganda are you speading around here. Everyone KNOWS that Iraq has no terrorist connections. So what, the dude killed ONE disabled guy, how many innocent Iraqi's did Bushy's boys kill. MMMMMM....?

Bush is some kind of evil dictator, but no one has taken HIM into custody yet.......

Peace, love, and fuzzy little puppy dogs........

Yab-yab-yab-yab Bush stole the election, yab-yab-yab-yab we had no right to be over in Iraq in the first place, yab-yab-yab-yab the movie stars are really the ones suffering here, yab-yab-yab-yab war mongers looking to destroy our nation,yab-yab-yab.........

[fill in the blank with some more anti-American, liberal gibberish here]

End of thread. I can see it already...



Hey Monte, have you also found it to be quite interesting that although Iraq's military blatantly broke almost rule of the Geneva convention throughout the war that nobody here was outraged that there beloved U.N., who would be in charge of enforcement and post war tribunals concerning such war crimes sat idly by and said and did absolutely nothing(well other than blast the American effort and constantly telling us that what WE were doing was wrong)?

Now THAT is the definition of shameful.

Guess they were too busy finding the appropriate suit and tie for the rep from Libya so he can get down to the business of showing what a real 'humanitarian' is all about.

[Sand]

Scott, you're from the far left, right?

I prefer The Independent's (UK) take on this

A terrorist, yes, but no proof of Saddam's links to Bin Laden

17 April 2003


The US forces in Iraq have only themselves to blame if they have looked foolish in trumpeting their capture of the Palestinian militant, Abu Abbas. His presence in Baghdad was hardly a secret, nor does anyone regard him as much of a menace any more. His capture is neither a great coup in the war against terror nor proof of Saddam Hussein's links with terrorism.

Yet that Abu Abbas was a terrorist, and a peculiarly nasty one in his day, cannot be denied. The leader of a small faction of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), he was found guilty in absentia for hijacking an Italian cruise ship in 1985 and killing one of its passengers, the disabled New Yorker Leon Klinghoffer.

True, he later recanted his crime and was even allowed to pass through Israeli checkpoints on a visit to Gaza under an amnesty agreed as part of the Oslo peace accords.

But what passes between the Palestinians and the Israelis hardly affects a crime committed on an Italian ship for which the perpetrator has been sentenced to five life terms. The Palestinians say he should be released on the grounds that members of the PLO should not be detained or tried for matters committed before the Oslo peace accords. As that agreement was signed by President Bill Clinton among others, the US has no right to detain Abu Abbas.

The Italians say that the sentence passed by their courts still stands and Abu Abbas must be extradited. And on this they are right. Terrorist crimes such as hijacking are a menace to the whole international community. If nothing else, the world came solidly behind the US on this issue after 11 September. America may still have to prove its case for saying that President Saddam was promoting terrorism when the Allies chose to invade Iraq. The 17-year residence of an ageing figure from the past such as Abu Abbas in Baghdad proves nothing. However, a terrorist killer he was, and he should be returned to Italy to serve his sentence.
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