Achille Lauro mastermind Abbas dies in U.S. custody

[MetalBoy]

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) -- Abu Abbas, head of a Palestinian splinter group, who masterminded the 1985 hijacking of an Italian passenger ship in which an American tourist was killed, has died in U.S. custody in Iraq, Palestinian officials said Tuesday.

The ship, the Achille Lauro, was commandeered by Abbas' small Palestine Liberation Front. Palestinian militants threw an elderly wheelchair-bound Jewish American tourist, Leon Klinghoffer, overboard.

Abbas was captured in Iraq in April by U.S. forces. Late Tuesday, officials in Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat's office, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Abbas had died Monday in U.S. custody.

In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Abu Abbas died recently of natural causes while in U.S. custody in Iraq. The official said his health had been deteriorating. He was believed to be in U.S. military custody.

When Abbas was captured, the Palestinian Authority demanded his release, saying the United States had pledged not to prosecute him as part of a blanket promise not to press charges against Palestinians who acted against Israel before interim peace accords were signed in the 1990s.

The United States also endorsed a 1995 interim peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians which grants PLO members immunity for violent acts committed before September 1993, when the two sides signed a mutual recognition agreement.

Abu Abbas has been a marginal figure in the PLO. Abbas, 55, was a member of the PLO's executive committee, but left in 1991. His tiny faction has very few followers in the West Bank and Gaza. According to Israel's Shin Bet security service, the PLF has sent some members to Iraq for military training.

In April 1996, Abu Abbas visited Gaza for the first time, as part of the amnesty offered by Israel. At the time, he apologized for the killing of Klinghoffer.

In 1998, he returned to attend a session of the Palestine National Council, the Palestinians' parliament-in-exile, for a crucial vote on abrogating chapters of the PLO founding charter calling for Israel's destruction. In the end, Abul Abbas did not participate in the vote.

At that time, Israeli attorney general Elyakim Rubinstein said Abu Abbas did not pose a threat to Israeli security, and that it would be unreasonable to prosecute him for acts committed before 1993.
woot

[George W. Bush]

What a shame. :lol: :backhand: :slap: woot :hug:

[Kilgor]

I hope he died after a extremely long, painful, and productive interrogation

:slap:

[Flagg]

he apologized for the killing of Klinghoffer

No hard feelings right? Wrong......


In Washington, a U.S. official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said Abu Abbas died recently of natural causes while in U.S. custody in Iraq. The official said his health had been deteriorating.

"health had been deteriorating"

Must have been a result of guilt.....or maybe he accidentally fell down a lot

[MetalBoy]

Oh come on, don't be so mean he just wanted to live in peace at his nice retirement villa in Baghdad. Abbu Abbas: Rest In Pieces.

[MetalBoy]

Good article from Washington Post about victims of Abbu Abbas's terrorist network. Its a shame he died before justice was served.

Abu Abbas, the former head of a Palestinian terrorist group who was captured in Iraq on April 15, is infamous for masterminding the 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. But there are probably few who remember why Abbas's terrorists held the ship and its 400-plus passengers hostage for two days. It was to gain the release of a Lebanese terrorist named Samir Kuntar, who is locked up in an Israeli prison for life. Kuntar's name is all but unknown to the world. But I know it well. Because almost a quarter of a century ago, Kuntar murdered my family.

It was a murder of unimaginable cruelty, crueler even than the murder of Leon Klinghoffer, the American tourist who was shot on the Achille Lauro and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Kuntar's mission against my family, which never made world headlines, was also masterminded by Abu Abbas. And my wish now is that this terrorist leader should be prosecuted in the United States, so that the world may know of all his terrorist acts, not the least of which is what he did to my family on April 22, 1979.


Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building.

It had been a peaceful Sabbath day. My husband, Danny, and I had picnicked with our little girls, Einat, 4, and Yael, 2, on the beach not far from our home in Nahariya, a city on the northern coast of Israel, about six miles south of the Lebanese border. Around midnight, we were asleep in our apartment when four terrorists, sent by Abu Abbas from Lebanon, landed in a rubber boat on the beach two blocks away. Gunfire and exploding grenades awakened us as the terrorists burst into our building. They had already killed a police officer. As they charged up to the floor above ours, I opened the door to our apartment. In the moment before the hall light went off, they turned and saw me. As they moved on, our neighbor from the upper floor came running down the stairs. I grabbed her and pushed her inside our apartment and slammed the door.

Outside, we could hear the men storming about. Desperately, we sought to hide. Danny helped our neighbor climb into a crawl space above our bedroom; I went in behind her with Yael in my arms. Then Danny grabbed Einat and was dashing out the front door to take refuge in an underground shelter when the terrorists came crashing into our flat.

They held Danny and Einat while they searched for me and Yael, knowing there were more people in the apartment. I will never forget the joy and the hatred in their voices as they swaggered about hunting for us, firing their guns and throwing grenades. I knew that if Yael cried out, the terrorists would toss a grenade into the crawl space and we would be killed. So I kept my hand over her mouth, hoping she could breathe. As I lay there, I remembered my mother telling me how she had hidden from the Nazis during the Holocaust. "This is just like what happened to my mother," I thought.

As police began to arrive, the terrorists took Danny and Einat down to the beach. There, according to eyewitnesses, one of them shot Danny in front of Einat so that his death would be the last sight she would ever see. Then he smashed my little girl's skull in against a rock with his rifle butt. That terrorist was Samir Kuntar.

By the time we were rescued from the crawl space, hours later, Yael, too, was dead. In trying to save all our lives, I had smothered her.

The next day, Abu Abbas announced from Beirut that the terrorist attack in Nahariya had been carried out "to protest the signing of the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty" at Camp David the previous year. Abbas seems to have a gift for charming journalists, but imagine the character of a man who protests an act of peace by committing an act of slaughter.

Two of Abbas's terrorists had been killed by police on the beach. The other two were captured, convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Despite my protests, one was released in a prisoner exchange for Israeli POWs several months before the Achille Lauro hijacking. Abu Abbas was determined to find a way to free Kuntar as well. So he engineered the hijacking of the Achille Lauro off the coast of Egypt and demanded the release of 50 Arab terrorists from Israeli jails. The only one of those prisoners actually named was Samir Kuntar. The plight of hundreds held hostage on a cruise ship for two days at sea lent itself to massive international media coverage. The attack on Nahariya, by contrast, had taken less than an hour in the middle of the night. So what happened then was hardly noticed outside of Israel.


Even when you have suffered, you can choose whether to kill and ruin another's life, or whether to go on and rebuild.

One hears the terrorists and their excusers say that they are driven to kill out of desperation. But there is always a choice. Even when you have suffered, you can choose whether to kill and ruin another's life, or whether to go on and rebuild. Even after my family was murdered, I never dreamed of taking revenge on any Arab. But I am determined that Samir Kuntar should never be released from prison.

In 1984, I had to fight my own government not to release him as part of an exchange for several Israeli soldiers who were POWs in Lebanon. I understood, of course, that the families of those POWs would gladly have agreed to the release of an Arab terrorist to get their sons back. But I told Yitzhak Rabin, then defense minister, that the blood of my family was as red as that of the POWs. Israel had always taken a position of refusing to negotiate with terrorists. If they were going to make an exception, let it be for a terrorist who was not as cruel as Kuntar. "Your job is not to be emotional," I told Rabin, "but to act rationally." And he did.

So Kuntar remains in prison. I have been shocked to learn that he has married an Israeli Arab woman who is an activist on behalf of terrorist prisoners. As the wife of a prisoner, she gets a monthly stipend from the government. I'm not too happy about that.

In recent years, Abu Abbas started telling journalists that he had renounced terrorism and that killing Leon Klinghoffer had been a mistake. But he has never said that killing my family was a mistake. He was a terrorist once, and a terrorist, I believe, he remains. Why else did he spend these last years, as the Israeli press has reported, free as a bird in Baghdad, passing rewards of $25,000 from Saddam Hussein to families of Palestinian suicide bombers? More than words, that kind of cash prize, which is a fortune to poor families, was a way of urging more suicide bombers. The fortunate thing about Abbas's attaching himself to Hussein is that it set him up for capture.

Some say that Italy should have first crack at Abbas. It had already convicted him of the Achille Lauro hijacking in absentia in 1986. Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi now wants Abbas handed over so that he can begin serving his life sentence. But it's also true that in 1985, the Italians had Abbas in their hands after U.S. fighter jets forced his plane to land in Sicily. And yet they let him go. So while I trust Berlusconi, who knows if a future Italian government might not again wash its hands of Abbas?

In 1995, Rabin, then our prime minister, asked me to join him on his trip to the White House, where he was to sign a peace agreement with Yasser Arafat, which I supported. I believe that he wanted me to represent all Israeli victims of terrorism. Rabin dreaded shaking hands with Arafat, knowing that those hands were bloody. At first, I agreed to make the trip, but at the last minute, I declined. As prime minister, Rabin had to shake hands with Arafat for political reasons. As a private person, I did not. So I stayed here.

Now I am ready and willing to come to the United States to testify against Abu Abbas if he is tried for terrorism. The daughters of Leon Klinghoffer have said they are ready to do the same. Unlike Klinghoffer, Danny, Einat and Yael were not American citizens. But Klinghoffer was killed on an Italian ship in Abbas's attempt to free the killer of my family in Israel. We are all connected by the international web of terrorism woven by Abbas. Let the truth come out in a new and public trial. And let it be in the United States, the leader in the struggle against terrorism.

[scm77]

This is a truly sad day. May we please have a moment of silence to honour that true hero..........Oh **** It I hope he rots in hell. :fork:

[usa320]

How sad. woot

rofl rofl rofl rofl

So Abbas, how are them 72 virgins???

More like how is the 720 degree fires of hell???

[Sixgun Symphony]

You know that the suicide bombers have been mostly young people, you never see the terrorist leaders like Abu Abbas strap on a bomb.

That he allowed himself to be captured shows him to be a coward like Saddam Hussien.

Anyway, I am glad that he died in a cell.

[EvanL]

Good news.
:D
I hope he rots in hell

[SeanAshi]

You know that the suicide bombers have been mostly young people, you never see the terrorist leaders like Abu Abbas strap on a bomb.
Could you see Yassin strap a bomb to his crippled ass?

[Sixgun Symphony]

You know, I can't understand this Abu Abbass. If he really felt that such desperate measures like suice bombers were necessary for victory, then why use his people's youth?

This Abu Abbas was old and with failing health, his time was running out. It would be more logical that he, rather than a young person be strapping on a bomb.

That he allowed himself to be captured.... how could the Arab mothers allow this coward to send their son or daughter out on a suicide mission?

[Midav]

Oh well, no big loss....

[cold0]

..... And Justice for all!

I just regret the italian prime minister Craxi that made this son of bicht escape in '85.

[Ichhabe]

You know, I can't understand this Abu Abbass. If he really felt that such desperate measures like suice bombers were necessary for victory, then why use his people's youth?

This Abu Abbas was old and with failing health, his time was running out. It would be more logical that he, rather than a young person be strapping on a bomb.

That he allowed himself to be captured.... how could the Arab mothers allow this coward to send their son or daughter out on a suicide mission?

You really lack the skill of reading an article...

[Sixgun Symphony]

WTF you trying to say?


Why else did he spend these last years, as the Israeli press has reported, free as a bird in Baghdad, passing rewards of $25,000 from Saddam Hussein to families of Palestinian suicide bombers? More than words, that kind of cash prize, which is a fortune to poor families, was a way of urging more suicide bombers.

The sumbitch was involved with the suicide bombers.

[SeanAshi]

Abbas's widow..http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/rdonlyres/A58EDE93-460A-487E-874A-101130B1D633/31038/33BA7B26C4274E0B9B7C131C33076B2E.jpg"The Americans killed my husband"

[Kilgor]

"sticks and stones may break my bones, but your still one fat ****er ted."

Your sig cracks me up dude.

rofl

[SeanAshi]

Looks like Ted is gonna kiss the prez

[Kilgor]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?

[SeanAshi]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

[Sixgun Symphony]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

Anyone else would have gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter, a felony. But because he was a Kennedy, he got away with it.

[EvanL]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

Anyone else would have gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter, a felony. But because he was a Kennedy, he got away with it.Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.

[Dave the Dawg]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

Anyone else would have gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter, a felony. But because he was a Kennedy, he got away with it.Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.
I "got away" with jaywalking about three times today on the way to work. I hope you can see the difference between vehicular homicide, a felony punishable in Massachusetts by imprisonment of up to 20 years, and a DUI. And I trust you have more evidence of cocaine charges than the fevered swamp of the internet. The circumstances surrounding Mary Jo Kopechne's death have been pretty well-documented.

[EvanL]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

Anyone else would have gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter, a felony. But because he was a Kennedy, he got away with it.Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.
I "got away" with jaywalking about three times today on the way to work. I hope you can see the difference between vehicular homicide, a felony punishable in Massachusetts by imprisonment of up to 20 years, and a DUI. And I trust you have more evidence of cocaine charges than the fevered swamp of the internet. The circumstances surrounding Mary Jo Kopechne's death have been pretty well-documented.
Come on man. I never get caught Jaywalking in the city. The NYPD could give two flying ****s. They do it as well. Unless the city is in a slump then they dont bother issuing summons for them. Thats how they make all their ****ing money. Giving summonses.

[Dave the Dawg]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

Anyone else would have gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter, a felony. But because he was a Kennedy, he got away with it.Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.
I "got away" with jaywalking about three times today on the way to work. I hope you can see the difference between vehicular homicide, a felony punishable in Massachusetts by imprisonment of up to 20 years, and a DUI. And I trust you have more evidence of cocaine charges than the fevered swamp of the internet. The circumstances surrounding Mary Jo Kopechne's death have been pretty well-documented.
Come on man. I never get caught Jaywalking in the city. The NYPD could give two flying f***. They do it as well. Unless the city is in a slump then they dont bother issuing summons for them. Thats how they make all their f*** money. Giving summonses.
Actually, during the Guiliani administration, there was a big push to go after so-called "quality of life" crimes and infractions like jaywalking, littering, public drunkenness, etc. It was based on the broken-windows theory in sociology and was a big factor in cleaning up Times Square and making it the Disney-friendly paradise it is today :roll:

[EvanL]

What was that story about him , the "woman and the car accident ?He was on his way to a hotel so he and his muff could get it on, his drunk ass drove off a bridge, and his muff didn't get out of the car, but Kennedy sat on the shore for 20minutes before he went to get help.

Anyone else would have gone to jail for vehicular manslaughter, a felony. But because he was a Kennedy, he got away with it.Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.
I "got away" with jaywalking about three times today on the way to work. I hope you can see the difference between vehicular homicide, a felony punishable in Massachusetts by imprisonment of up to 20 years, and a DUI. And I trust you have more evidence of cocaine charges than the fevered swamp of the internet. The circumstances surrounding Mary Jo Kopechne's death have been pretty well-documented.
Come on man. I never get caught Jaywalking in the city. The NYPD could give two flying f***. They do it as well. Unless the city is in a slump then they dont bother issuing summons for them. Thats how they make all their f*** money. Giving summonses.
Actually, during the Guiliani administration, there was a big push to go after so-called "quality of life" crimes and infractions like jaywalking, littering, public drunkenness, etc. It was based on the broken-windows theory in sociology and was a big factor in cleaning up Times Square and making it the Disney-friendly paradise it is today :roll:
yeh time square is so gay now. Only tourists go there. He moved out all the good strip joints as well. You gotta head all the way downtown for them now. But he was a great mayor non-the-less. I think Bloomberg is a closet queer.

[SeanAshi]

Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.
Why don't you do us a favor and take your blue rag and cover up your whole face eh? ;)

[EvanL]

Just like alot of "other" "People" can get away with coccaine possession and drunk driving.
Why don't you do us a favor and take your blue rag and cover up your whole face eh? ;)
Why dont
you do us a favour and stop posting. OK? ;)