| Baghdad: Terrorist Haven |
Abu Abbas (above), Zarqawi (left)
Saddam's Iraq has provided shelter for major terrorists since 1985
-- almost twenty years ago.
Based on Deroy Murdock, "Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror"
(http://husseinandterror.com).
Abu Abbas, responsible for the Achille Lauro hijacking, found refuge in
Saddam’s Baghdad.
As secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Front, Abbas masterminded the
1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro. Terrorists held some 400
passengers hostage at sea for 44 hours; they shot a disabled American, Leon
Klinghoffer, and threw him into the sea.
The hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities in exchange for safe passage to
Tunisia, and Abu Abbas joined them on an Egypt Air flight. When four U.S. fighter
planes forced the airliner to land at a NATO base in Sicily, Italian officials took the
hijackers into custody. But because Abbas possessed an Iraqi diplomatic
passport, he was freed. Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy, was quoted as
saying, “Abu Abbas was the holder of an Iraqi diplomatic passport…The plane was
on an official mission, considered covered by diplomatic immunity and extra-
territorial status in the air and on the ground.” For that reason, he was allowed to
leave for Yugoslavia. (October 14, 1985 UPI). He ended up in Baghdad as a guest
of the government.
Abu Nidal lived in Iraq from 1999 until his death (a purported suicide) in
August 2002.
Abu Nidal ran the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) — a Palestinian terror network
responsible for attacks in 20 countries, including 407 deaths of innocent civillians.
The ANO used guns and grenades to attack a ticket counter at Rome’s Leonardo
da Vinci airport on December 27, 1985. Another cell simultaneously assaulted
Vienna’s airport, killing 19 people.
Abu Nidal’s Beirut office said he entered Iraq “with the full knowledge and
preparations of the Iraqi authorities” (Associated Press report, August 21, 2002) –
having killed (among many other victims) eleven Americans in the 1974 bombing of
a TWA jet, five Americans in the 1985 attack in the airport in Rome, and one in the
1986 Pan Am hijacking.
Abu Musab al Zarqawi relocated to Iraq from Afghanistan.
ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and from there went to Baghdad,
where he reportedly was treated for a leg injury at Olympic Hospital, an elite facility
run by the late Uday Hussein. He convalesced in Baghdad for some two months.
Zarqawi then opened a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq.
-- almost twenty years ago.
Based on Deroy Murdock, "Saddam Hussein's Philanthropy of Terror"
(http://husseinandterror.com).
Abu Abbas, responsible for the Achille Lauro hijacking, found refuge in
Saddam’s Baghdad.
As secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Front, Abbas masterminded the
1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro. Terrorists held some 400
passengers hostage at sea for 44 hours; they shot a disabled American, Leon
Klinghoffer, and threw him into the sea.
The hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities in exchange for safe passage to
Tunisia, and Abu Abbas joined them on an Egypt Air flight. When four U.S. fighter
planes forced the airliner to land at a NATO base in Sicily, Italian officials took the
hijackers into custody. But because Abbas possessed an Iraqi diplomatic
passport, he was freed. Bettino Craxi, Prime Minister of Italy, was quoted as
saying, “Abu Abbas was the holder of an Iraqi diplomatic passport…The plane was
on an official mission, considered covered by diplomatic immunity and extra-
territorial status in the air and on the ground.” For that reason, he was allowed to
leave for Yugoslavia. (October 14, 1985 UPI). He ended up in Baghdad as a guest
of the government.
Abu Nidal lived in Iraq from 1999 until his death (a purported suicide) in
August 2002.
Abu Nidal ran the Abu Nidal Organization (ANO) — a Palestinian terror network
responsible for attacks in 20 countries, including 407 deaths of innocent civillians.
The ANO used guns and grenades to attack a ticket counter at Rome’s Leonardo
da Vinci airport on December 27, 1985. Another cell simultaneously assaulted
Vienna’s airport, killing 19 people.
Abu Nidal’s Beirut office said he entered Iraq “with the full knowledge and
preparations of the Iraqi authorities” (Associated Press report, August 21, 2002) –
having killed (among many other victims) eleven Americans in the 1974 bombing of
a TWA jet, five Americans in the 1985 attack in the airport in Rome, and one in the
1986 Pan Am hijacking.
Abu Musab al Zarqawi relocated to Iraq from Afghanistan.
ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan, and from there went to Baghdad,
where he reportedly was treated for a leg injury at Olympic Hospital, an elite facility
run by the late Uday Hussein. He convalesced in Baghdad for some two months.
Zarqawi then opened a terrorist training camp in northern Iraq.
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Table of terrorist
organizations supported
by Saddam Hussein (click
for larger image)
organizations supported
by Saddam Hussein (click
for larger image)
