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Abu Abbas' Final Escape

(New York Post) Editorial - Palestinian arch-terrorist Mohammed (Abu) Abbas, who died this week in U.S. custody, masterminded the 1985 Achille Lauro hijacking, which ended in a deal allowing Abbas and his gang safe passage to Tunisia, where Arafat then had his headquarters, aboard an Egyptian plane. The Reagan administration - in a daring operation planned by Col. Oliver North - sent U.S. fighters to intercept the aircraft and divert it to a NATO air base in Sicily. Then Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi, a Socialist, allowed the entire gang to "escape" to Yugoslavia. Abbas lived a life of relative luxury in Saddam Hussein's Iraq, funneling $25,000 "rewards" from Saddam to the families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Captured Palestinian terrorists told Israeli officials they'd trained in Iraq under Abbas' direct supervision. If only the West had confronted Abbas' terrorism 20 years ago and brought him - and those who share his malignant instincts - to justice, perhaps the War on Terror in which we are engaged today might have been won before it even began.
2004-03-12 00:00:00
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