10
University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Friday, April 4, 1986
Abu Nidal blamed for 103 attacks
The Associated Press
BEIRUT, Lebanon — Palestinians who know the dark world of Arab terrorism say the TWA aircraft bombing is the latest work of Abu Nidal, the elusive mastermind whose followers have spread blood across three continents.
The Israelis have blamed Abu Nidal, a code name that means "father of struggle," for 103 terrorist attacks since he split with Yasser Arafat's mainstream Fatah Palestinian guerrillas in 1974.
The U.S. State Department says his group is among the most dangerous Middle East terrorist organizations. It holds him responsible for 60 attacks in the past eight years in which hundreds of people have been slaughtered, many of them innocent bystanders.
Abu Nidal has used many names for his group. Officials of Syrian-backed Palestinian organizations that also oppose Arafat say the Arab Revolutionary Cells, which asserted responsibility for planting the bomb of the TWA jet, is the latest one. These officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
The bomb blew a hole in the Boeing 727 as it was approaching the airport Wednesday at Athens, Greece, hurting four U.S. citizens to their deaths;
Greece, hat this four U.S. ships to be located Terrorists following Abu Nidal have bombed and murdered from Amman to Islamabad, Vienna to London.
He first gained notoriety in 1974 when his men attacked a Pan Am jet in Rome with incendiary bombs, killing 30 passengers.
Abu Nidal was blamed for the hijacking of an Egyptian airliner in November in which 60 people were killed, most of them when Egyptian commandos stormed aboard while the jet was parked at the Malta airport.
Just after Christmas, terrorists thought to be Abu Nidal's followers attacked passengers at the Rome and Vienna airports. Twenty people were killed, including five U.S. citizens and four terrorists, and more than 110 people wounded.
Interpol, the international police organization, posted worldwide wanted notices for Abu Nidal after the Rome and Vienna attacks.
His actions have precipitated international
events.
The United States accused Libyan leader Moammar Khadab of harboring Abu Nidal and cut economic ties with Khadab's regime after the airport massacres. The latest chapter in U.S.-Libyan relations was a naval conflict last week in the Gulf of Sidra.
On June 3, 1982, Abu Nidal professed responsibility for the attempted assassination in London of Israeli Ambassador Sholmio Argov, who was crippled for life.
Three days later, Israel cited the attack as a reason for its invasion of Lebanon to drive out Palestinian guerrillas.
A London-based Arabic weekly magazine, Al-Majallah, reported recently that Abu Nidal underwent cosmetic surgery to enable him to pass unnoticed through several international airports.
Abu Nidal seldom appears in public or gives interviews. Most photographs of him were taken before his split in 1974 with Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, which has sentenced him to death in absentia.
Pilots may boycott insecure airports
United Press International
LONDON — The bombing of a TWA jet over Greece on Wednesday could prompt a pilots' boycott of airports with lax security, an official for the International Federation of Airline Pilots Associations said yesterday.
"Our primary reaction is one of horror, dismay and disgust," said Terry Middleton, spokesman and executive secretary of the London-based headquarters of the federation, which represents pilots from 60 countries.
"Our constructive reaction will come at our annual meeting in London next week," he said, "I can tell you we are going to exert the maximum pressure we can to improve security."
The bombing, claimed by a pro-Libyan Palestinian individual, followed a series of recent terrorist attacks on airlines and airports, including the hijacking last summer of a TWA jet to Beirut, where 31 American passengers were held for 17 days.
Middleton said security would be the main item on the agenda of the federation's five-day meeting,
"There are a lot of proposals from many countries," Middleton said. "They are aimed at strengthening our policies and strengthening and streamlining the action we will be able to take against airports we find to be delinquent in addressing security requirements."
Middleton declined to criticize individual countries or airports.
"We can cease flying to some countries as a last resort only," he said. "But we prefer to, and we can, put diplomatic pressure on states and airlines in certain areas and in international forums."
"But I have no knowledge of specific states being singited out yet and have no proposals on this. That is too much to be said."
Capt. Mike Clarke, chairman of the British Airline Pilots Association, said his group would consider a boycott of countries that harbor terrorists or that are considered insecure.
He said, however, that there would have to be a significant majority vote in favor of a boycott. Clarke emphasized that no ban would be declared if it was thought the success rate would be limited.
TWA attack frightens off air travelers
United Press International
People who feared more terrorist attacks after a bomb exploded on the TWA jetliner over Greece canceled trips abroad yesterday, and an international passengers group warned travelers to stay away from the Mediterranean.
"I wouldn't go overseas," said Neville Johnson of New York City. "Even if I could afford it."
Other tourists, however, simply scrapped plans to go to the Middle East and Western Europe, choosing instead to go to spots they thought were safer — such as the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia.
The warning said, "Travel for Americans into the Mediterranean area, unless absolutely essential, should be avoided."
The Dallas-based International Airline Passengers Association cautioned travelers to keep out of the Mediterranean, citing the apparent inability of the U.S. government and other friendly governments in that area to protect U.S. citizens from terrorist attacks.
Americans seemed to be heeding the warning — and then some.
Three of the five attacks on eastern Mediterranean aircraft and airports in the past 9½ months involved the US, France or from Athens. Greece, it noted.
Travel agents across the country reported many cancellations of trips overseas by travelers fearing terrorism. Four passengers were killed in Wednesday's bomb explosion.
"We've seen a real drop in bookings and more cancellations on places like Egypt, Italy and Greece," said Joan Daley, manager of Horizons Unlimited Travel in San Francisco.
"People are waiting to see what's going on in the world before making their plans," she said.
Dotty Kilmer, owner of Accent Travel in Plantation, Fla., said of the TWA bombing, "I tell you, when I heard that news, I didn't want to come into work. We weren't really getting much european business anyway because of previous terrorist incidents."
Klare Wiener, manager of Allure Travel in Delray Beach, Fla., got a telephone call Wednesday from a man canceling a TWA flight to London and Moscow.
Agents said vacationers also chose new destinations — in the United States, Canada and the Caribbean — instead of going to Europe or the Middle East.
"He booked a domestic flight instead. As he said, 'Why push it? It’s frightening.' she noted. "I don’t know any other word to use."
Safety concerns also renewed interest in travel to Eastern Europe, including such as countries as Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Romania, she said.
Catherine Devlin of UAS Travel in New York City said, "There is a surge in going to Russia this year. The feeling is that there is tighter security (in Eastern Europe)."
Eugene Ovalle, owner of Altatravel in San Francisco, said, "Some travelers became more choosy about which airline they would take, said. Some clients, he said, "expressed fear of traveling on TWA. But we tell them it's all the airlines."
IS GRADUATE EDUCATION IN YOUR FUTURE?
HAVE YOU THOUGHT ABOUT GOING TO
GRADUATE SCHOOL? EVEN IF YOU HAVEN'T...
The Graduate School of the University of Kansas would like to invite you to attend a special informative meeting on April 7,1986 from 4:00 to 5:00 p.m. In the Alderson Auditorium of the Kansas Union. Refreshments will be served.
COME WITH YOUR QUESTIONS & CURIOSITY...
Monday, April 7th, 4:00-5:00 P.M.
Alderson Auditorium, Kansas Union
Questions for Heterosexuals
1. What made you heterosexual? Did you have a bad homosexual experience when you were young?
2. Is your heterosexual orientation something you chose, or is it something you can't control?
3. Do heterosexuals want to sleep with everybody of the opposite sex?
4. How old were you when you first had these heterosexual feelings?
5. Did you turn heterosexual because you hate all members of your sex?
tions are asked questions similar to these all the time. If you think these are stupid, just imagine how we feel.
Persons with homosexual orienta-
Gay and Lesbian Awareness Week Gay and Lesbian Services of Kansas
Man arrested for saying he had a bomb on plane
United Press International
NEW YORK - A passenger on a TWA flight to Puerto Rico told a stewardess his guitar amplifier was a bomb and promptly was arrested yesterday a day after a bomb exploded on a TWA airplane
over Greece, killing four people. Trans World Airlines also was
Trans World Airlines also was the target of another bomb threat.
An unidentified man called the emergency number at 6:34 a.m., saying a bomb was on the next TWA flight leaving John F. Kennedy Airport, official said.
Fri. & Sat. April 4 & 5
3:30, 7:00, 9:30
$1.50 Woodruff Aud.
DECADENT DOUBLE BILL
This is "the" 1837 warning to loose women.
A film classic - now an unraveled comedy.
From New Line Cinemas, the gang who brought "KEEPER MADNESS."
YOU WON'T CLAP AT THIS ONE!
Fri. & Sat. April 4 & 5 MIDNIGHT
$2.00 Woodruff Aud.
Sun. & Mon. April 6 & 7
Sun. - 2:00 Mon. - 7:30
$2.00 Woodruff Aud.