Egypt Reportedly Captures Terrorist Figure Abu Nidal

Abu Nidal, the Palestinian extremist whose reign over a terrorist network in the 1980s made him one of the world’s most dangerous men, has been caught by Egypt and is now being detained there, according to U.S. officials.

Abu Nidal apparently was caught after he crossed the border from Libya, where he has been headquartered for several years. Washington has been informed of the apprehension by the government of Egypt but knows few details, the sources said.

Recent reports in the Arab press have suggested that Abu Nidal is ailing and might require advanced medical care unavailable in Libya.

The capture of Abu Nidal coincides with a major U.S. campaign to deal with the threat of terrorism on several fronts.

Just four days after a U.S. cruise missile attack on alleged Afghan terrorist camps linked to the recent U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced Monday that the United States and Britain have agreed to a compromise that would allow two Libyans charged in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 to be tried under Scottish law in the Netherlands.

“The delays in bringing the suspects to trial have gone on for far too long. . . . We now challenge Libya to turn promises into deeds,” Albright said after phoning victims’ families to announce the decision.

In the wake of the Aug. 7 bombings in East Africa, which killed more than 260 people, including 12 Americans, the United States is escalating its efforts to deal with the amorphous and multifaceted threat of terrorism, both in public and behind closed doors.

In New York, U.S. diplomats told the U.N. Security Council on Monday that a terrorist network headed by exiled Saudi extremist Osama bin Laden has been tied to 18 terrorist attacks in recent years. U.S. officials believe Bin Laden was the mastermind of the embassy bombings.

And in a move that could provide new legal options for the Clinton administration in dealing with terrorism, a U.S. grand jury, according to the Wall Street Journal, has handed down a sealed indictment against Bin Laden. The indictment is reportedly for activities that predate the African bombings.

As for Abu Nidal, given the extent of his alleged crimes, Egypt faces a difficult decision in determining what to do with a man linked to terrorist attacks in 20 countries that killed or injured almost 900 people.

Among Abu Nidal’s most notorious acts were the twin 1985 attacks on the Rome and Vienna airports, the 1986 hijacking of Pan Am Flight 73 and the assassinations of several leading figures in the Palestine Liberation Organization. Abu Nidal split from the PLO in 1974 as it began to explore a political solution to the issue of securing a Palestinian homeland.

Egypt has publicly denied persistent reports about his detention. U.S. officials say the government of President Hosni Mubarak has privately expressed concern about the potential reaction.

The danger of backlash has become more acute in the aftermath of last week’s U.S. attacks on suspected Bin Laden camps in Afghanistan. The Islamic Jihad in Egypt is Bin Laden’s closest ally. Egypt is widely considered a prime area for possible retaliation.

Although Abu Nidal’s organization has diminished in size and stature in recent years, it still commands several hundred members in the Mideast, including Lebanon, Sudan, Syria and Iraq, with a “limited overseas support structure,” according to the State Department’s Patterns of Global Terrorism 1997.

In the past, the Abu Nidal Organization, which also uses half a dozen other names, has operated in the Middle East, Asia and Europe. His group has not targeted Western facilities or personnel, however, since the late 1980s, the State Department said.

In the early 1990s, Abu Nidal supporters engaged in major clashes with more moderate wings of the Palestinian movement. Abu Nidal also is suspected in the 1991 assassination of Abu Iyad, then-PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat’s political heir apparent.

U.S. officials hope the capture of Abu Nidal, whose real name is Sabri Banna, will lead to closure of another anguishing chapter in Mideast extremism.

The Clinton administration acknowledged that the decision to offer a compromise proposal for trying the Lockerbie suspects in The Hague is controversial among some families of the 189 American victims. The goal is to break a deadlock that prevented any form of justice, Albright said.

“In dealing with a tragedy as profound and gut-wrenching as this one, we cannot speak of achieving true justice in the human sense, for true justice implies a balancing of the scales, and there is no action or force or thing on Earth that can balance the loss of a husband, a daughter, son, parent or wife,” she told reporters.

“But we can and do demand accountability.”

Libya had pressed for the two men to be tried in a neutral location because the regime of Moammar Kadafi charged that they would not receive a fair trial in the United States or Britain. The key difference between the new offer and Libya’s proposal involves who will serve as judge. Libya wants an international panel; the U.S.-British offer calls for Scottish judges.

Albright stressed the heightened U.S. effort in fighting terrorism. One way or another, terrorists “must answer” for their crimes, she said.

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Legacy of Terror

Abu Nidal, who reportedly is being detained in Egypt, has been linked to numerous terrorist attacks:

Jan. 29, 1994: Jordanian First Secretary Naeb Umran Maaitah is shot to death in West Beirut.

July 11, 1988: Masked gunmen storm the Greek cruise ship City of Poros near Athens, hurling grenades and firing submachine guns. Nine people are killed and at least 60 others are wounded.

Sept. 6, 1986: In a suicide attack by two terrorists wielding submachine guns and grenades, 22 worshipers are slain in the Neve Shalom Synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey.

Sept. 5, 1986: Palestinians seize a Pan Am Boeing 747 at Karachi International Airport in Pakistan. Twenty people are killed when security forces storm the plane.

Dec. 27, 1985: Two terrorist teams firing assault rifles and throwing grenades strike minutes apart at the international airports in Rome and Vienna, leaving 17 dead and at least 116 wounded.

Nov. 24, 1985: Egypt Air Flight 648 is hijacked on a flight from Athens to Cairo and lands in Malta. The hijackers kill two passengers before Egyptian police raid the plane. Fifty-eight others die in the raid.

Dudley Knox Library Terrorist Profiles, Naval Postgraduate School; Times files.