Tanner Stolt

Mr. Bienkowski
Abu Nidal Organization
History and Reason for formation: The ANO was
originally formed as a result of the 1974 Rejectionist Front
split in the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organization), after
Arafat's Fatah had pushed through amendments of the PLO's
goals, which were seen as a step towards compromise with
Israel. Abu Nidal then moved to Ba'athist Iraq where he set
up the ANO, which soon began a vicious string of terrorist
attacks. It has not clearly defined its ideological position, but
was clearly opposed to any form of compromise or
negotiation with Israel. It is known as one of the most
uncompromisingly militant Palestinian groups ever. It had an
estimated membership of several hundred, but its strength
today is not known.
Tactics and Support: The ANO carried out attacks in 20
countries, killing or injuring almost 900 persons. Targets
include the United States, the United Kingdom, France,
Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO, and various Arab and
European countries. The group has not attacked Western
targets since the late 1980s. Major attacks included the
Rome and Vienna Airport Attacks in December 1985, the
Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and the Pan Am Flight
73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and the City of
Poros day-excursion ship attack in Greece in July 1988.
Fatah-RC is believed to have assassinated PLO deputy chief
Abu Iyad and PLO security chief Abu Hul in Tunis in January
1991. It assassinated a Jordanian diplomat in Lebanon in
January 1994 and has been linked to the killing of the PLO
representative there. Noted PLO moderate Issam Sartawi
was killed by the Fatah-RC in 1983. In the late 1970s, the
group also made failed assassination attempt on the present
Palestinian president and PLO chairman, Mahmoud Abbas.
These attacks, and numerous others, led to the PLO issuing a
death sentence in absentia against Abu Nidal. In the early
1990s, it made an attempt to gain control of a refugee camp

in Lebanon, but this was thwarted by PLO organizations.

1) If I had to give this group a rating of 1-10 I would give
them a 7.
the 1994 assassination of the senior Jordanian diplomat
Naeb Imran Maaytah in Beirut;
The group wants the state of Israel to be eliminated, preferably
through an international Arab revolution, and therefore supports
armed struggle against Israel. It bitterly opposes Arab-Israeli peace
negotiations, as well as the United States, the PLO, and moderate
Arab regimes in Jordan, Egypt, and the Persian Gulf states. It has also
served as a mercenary terrorist force for radical Arab regimes.
Abu Nidal: Abu Nidal, which means father of the struggle in

Arabic, is the alias of Sabri al-Banna, who was born in 1937 into a
landowning family in British-ruled Palestine. During the 1948
Arab-Israeli War, Bannas family fled, ending up in the West
Bank. In the 1950s, he joined the Arab nationalist Baath Party,
and in 1967 he got involved with the PLO. Abu Nidal represented
al-Fatahthe dominant faction of the PLO, led by Yasir Arafat
in Sudan and later Iraq. He split with the PLO in 1974 after it
proposed the creation of a national authority in the West Bank
and Gaza Strip as a step toward Palestinian statehood. Abu
Nidal, who continued to advocate Israels destruction, accused
the PLO of selling out by pursuing diplomatic relations with the
state of Israel and set up his own organization, the Fatah
Revolutionary Councilsignifying that he saw his group as the
true heir to Arafats Fatah movement.