[Ben Hecks]

"That may explain why they killed Abu Nedal."

According to reports, Abu Nidal was found dead on August 19.....I had the same thought as you.

[FreeReign]

According to reports, Abu Nidal was found dead on August 19.....I had the same thought as you.

Has Nidal's death ever been confirmed or do we simply have the word of Aziz and other Iraqi and Palestinian "officials" that he is dead?

Anybody?

[piasa]

AUGUST 14, 2002 : (ABU NIDAL ARRESTED) And so he set up an office with a guard and an apartment--which is where Iraqi intelligence supposedly arrested him this summer on August 14. But here there are two extremely divergent sides to the story. First the account as provided to reporters by Tahhir Jalil Haboush, chief of Iraqi intelligence:
Officials appeared at the doorstep of Nidal's apartment with orders to bring him to court. As "Jane's World Insurgency and Terrorism" relays, "when the security officers arrive at his home, Abu Nidal said he needed to go to his bedroom to change his clothes. Haboush said a shot was fired, and the officers found that Abu Nidal had shot himself in the mouth. He was then rushed to the hospital where he died eight hours later."
But Palestinian sources in Ramallah told "Jane's" quite a different story, saying that Abu Nidal "had set up plans to target a senior Iraqi official and that his group received $4 million from an Arab country for the operation. It was this . . . that prompted Iraqi intelligence to order the assassination of Abu Nidal and the arrest of his assistants." Palestinian sources also reported that Nidal's body "bore several gunshot wounds," thus casting doubts on the idea of a suicide.
If the Palestinian sources are to be believed, two questions linger: Which Arab state was helping Nidal? Who was the targeted official? - "An "Apparent" Suicide : Terrorist Abu Nidal dies in Iraq after he shoots himself in the head. Four times." by Victorino Matus , The Weekly Standard, 09/10/2002 12:00:00 AM

[piasa]

"We know that Saddam Hussein has, over the years, been one of the top state sponsors of terrorism for nearly 20 years," Cheney said. "We've had this recent weird incident where the head of the Abu Nidal organization, one of the world's most noted terrorists, was killed in Baghdad. The announcement was made by the head of Iraqi intelligence. The initial announcement said he'd shot himself. When they dug into that, though, he'd shot himself four times in the head. And speculation has been, that, in fact, somehow, the Iraqi government or Saddam Hussein had him eliminated to avoid potential embarrassment by virtue of the fact that he was in Baghdad and operated in Baghdad. So it's a very complex picture to try to sort out." - Vice President Dick Cheney on 'Meet the Press,' September 2002

[IGOTMINE]

Dead men telling no tales was the first thing I thought when I read this too.

GMTA.