Part 113 – OCTOBER 23 1988
"The fact that the Iraqi government either executed Abu Nidal or forced him to commit suicide suggests they had discovered he was an American spy." - Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and Edinburgh law professor Robert Black, Joint statement, Oct. 26 2008
On Sunday Oct. 23 1988, Dalkamoni receives a call from Abu Hassan in Damascus. Dalkamoni tells Hassan that all is ready and that he will be with him by Friday Oct. 28.
Khreesat spends most the day in the residence working on the construction of the IEDs. A number of visitors come to the residence. Khreesat keeps on working and does not meet them. He does not know them anyway.
During the day, Dalkamoni comes into the workroom with a fifth IED. Dalkamoni tells Khreesat that two wires have to be soldered together. Khreesat takes the device and positions it so that the front face is towards him. Then, Khreesat puts it face down on the work table.
Khreesat carefully removes three screws and then removes the cover after flipping the device over onto its back.
Khreesat notices an altimeter under the cassette part of the device. Khreesat asks Dalkamoni if the IED would explode in a car journey. Dalkamoni replies that the IED would not explode. Dalkamoni explains that he is going to Frankfurt and there is no hill on the journey.
Khreesat sees a speaker on the right side of the radio. Dalkamoni reaches over and pulls the speaker out. Dalkamoni then points to two wires and tells Khreesat to solder these two wires together.
Khreesat tells Dalkamoni that he must test the device before soldering the two wires together.
Dalkamoni tells Khreesat not to check the device first. Khreesat finds this order very strange, as Dalkamoni in the past has always stressed that Khreesat must be very careful and always double-check everything.
Khreesat checks the device first anyway. There is no current in the circuit. Next he solders the two wires together.
Khreesat can not see the explosive charge in the device. However, he sees a couple of small cardboard that do not belong in the Toshiba radio.
Khreesat notices that some of the radio's components are missing, including the transformer and about one-half of the circuit board. The circuit board is normally L-shaped, but part of the L had been removed.
Khreesat thus tells Dalkamoni that the IED would most likely be detected by airport security personnals as they are trained to check that electrical appliance are functioning. Dalkamoni tells Khreesat not to worry about this. He reminds him that Elias has all the details about boarding the bomb.
Back to the Present
According to Secret Iraqi papers, Abu Nidal, one of the worst terrorist in history, was a US Intelligence asset.
"Iraqi secret police believed that the notorious Palestinian assassin Abu Nidal was working for the Americans as well as Egypt and Kuwait when they interrogated him in Baghdad only months before the Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Hitherto secret documents which are now in the hands of The Independent – written by Saddam Hussein's brutal security services for Saddam's eyes only – state that he had been "colluding" with the Americans and, with the help of the Egyptians and Kuwaitis, was trying to find evidence linking Saddam and al-Qa'ida," writes Robert Fisks in the Independent. [1]
Former Labour MP Tam Dalyell and Edinburgh law professor Robert Black are now urging the Scottish and UK governments to answer reports there is evidence Abu Nidal was a US agent.
Considering that from 1987 until 1991, British intelligence and the CIA monitored all transactions of the BCCI accounts of the Abu Nidal Organization but never froze them nor ever arrested his operatives and suppliers, I doubt very much that the UK government will provide any answer to these new allegations. The reader is reminded that Nidal has taken credit for the bombing of Pan Am 103.
"The reports added weight to the theory that Lockerbie was a "tit-for-tat" attack for the shooting down of an Iranian passenger airliner by the warship USS Vincennes in 1988, and was allowed by the US administration," Dalyell said.
"The claims that Abu Nidal was working for the Americans would explain some of the mysteries that surrounded the Lockerbie outrage. These included a notice that went up at the American embassy in Moscow warning diplomats not to travel on Pan Am flights, and senior South African figures being "hauled off" the plane before its final flight," the former Labour MP added.
"If the American public had known of a link with Abu Nidal, and had known that the US government knew enough to pull VIPs off the plane and let home-going students take their place, there would have been fury at a time of transition between the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George Bush Snr, Mr Dalyell and Prof Black said in a joint statement.
NOTES AND REFERENCES
1.
Abu Nidal, notorious Palestinian mercenary, 'was a US spy'
