The Man Who Fingered Abu Nidal
Ever since his arrest five months ago, there has been
speculation about how infamous Palestinian terrorist Abu Nidal
ended up in Egyptian custody. Egyptian authorities refuse even
to acknowledge they have the man whose terror organization
killed or wounded some 900 people during the 1970s and '80s, but
U.S. intelligence sources tell TIME they believe there's a
mundane explanation at the heart of his capture -- greed. Abu
Nidal has assets in real estate and foreign bank accounts that
the CIA estimated in 1990 were worth $200 million. But now Abu
Nidal, who had been living in Libya, has cancer, and
intelligence officials say his underlings had been squabbling
over who will control the estate after he dies. It's suspected
that one of them tipped off Egyptian authorities when Abu Nidal slipped
into Cairo last July for treatment, to get an earlier shot at
the loot.