Master of Mystery and Murder: Abu Nidal

For the shadowy Abu Nidal, terror is a way of life

Sabry Khalil Bana, better known as Abu Nidal, may be the deadliest terrorist alive. He is rarely seen in public, and details of his life are obscure and sometimes contradictory: in 1984, rumors circulated that he had died of heart disease. A year later purported interviews with the Palestinian terrorist were published in France, Kuwait and West Germany. In one of them Abu Nidal, whose nom de guerre means Father of Struggle, bragged that "not even my eight-year-old son Bissam knows exactly who I am."

His works speak for themselves. Over the past twelve years Abu Nidal has molded his organization,...

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