Historical Dictionary of Terrorism Third Edition

PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION • 515raid occurred in the 18th month of talks between the United Statesand the PLO. While Yasir Arafat disavowed any PLO connectionwith the raid, he also would not publicly condemn the raid nor expelAbu Abbas from the PLO Executive Committee. This in turnprompted a suspension by Washington of its dialogue with the PLO.In the past, rejectionist groups, such as the PFLP, the PFLP-GC, andthe PLF, had regularly defied al Fatah and sought to sabotage its effortsat diplomacy by staging such raids, and this may have been theintended aim behind this raid as well. In 1991, however, Abu Abbasresigned his membership in the PLO Executive Committee.On 22 April 1996 Abu Abbas, who was still wanted by the UnitedStates for his role in the Achille Lauro hijacking, attended the PalestineNational Council meeting held in Gaza, during which time hewas immune from arrest by Israeli authorities under the terms of the1993 Oslo Accords. During his attendance at this meeting, Abu Abbasrepeatedly stated to reporters that the Achille Lauro affair “was amistake and it led to other mistakes.” He claimed that his men did notknow Leon Klinghoffer was Jewish or American but had killed him“because he started to incite the passengers against them.” By earlyAugust 1997 the PLO had agreed to settle a civil lawsuit broughtagainst it by the Klinghoffer family. The PLO pleaded unsuccessfullythat as a sovereign state it could not be sued, a position rejected byU.S. District Court Judge Stanton, who ordered Yasir Arafat to givea deposition. Instead the PLO moved to settle the dispute out of courtand to pay the surviving Klinghoffer daughters an undisclosed sum.Abbas was captured by U.S. forces at a PLF training camp nearBaghdad on 15 April 2003, and according to U.S. military authoritieshe confessed to having plotted the hostage taking and seizure of theAchille Lauro, for which he could be extradited to the United Statesfor trial under the U.S. Hostage-Taking Act of 1984. Before thiscould be arranged, Abbas died of a heart attack while still in U.S.custody in Iraq on 8 March 2004.PALESTINE LIBERATION ORGANIZATION (PLO). The Munazzamatal-Tahrir al-Filastiniyyah, or Palestine Liberation Organization,is the umbrella organization comprising the major secularPalestinian political and guerrilla groups that defines itself, and thatis recognized by all Arab governments, as being the “sole, legitimaterepresentative of the Palestinian people.” Therefore, although the