By Way of Deception

BY WAY OF DECEPTION 179they say: "No one will escape the long arm of Israeli justice." Meirsigned death warrants for about 35 known Black Septemberterrorists, including their Beirut-based leader Mohammed YusifNajjar, known as Abu Yusuf, a former senior intelligence officerwith Yassar Arafat's Al Fatah. The group also included the colorfulbut brutal All Hassan Salameh, whom the Mossad called "the RedPrince" and who had masterminded the Munich massacre andwas then operating from East Germany. He eventually met his fatein a 1979 car bombing in Beirut.Because Meir had given the Mossad orders to track down theBlack September killers and take them out as they found them,she herself became the terrorists' number one target. For theMossad, that meant unleashing Metsada's assassination unit, thekidon.Their first post-Munich visit was paid to the PLO's Romerepresentative, Abdel Wa'il Zwaiter, 38, who was waiting for theelevator in his apartment building on October 16, 1972, when hewas shot 12 times at close range.On December 8, Mahmoud Hamchari, 34, the PLO's principalrepresentative in France, answered a telephone call to his Parisapartment."Hello.""Is this Hamchari?""Yes.,'Boom! The Mossad team had installed an explosive device in histelephone; when he lifted the receiver to his head and identifiedhimself, it was set off by remote control. Hamchari was badlymaimed and died a month after the explosion.In late January 1973, Hussein Al Bashir, 33, described as head ofPalmyra Enterprises and traveling on a Syrian passport, went tobed in his second-floor room in Nicosia's Olympic Hotel. Momentslater, an explosion demolished both the room and Bashir, AlFatah's representative in Cyprus. The killer had simply watcheduntil Bashir turned the lights off in his room, then by remotecontrol detonated the explosive device he had planted under thebed.In eulogizing his dead comrade, Arafat swore to seek re-