Future of Abbas undecided

WASHINGTON -- American officials weighed options Wednesday for handling terrorist mastermind Abul Abbas as Italy prepared to seek his extradition and the Palestinian Authority demanded his release.\nU.S. officials would not disclose their plans for Abbas, captured by American special operations forces Monday night in Iraq during one of several raids in and around Baghdad. The raids on hideouts of Abbas' Palestine Liberation Front also nabbed other suspects and turned up weapons including rocket-propelled grenades, passports from Yemen and Lebanon and other documents, military officials said.\nU.S. officials view Abbas' capture as a major win in the war on terrorism and a vindication of President Bush's charge that Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq was harboring terrorists.\nNo matter where they take Abbas -- his real name is Mohammed Abbas -- his American captors are sure to grill him about his ties to other terrorists and Saddam, who sheltered Abbas for years.\n"Justice will be served," said Marine Maj. Brad Bartelt, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command.\nAbbas' interrogators also will want to hear about the 1985 hijacking of the Achille Lauro cruise ship in the Mediterranean Sea, during which an elderly American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, was shot to death and dumped overboard in his wheelchair. Abbas was convicted by an Italian court in absentia for plotting the hijacking and sentenced to life in prison.\nItalian Justice Minister Roberto Castelli said Wednesday his country will seek Abbas' extradition.\n"Now we know he has been captured in Iraq, but that he's in the hands of American authorities, we will have to clarify some legal questions as to whom to request the extradition, which we'll do as soon as possible," he said.\nKlinghoffer's daughters, Lisa and Ilsa Klinghoffer, said Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show that they want Abbas returned to the United States for trial and sentencing.\n"We want him brought here, and we want him tried here, in our country, and we want to know that he's going to serve his full sentence, which is hopefully a life sentence," said Lisa Klinghoffer.\nThe Palestinian Authority demanded Abbas' release, saying his arrest violated a 1995 interim agreement between Israel and the Palestinians that was also signed by then-U.S. President Clinton. No PLO officials were to be arrested for violent acts committed before the 1993 Israel-PLO pact of mutual recognition, said a Palestinian Cabinet minister, Saeb Erekat.\nErekat said Abbas has visited Palestinian areas repeatedly since 1996 with Israeli and U.S. acquiescence.\nBefore his capture Monday night, Abbas had tried twice to flee Iraq through Syria but was turned away, Palestinian officials close to the guerrilla leader's organization said Wednesday. They said he also had tried to get into Iran.\nAfter the fall of Baghdad last week, Abbas traveled to Mosul and then to the Syrian border but was recognized and turned back by Syrian officials. He returned to the Syrian border several days ago after Palestinian guerrilla factions based in Damascus tried to intercede with the Syrian government on his behalf, but was turned away again. He returned to Baghdad, where he has been living for most of the last 18 years, and was captured the next day, the officials said from south Lebanon, on condition that they not be identified further.\nU.S. authorities allowed an arrest warrant for Abbas in connection with the Achille Lauro case to expire after his Italian conviction. It was unclear whether he would face charges for that hijacking in U.S. courts.\n"He got away from us, and we've been chasing him ever since," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. "He's a big catch for us. It's an old score to settle."\nAbbas and his small faction had been relatively quiet in the decade after the Achille Lauro hijacking, and he repeatedly apologized for it. In recent years his group has been a conduit for some of the $35 million Saddam's regime paid to families of Palestinian suicide bombers. Israeli officials also have accused the PLF and Abbas of training would-be terrorists at a camp in Iraq for potential attacks, including firing shoulder-launched missiles at civilian airliners.\nBush mentioned Abbas in an October speech in which he outlined the United States' argument for removing Saddam from power.\nAbbas, 55, had eluded arrest since four of his followers hijacked the Achille Lauro as it sailed from Egypt to Israel in October 1985. They demanded that Israel release 50 imprisoned Palestinians.\nDuring the hijacking, his followers shot and killed Klinghoffer, 69. The hijackers then tossed Klinghoffer and his wheelchair off the cruise ship.\nThe hijacking ended after Egypt and representatives of the Palestine Liberation Organization negotiated with the hijackers. Abbas, who helped negotiate the surrender, and the four hijackers were flown out of Egypt on a jet that was intercepted by U.S. Navy fighters and forced to land in Sicily.\nTensions arose as soon as the plane landed. Armed U.S. and Italian soldiers faced off, each side demanding custody of the hijackers. The situation was only resolved after feverish telephone calls between Premier Bettino Craxi and President Reagan.\nThe Italians took custody of the four and promised to try them, but refused to detain Abbas, saying the evidence compiled by Washington was insufficient and that he held an Iraqi diplomatic passport. Within two days, he slipped out of the country.\nTwo weeks later, Italian magistrates filed charges against Abbas and issued an arrest warrant, which has remained outstanding.\nIn June 1986 he was tried in absentia, convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for masterminding the hijacking. The sentence was upheld on appeal.