tion (PLO); and spiritual godfather and chief of Black September Or-
ganization. He was the PLO’s third-ranking member after Arafat and
Abu Jihad, regarded as one of the movement’s most moderate and
pragmatic figures. Khalaf was assassinated on 14 January 1991 in Tu-
nis by a Palestinian gunman, Hamza Abu Zid, a member of the Abu
Nidal group who had switched allegiance to Fatah. During the inter-
rogation, the assassin told his PLO captors that he was in fact a dou-
ble agent who was still working for Abu Nidal and had been ordered
to kill Khalaf. Since the assassination took place just one day prior to
the launching of the Desert Storm operation against Iraq, there was
room to consider a possible interest of the United States and Israel in
removing an experienced PLO operator at the time of the battle. Israel
had a long and bloody account to settle with Khalaf, but on the other
hand, Israel had been specifically requested by the United States to
maintain regional quiet. It must be assumed that the truth of who was
behind the killing will never be known.KHALED MASH’AL FIASCO.On 24 September 1997 members of
the Kidon subunit of the Mossadflew separately from Tel Aviv via
Athens, Paris, and Rome to Amman, Jordan, where they checked in as
tourists at the Intercontinental Hotel. Several of them traveled on
French and Italian passports. Two of them, who were using fake Cana-
dian passports in the names of Barry Beads and Sean Kendall, were to
execute the team’s mission, which was to assassinate Khaled Mash’al.
Mash’al was a leader of the Hamas, believed by the Israeli govern-
ment to be behind many terrorist attacks that cost the lives of Israeli
civilians. The Israeli Committee X, chaired at that time by Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had decided on the assassination. The
prime minister also resolved that the mission be accomplished on Jor-
danian soil. Although Mash’al resided in Jordan, this was a curious
decision considering the extremely delicate Israeli-Jordanian relations
after the two countries signed a peace treaty in 1994.
The day after their arrival, “Beads” and “Kendall” attempted to poi-
son Mash’al in a crowded Amman street by spraying him with a nerve
agent in an aerosol can, but they managed to use only half the can’s
contents. The attack was observed, and the two fled; Mash’al was
rushed to a hospital and placed on a respirator. The support members
of the Kidon unit succeeded in leaving Jordan on their fake documents,KHALED MASH’AL FIASCO• 14306-102 (03) H-P.qxd 3/24/06 7:24 AM Page 143