---
aliases:
  - Sabri al-Banna
  - Sabri Al-Bannah
category: "Extremism & Violent Networks"
tags:
  - Person
  - ArmsDealer
  - Israel
  - BCCI
  - Terrorism
summary: "Palestinian terrorist and target of Israeli intelligence operations, connected to the Achille Lauro attack and arms trafficking networks, whose organization was financed through BCCI in London."
born: 1937
died: 2002
location: "Jaffa, British Mandate Palestine"
relations:
  - type: head_of
    with: "[[Abu Nidal Organization]]"
    fn: 2
created: 2026-09-23
updated: 2026-09-23
---
Abu Nidal, whose real name was Sabri al-Banna, was a Palestinian terrorist and the leader of the [[Abu Nidal Organization]]. He was a target of [[Israel|Israeli]] intelligence operations. According to the former Israeli intelligence officer [[Ari Ben-Menashe]], arms dealers like [[John Knight]] and [[Sidem International Limited]] acquired arms from [[Yugoslavia]] and sold them to [[Mohammed Radi Abdullah]], who in turn sold them to Nidal and other Palestinian groups. Radi was unaware of [[Anthony Pearson|Pearson's]] Israeli connection.[^1]

Ben-Menashe wrote that Radi later presented his case to Nidal in [[Baghdad]], claiming he had been unwittingly used by Pearson. Nidal believed his story and put out the word that Radi was "clean," placing the blame on [[Yasser Arafat|Yasser Arafat's]] group.[^1]

Ben-Menashe also wrote that Nidal was involved in the [[Achille Lauro]] attack in 1985, which he described as an Israeli "black" propaganda operation. In his account, [[Rafael Eitan|Rafi]] passed instructions to Radi, who then relayed orders to [[Abul Abbas]] to carry out a cruel attack. Abbas was reportedly receiving millions from Israeli intelligence officers posing as Sicilian dons.[^1] These accounts rest on Ben-Menashe's book alone.

### BCCI

Abu Nidal's accounts were held at the Sloane Street branch in [[London]] of the [[Bank of Credit and Commerce International]] (BCCI), whose manager, [[Ghassan Qassem]], passed information on them to British and American intelligence. A [[State Department]] report of July 1987, "Abu Nidal's Terror Network," stated that the organization's commercial network was run from the [[INTRACO]] building in [[Warsaw]] by [[Samir Najmeddin|Samir Hasan Najm al-Din (Samir Najmeddin)]], who held "a general account at a major West European Bank [BCCI in London]" and was "responsible for forwarding all major contracts to Sabri al-Banna for final approval."[^2] The [[Central Intelligence Agency|CIA]] learned, in an operation against BCCI that ran from 1986 to 1990, of the bank's role in "handling the finances of Sabri Al-Bannah or Abu Nidal, and his terrorist organization."[^3] According to the [[BCCI Kerry-Brown Senate Report|Kerry-Brown Senate Report]], by 1986 "the State Department knew that the terrorist Abu Nidal was using the bank to finance his operations in Europe."[^4]

After BCCI's closure in July 1991, a British judge, on the application of the bank's liquidators, refused to let the Senate subcommittee receive BCCI documents held in the [[United Kingdom]] without the written "permission" of the depositors concerned, "such as Abu Nidal." In July 1991 *[[The Guardian]]*, quoting what it described as a confidential French intelligence document of February 1988, reported that the Kuwaiti embassy in London had paid 60 million dollars into Abu Nidal's BCCI account in 1987.[^3][^5]

### Footnotes

[^1]: Ben-Menashe, Ari. *Profits of War: Inside the Secret U.S.-Israeli Arms Network*. Sheridan Square Press, 1992 (TrineDay reprint, 2015).
[^2]: Kerry, Senator John, and Senator Hank Brown. *The BCCI Affair: A Report to the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate.* December 1992, ch. 4, "BCCI's Criminality" (quoting "Abu Nidal's Terror Network," U.S. Department of State, July 1987). https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/04crime.htm
[^3]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 11, "BCCI, the CIA and Foreign Intelligence." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/11intel.htm
[^4]: Kerry and Brown, *The BCCI Affair,* ch. 16, "BCCI and Georgia Politicians." https://irp.fas.org/congress/1992_rpt/bcci/16ga.htm
[^5]: "Daily Says Kuwait Put $60 Million Into Nidal's BCCI Account." *Deseret News* (wire report), July 25, 1991. https://www.deseret.com/1991/7/25/18932483/daily-says-kuwait-put-60-million-into-nidal-s-bcci-account/