The New York Times · 19 August 1987

CP-1987-057

Britain Seizes Arms Said to Be for P.L.O. Use

By FRANCIS X. CLINES

Scan 1230 × 1022 pixels

Transcribed from the clipping

LONDON, Aug. 18 — Scotland Yard detectives have seized what they say is a large cache of arms and explosives that they believe were intended for a Palestine Liberation Organization terrorist campaign in Europe.

The cache, including 68 pounds of military explosives, was found by detectives searching for the gunman who assaulted Ali Naji al-Adhami, a Palestinian satirist and cartoonist who has been on a life-support machine since being critically wounded here July 22.

Various Middle East factions and individuals had been cited in speculation as possible suspects in the shooting, since Mr. Adhami had a reputation as a scathing and wide-ranging satirist who spared no quarter in his work as the highest paid and most feared political cartoonist in the Arab world.

But in disclosing the arms cache Monday, Scotland Yard detectives said they now suspected P.L.O. supporters were the perpetrators and that links to Libyan and Iranian terrorists were considered unlikely.

Stored for ‘Future Attacks’ Rather, they now theorize that the bomb-making equipment, grenades and rifles found in a private home were being stored by P.L.O. guerrillas for “future terrorist attacks Europewide,” according to a Scotland Yard spokesman. Detectives would offer no specific details on targets.

In the announcement, the police said they had arrested Ishmail Hassan Sowan, described as a 28-year-old university researcher who has been living in England for the last three years. The raid on an apartment in Hull was made Wednesday, but the police delayed announcing the results as they pursued further leads in the investigation. Mr.

Sowan, a Jordanian, appeared in court today and was ordered held in police custody. The P.L.O.’s office in London today denied any involvement in Mr. Adhami’s shooting or any connection with Mr. Sowan. Mr. Adhami, shot at point-blank range on a London street, had been acid in depicting P.L.O. leaders as hypocritical, limousine-riding jet setters and in dubbing Mr.

Arafat “Aby Shafaya” — Father of the Lips — for his fondness for posing as a gentle leader given to kissing children in front of television news cameramen. Assault Rifles and Grenades The police said the arms cache included four AK-47 rifles and ammunition, seven hand grenades and bomb-making equipment.

Detonators were found, according to Scotland Yard, along with the plastic explosive Semtax, the Czechoslovak-made military high explosive that the police say is favored by Arab terrorists. Mr.

Adhami, 42 years old, has been on the critical list since the shooting outside the offices of Al Qabas International, the Kuwaiti newspaper that carries his political cartoons in the Middle East. He had been forced to leave Kuwait in 1985, reportedly after receiving death threats from the P.L.O.

According to Rafle Khoriti, the editor of Al Qabas, recent threats had been directly made against Mr. Adhami. In an interview with Index on Censorship three years ago, he described his satisfaction in drawing “rich Palestinians who scream all day about the land and about sacrifices, when in fact they are more interested in their financial deals and private gains.”

Emergency Brain Surgery Mr. Adhami has been in Charing Cross Hospital, briefly regaining consciousness only twice in the last month but unable to speak. He was shot in the face and underwent emergency brain surgery and has been kept on a life-support machine. In the latest suspicions about the P.L.O., friends of Mr. Adhami are speculating that Mr.

Arafat was not only personally sensitive as a target of the satire but also concerned that his sources of financing in the Persian Gulf not decide to weaken support. Mr. Adhami grew up in a Palestinian refugee district in Lebanon and made his first drawings on the walls of jail cells when he was arrested by Lebanese policemen for political activities.

He had treated the gulf war as a cruelty endured by ordinary citizens in both Iran and Iraq, depicting them as victims of torture and of Iraqi chemical weapons. In his most recent drawings, the cartoonist contended that Iraq might have deliberately been acting to draw the United States more deeply into the conflict.

How this transcription was made

One clipping, one scan. Complete three-column story with two subheads, “Stored for ‘Future Attacks’” and “Assault Rifles and Grenades” and “Emergency Brain Surgery”. A boxed Times house advertisement sits below column three and is not part of the story. — No masthead or running head on this scan. The paper is confirmed by two printed marks: the credit line “Special to The New York Times” under the byline, and the house advertisement boxed at the foot of column three, “No day is complete without The New York Times.” The dateline reads “LONDON, Aug. 18”, consistent with a 19 August 1987 paper. 19 August 1987 was a Wednesday. Maria’s label agrees but the date is not printed on the scan.

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