[sarcasm]

The Italians let him go once, why give them another chance?

Abbas arrived on the scene as Arafat's "emissary," ostensibly to negotiate an end to the hijacking. In the end, Abbas and the other terrorists were given safe passage aboard an Egyptian plane bound for Tunis - then the site of Arafat's headquarters.

U.S. fighter planes dispatched by the Reagan White House intercepted the plane, forcing it to land in Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested - only to be allowed to "escape" by an Italian government terrified of PLO reprisals.

[MEG33]

They say the Italian government is diffferent now but the history makes me very uneasy.