MIDDLE EAST: The Plotter

The little tailor's apprentice who shot down Jordan's King Abdullah in Jerusalem last month was obviously only a triggerman. Who were the plotters who had sent him on his mission?

Last week, Jordan police thought they had the answer. They arrested eight men, charged them with planning the assassination. Among the subjects: an Arab-born Roman Catholic priest in Jerusalem who is a fanatical Arab nationalist; and three blood relatives of Jerusalem's intrigue-loving Mufti.

Thus the bloody trail seemed to lead, at least indirectly, to Egypt, and a brown three-story villa off Avenue Fuad in...