Terrorism: The Life and Crimes of a Middle East Terrorist

On Aug. 30, 1982, a well-dressed Palestinian from Iraq named Adnan Awad walked into the U.S. embassy in Bern, Switzerland, and announced that he had just left a bomb in his Geneva hotel room. He said he had been ordered by the May 15 Organization, a Baghdad-based terrorist group known to intelligence agencies, to blow up the Geneva Noga Hilton. But when he arrived in Geneva, he found he could not go through with it. Now he was appealing to the U.S. for help.

The diplomat who had been talking to Awad in a soundproofed embassy room picked up a telephone...