01/19/2002

EDITORIAL NUMBER=0-09654

INTERNATIONAL CRIME ALERT: MUGNIYAH

The United States has established a list of "Most Wanted Terrorists." Several of the twenty-two fugitives on this list, including Osama bin Laden, are part of al-Qaida, the terrorist group responsible for the September 11^th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Others are wanted in connection with previous terrorist attacks.

Imad Fayez Mugniyah [im-AHD FAH-yez MOOG-nee-yah] is wanted for his role in the 1985 hijacking of a Trans World Airlines jet, in which passengers and crew members were assaulted and one U.S. citizen was murdered. Mugniyah is also believed to have been involved in the 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Beirut that killed two-hundred forty-one U.S. servicemen.

Mugniyah was born in 1962, in Lebanon. He is one-meter seventy centimeters tall, and weighs about sixty-seven kilograms. He has brown hair. He may have had extensive plastic surgery to change his appearance.

Imad Fayez Mugniyah is reportedly the head of the security apparatus for the terrorist organization Lebanese Hizballah. He is believed to be living in Lebanon, or possibly in Iran. He holds a Lebanese passport, number 432298. He uses the name Mr. Hajj as an alias.

The U.S. is offering a reward of up to twenty-five-million dollars for information leading to the arrest of Imad Fayez Mugniyah. If you have information concerning this fugitive, you should contact the nearest U.S. embassy or consulate. The identities of all informants will be kept confidential.