Editing Abu Nidal Organization (section)

==Internal executions and torture==
{{Main||Abu Nidal Organization internal executions}}
The ANO's official newspaper ''Filastin al-Thawra'' regularly carried stories announcing the execution of traitors within the movement.<ref name=AbuKhalil>Abu Khalil, 2000.</ref> Each new recruit of the ANO was given several days to write down his life story and sign a paper agreeing to his execution if anything was found to be untrue. Every so often, the recruit would be asked to rewrite the whole story. Any discrepancies were taken as evidence that he was a spy and he would be made to write it out again, often after days of being beaten and nights spent forced to sleep standing up.<ref name=Seale6>Seale 1992, pp. 6&ndash;7.</ref>

British journalist [[Alec Collett]] was killed by the ANO in [[Aita al-Foukhar|Aita al-Foukhar (village in Lebanon)]] in 1986. He was hanged on a rope and was shot in retaliation to US air raids on Libya.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Lebanon remains may be those of British journalist Alec Collett {{!}} Media {{!}} The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/media/2009/nov/19/journalist-body-lebanon-alec-collett |access-date=2024-06-22 |website=amp.theguardian.com|date=19 November 2009 }}</ref> 

By 1987, Abu Nidal used extreme torture tactics on members of the ANO who were suspected of betrayal and disloyalty.<ref name=Seale1992p287/> The tactics included hanging prisoners naked, whipping them until unconsciousness, using salt or chili powder to revive them, forcing them into a car tire for whipping and salt application, melting plastic on their skin, frying their genitals, and confining them in tiny cells bound hand and foot. If cells were full, prisoners could be buried alive with a steel pipe for breathing. Execution was carried out by firing a bullet down the pipe.<ref name=Ledeen>Clarridge 1997, cited in Ledeen 2002.
*Also see Seale 1992, pp. 286&ndash;287.</ref> 

From 1987 to 1988, hundreds of members of Abu Nidal's organization were killed due to internal paranoia and terror tactics. The elderly wife of a veteran member was also killed on false charges. The killings were mostly carried out by four individuals: Mustafa Ibrahim Sanduqa, Isam Maraqa, Sulaiman Samrin, and Mustafa Awad. Decisions to kill were mostly made by Abu Nidal after he had consumed a whole bottle of whiskey at night.<ref name=Seale1992p287>Seale 1992, pp. 287&ndash;289.</ref> According to ANO dissidents, the attacks made by the group were unconnected to the Palestinian cause and led to their defection. In addition, they claimed the guerrilla was the "living example of paranoia".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/terror/abunidal/abunidal061090.htm|title=Abu Nidal Battles Dissidents|newspaper=Washington Post|accessdate=2023-02-10|archive-date=2014-10-18|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141018005502/http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/world/terror/abunidal/abunidal061090.htm|url-status=live}}</ref>