According to Abu Bakr , speaking to '' Al Hayatt '' in 2002 , Abu Nidal said he was behind the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 , which exploded over Lockerbie , Scotland , on 21 December 1988 ; a former head of security for Libyan Arab Airlines was later convicted . Abu Nidal reportedly said of Lockerbie , according to Seale : " We do have some involvement in this matter , but if anyone so much as mentions it , I will kill him with my own hands ! " Seale writes that the ANO appeared to have no connection to it ; one of Abu Nidal 's associates told him , " If an American soldier tripped in some corner of the globe , Abu Nidal would instantly claim it as his own work . " In the late 1980s British intelligence learned that the ANO held accounts with the Bank of Credit and Commerce International ( BCCI ) in London . BCCI was closed in July 1991 by banking regulators in six countries after evidence emerged of widespread fraud . Abu Nidal himself was said to have visited London using the name Shakar Farhan ; a BCCI branch manager , who passed information about the ANO accounts to MI5 , reportedly drove him around several stores in London without realizing who he was . Abu Nidal was using a company called SAS International Trading and Investments in Warsaw as cover for arms deals . The company 's transactions included the purchase of riot guns , ostensibly for Syria , then when the British refused an export licence to Syria , for an African state ; in fact , half the shipment went to the police in East Germany and half to Abu Nidal
Pan Am Flight 103
Pan Am Flight 103
Abu Nidal