World Notes: Terrorists

The zone of quiet around the posh Henry-Dunant hospital in Paris was fractured by a political thunderclap last week with the arrival of George Habash, leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. His organization has carried out airliner hijackings and bloody terrorist attacks in France, Israel and elsewhere since the late 1960s, including the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane to Uganda that was liberated by Israeli troops. Yet Habash, 65, was routinely admitted to the country and the hospital for treatment of a stroke he suffered in Tunis.

Israel was outraged, and so were many leading French politicians. When President Francois Mitterrand, on a visit to Oman, heard what had happened, he demanded and got the resignations of the three senior civil servants who were involved in admitting Habash. The head of the French Red Cross, who acted as liaison in moving Habash, resigned as an adviser to Mitterrand.

Unless Habash is very ill, said the President, "his stay will be extremely brief." And so it was. After doctors said the guerrilla leader was unable to talk, a magistrate who had ordered police to hold him for questioning rescinded the order. At that, Habash decided to skip further treatment. He hurried to Orly airport on Saturday and flew back to his home in Tunis.