Editing Abu Nidal (section)

=== Impex, Black September ===
In Saudi Arabia Abu Nidal helped found a small group of young Palestinians who called themselves the Palestine Secret Organization. The activism cost him his job and home: Aramco fired him, and the Saudi government imprisoned then expelled him.<sup>[26]</sup> He returned to Nablus with his wife and family, and joined Yasser Arafat's Fatah faction of the PLO. Working as an odd-job man, he was committed to Palestinian politics but was not particularly active, until Israel won the 1967 [[Six-Day War]], capturing the Golan Heights, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Melman writes that "the entrance of the Israel Defense Forces tanks into Nablus was a traumatic experience for him. The conquest aroused him to action."<sup>[35]</sup>

After moving to Amman, Jordan, he set up a trading company called Impex, which acted as a front for Fatah, serving as a meeting place and conduit for funds. This became a hallmark of Abu Nidal's career. Companies controlled by the ANO made him a rich man by engaging in legitimate business deals, while acting as cover for arms deals and mercenary activities><sup>[32]</sup>

When Fatah asked him to choose a ''nom de guerre'', he chose Abu Nidal ("father of struggle") after his son, Nidal.<sup>[6]</sup> Those who knew him at the time said he was a well-organized leader, not a guerrilla; during fighting between the Palestinian fedayeens and King Hussein's troops, he stayed in his office.<sup>[36]</sup> In 1968 Abu Iyad appointed him as the Fatah representative in Khartoum, Sudan; then, at Abu Nidal's insistence, to the same position in Baghdad in July 1970. He arrived two months before "[[Black September]]", when over 10 days of fighting King Hussein's army drove the Palestinian fedayeens out of Jordan, with the loss of thousands of lives. Abu Nidal's absence from Jordan during this period, Seale writes, when it was clear that King Hussein was about to act against the Palestinians, raised suspicion within the movement that he was interested only in saving himself.<sup>[37]</sup>