World Notes TERRORISM

The scenario was all too familiar. As U.S. Navy Captain William E. Nordeen, 51, a military attache at the American embassy in Athens, was setting out for work in his bulletproof Ford Granada last week, the morning calm was shattered by an explosion. A bomb planted in a Toyota sedan parked near Nordeen's home had been detonated by remote control as he drove by. The blast hurled Nordeen's car across the street; the captain's decapitated body was found more than 100 ft. away in the yard of an abandoned house.

A band of leftist terrorists called November 17 claimed responsibility for the attack. Nordeen was the 14th victim and the third American killed by the organization since 1975. Declared the killers: "We decided to execute one of the higher-ranking officers of American imperialism in our country."