Re: [Reformatted] Burning down the olympics
At 11:45 AM 1/11/2002 -0800, Eric Cordian wrote:
Terrorism also struck the Olympics in Munich in 1972 when 11 Israeli athletes were killed by Palestinian gunmen.
Not quite. 11 Israeli athletes were captured by some Palestinians. They were killed when the Israeli military attacked the site where they were being held, and slaughtered everything that moved.
It's my understanding that one hostage was killed early in the standoff, and that another team member (a coach?) was shot but escaped as the hostages were being captured initially. Some time later, the German authorities provided the terrorists with a bus - the hostages and terrorists boarded the bus and drove to the airport, where two helicopters were waiting for them. There - on the airport tarmac - there was a gunfight between (AFAIK) German police and the terrorists, which led to killing all of the remaining hostages, many of the terrorists, and some police. A few months later, with the cooperation of the German government, a German airplane was captured in a faux hijacking, and those "hostages" were exchanged for the remaining terrorists in German custody. All but one of them have subsequently been assassinated by Mossad. "One Day In September" is a documentary about this which isn't impossible to find on DVD or VHS. .. or are you saying that the airport firefight took place between Israeli soldiers in German police uniforms and the terrorists? That's not unimaginable, but the Israelis seem more competent, and inclined towards overwhelming force and rapid attack - see, e.g., their Operation Gift on 12/28/68, where three teams totalling 64 men destroyed 14 planes on the runway at Beirut International Airport in retaliation for a November attack on an El Al airliner. (See, e.g., <http://www.isayeret.com/operations/gift.htm> or <http://www.idf.il/english/history/tshura.stm>.) I don't have any personal knowledge about this - probably nobody on the list does - but I'm pretty skeptical of the claim that the airport attack was an Israeli creation - not because I think they're saints, but because it wasn't their style. Besides, it's hard to imagine that Germany would allow an Israeli military force to land at a German airport, take it over, use it to ambush terrorists, then blame the resulting casualties on the local authorities .. or that Israel would be able to do that without German cooperation. That just doesn't sound like something a government would do, especially not a German government dealing with Israel. -- Greg Broiles -- gbroiles@parrhesia.com -- PGP 0x26E4488c or 0x94245961 Eliminate due process, civil rights? It's the Constitution, stupid!
Greg Broiles writes:
It's my understanding that one hostage was killed early in the standoff, and that another team member (a coach?) was shot but escaped as the hostages were being captured initially.
Some time later, the German authorities provided the terrorists with a bus - the hostages and terrorists boarded the bus and drove to the airport, where two helicopters were waiting for them.
There - on the airport tarmac - there was a gunfight between (AFAIK) German police and the terrorists, which led to killing all of the remaining hostages, many of the terrorists, and some police.
Yes, I obviously got the Munich thing confused with something else. I have posted a correction in response to a sarcastic snipe by Tim.
"One Day In September" is a documentary about this which isn't impossible to find on DVD or VHS.
.. or are you saying that the airport firefight took place between Israeli soldiers in German police uniforms and the terrorists?
No. It was Germans who screwed it up. The Germans, concerned about PR, turned down the Mossad's request to send in a rescue team, and tried to do the rescue themselves with the Mossad director watching. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"
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Eric Cordian -
Greg Broiles