From: Rick Moen (rick at domain linuxmafia.com)
Date: Tue 11 Sep 2001 - 17:14:06 IST
So, looking at the date reminded me of the fact that this happens to
be something of a terrorist anniversary. Coincidence? Possibly, but
we'll forge ahead, anyway.
Cast your minds back to the end of the 1960s. The PLO had, starting in
November 1968, started a brief flurry of airliner hijackings. It also
had its main concentration of forces in the western half of Jordan,
which it was able to mostly hold in opposition to King Hussein's
government in Amman. There were hijackings from the Rome and Athens
airports. (Security in the latter is rumoured to still be about as
abysmal today as it was then.) But the PLO's big PR spectacle came on
September 6, 1970, when they hijacked a Swissair DC8 (carrying, among
others, my later college friend Caren Cadle) and a TWA B-707, landing
them at the abandoned WWII Dawson Field in the western Jordanian desert,
and holding the passengers and crew as hostages. (Six days later, they
also flew in a hijacked BOAC VC-10.)
This was finally enough for King Hussein, who declared martial law on
September 7, and began attacking PLO forces the next day, all across
western Jordan including the capitol, with battle raging for about ten
days, with Syria trying to invade from the north to assist the PLO and
Iraqi troops helping King Hussein's forces -- until the PLO ran out of
ammunition. Arafat negotiated his way out of the tight spot, gaining
retreat with his remaining forces, but that was the beginning of the
end, and in the following year was forced by renewed fighting out of
Jordan, to... guess where? Lebanon, where they destroyed the balance
of political forces.
But the events of early September 1970 remained fresh in the PLO's
mind, such that the new series of attacks, mostly in Europe, launched
starting in November 1971 were attributed to a (supposedly) new,
mysterious terrorist group named "Black September", of whom the PLO
claimed to have no knowledge. That was the group that gave us the
succeeding hijackings (Sabena airlines, 1972, and others), and of course
the massacre at the Munich 1972 Summer Olympics.
Following that, the response became too hot for Arafat to handle, and he
quietly disbanded Black September operations -- and, later, even more
quietly, admitted that his supposed lack of knowledge had been a
subterfuge. (I assume they must have been pulled back into Lebanon,
for PLO operations there.)
So, September 11 -- coincidence? Probably, but maybe not. We'll see.
-- Cheers, My pid is Inigo Montoya. You kill -9 Rick Moen my parent process. Prepare to vi. rick at domain linuxmafia.com
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