Notorious Acts Of Terror

1. Notorious Acts Of Terror

2. Learning Objectives By the end of the lesson you will be able to: • Identify at least 3 famous terrorist incidents; • Give examples of different types of terrorist attack; • Explain how the motives of terrorists vary along with their actions.

3. Dawson’s Field – Sept 1970 • 3 airliners hi-jacked by the PFLP: • American TWA Boeing 707 with 145 passengers flying Frankfurt to New York; • Swissair DC8 with140 passengers flying from Zurich to New York; • BOAC VC10 with 115 passengers flying from Bahrain to Beirut. • Flown to Dawson’s Field in Jordan; • Pan American Boeing 747 with 170 passengers flying Amsterdam to New York hi-jacked to Beirut, then Cairo – passengers released and plane blown up; • Demanded release of 7 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists, including the infamous Leila Khaled, held in UK, Switzerland and Germany; • Jordanian Army unprepared to intervene; • Hostages removed and all 3 airliners blown up in front of World’s press – hostages taken to hotels; • Fearing for the lives of the hostages all 3 countries gave in to the demands and released the prisoners.

5. Munich Olympics – Sept 1972 • Black September Terrorists associated with the PLO – named after a massacre of Palestinians by Jordanian troops in 1970; • 7 terrorists seized 9 Israeli athletes and coaches in the Olympic Village, killing others; • The Israeli Government refused to negotiate; • The West German Government appeared to be giving in, but set up an ambush at the airfield; • However this was badly planned, and the police were poorly equipped; • The Palestinians killed all of the hostages, before the 3 surviving terrorists were captured.

7. The Lebanon - 1983 • On April 18th a Hizballah suicide bomber drove a pick-up truck of explosive into the US Embassy building in Beirut, killing 63, only 17 of whom were Americans; • On October 23rd a truck packed with explosives was detonated by a suicide bomber at the US Marine compound at Beirut Airport. 241 Marines died, with 100 injured. No-one claimed responsibility for this attack.

8. Lockerbie – Dec 1988 • At 19.02 on the evening of December 21st PanAm Flight 103 – a Boeing 747 on route from Heathrow to New York - exploded in the air 30,000 ft above the Scottish town of Lockerbie. All 259 on board were killed along with 11 on the ground as the wreckage crashed into the town. • 1999 Abdel Baset al-Megrahi, a Libyan agent was finally convicted of the murders. • Rumours persist around the death of one passenger, US Special Forces Major Charles McKee, and the contents of his briefcase which was removed by the CIA.

9. Tomb of the Patriarchs, Hebron – Feb 1994 • Fanatical Orthodox Jew Benjamin Goldstein attacked Palestinian worshippers celebrating Ramadan at the Tomb of the Patriarch – a place holy to both Jews and Muslims; • He entered the Mosque and opened fire with an assault rifle as the faithful knelt in prayer with their backs to him; • He calmly reloaded several times before being overpowered; • Israeli troops arriving at the scene panicked and fired on fleeing Palestinians; • In total 52 died, with 70 wounded; • Some Jewish settlers in Hebron celebrated and hailed Goldstein’s martyrdom.

10. Oklahoma City – April 1995 • At 9.03 on April 19th as many employees were arriving for work a truck packed with fuel and fertiliser exploded outside the Murrah Federal Government Building in Oklahoma City; • 168 people died, including 19 small children in the creche; • Timothy McVeigh eventually admitted his responsibility and was executed in 2001; • He is believed to have carried it out as a protest against the government raid on the Branch Davidian sect at Waco, Texas exactly 2 years earlier. • Inconsistencies remain unexplained