this.”
Finally, an agreement was reached, and the hostages were released. But CIA director Casey said:
“The TWA hijacking was only the beginning.”
And so it was. Even before the American hostages were released, a bomb exploded in Germany at
Frankfurt’s international airport. Three bystanders
were killed, and dozens more were injured.
In October 1985, during a pleasure cruise in the
Mediterranean, the Italian liner Achille Lauro was
hijacked by terrorists. Four days of frustration and
horror followed. Before it was over, the terrorists had
murdered an American hostage.
In November, the hijacking of EgyptAir
Flight 648 ended in unprecedented disaster. The hijackers cold-bloodedly shot one passenger after another and threatened to continue the executions
unless their demands for refueling were met. When
Egyptian commandos stormed the plane, most of the
passengers were killed. Altogether, 60 died and 27
were injured. Beginning on the next page, you can
read the firsthand account of a survivor.
Then, shortly after Christmas, in a vicious attack
at airports in Rome and Vienna, terrorists massacred
19 and wounded more than 110 others. And on it
goes. When one incident dies down, another one occurs. Almost daily, terrorists strike somewhere.
After reporting a bombing in France, The New
York Times of February 6 noted: “It was the third
such incident in a crowded area of Paris in as many
days, and made it clear that this city had been
plunged into a campaign of random terror directed at
its best-known and most commonly frequented commercial areas.”
Fear for Safety
The fear that terrorism has generated is illustrated
by what happened when the Achille Lauro received a
bomb threat on a more recent cruise. The crew, in a
panic, threw overboard crates containing one million
dollars’ worth of new gambling equipment, fearing
that one of them might contain a bomb! The report
was a hoax.
Many airports have become virtual armed camps.
Luggage is searched piece by piece at places such as
Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport. When an inspector there
suspiciously fingered a tube of toothpaste, a traveler
half jokingly said: “If you squeeze it out, you’ll have
a hard time getting it back in.” No measures can
guarantee 100-percent safety.
“At this point, it doesn’t seem that any airport is
really safe,” says Michael Barron, assistant travel
manager of a U.S. travel agency. “You pay your
money and you take your chances.”
Thousands have changed their travel plans because of fear of terrorism. Some 850,000 Americans
reportedly may have canceled overseas trips last
summer after a major hijacking. A New York travel
agent recently noted: “Even the travel agents here
don’t want to go on trips to Europe right now,” adding, “and we can go for free.”
The situation is serious. Briefing a U.S. Senate
committee, CIA director Casey said: “We are in the
midst of an undeclared war.” But the problem is identifying the enemy. It could be the passenger in the
next airplane seat.
The Motives Behind Terrorism
Most of the Arab terrorist groups justify
their actions by pointing to the plight of the Palestinian refugees who lost their homeland, Palestine,
when the nation of Israel was formed in 1948. Over
the decades, feelings