Warning: graphic image
The Lod Airport massacre in 1972 caught Israeli authorities by surprise. Because they were focused on preventing a Palestinian attack, members of the Japanese Red Army were able to get through security undetected.
You can learn more about the attack and the Red Army at the link.
On this day in 1983, the U.S. embassy in Beirut, Lebanon was attacked by a suicide bomber. At that point, it was the deadliest attack on a U.S. embassy. 63 people, including 17 Americans, were killed in the blast.
You can learn more about this terrorist attack and the ensuing investigation at the link.
On this day in 1973, terrorists from the Palestinian Black September Organization (BSO) killed three hostages: U.S. Ambassador to Sudan Cleo A. Noel, Jr., DCM George Curtis Moore, and the Belgian Chargé d’Affaires Guy Eid.
The day before, the BSO had raided the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, taking ten hostages including the three men above. The terrorists demanded a plane and the release of Arab militants. When President Nixon stated that the U.S. “did not pay blackmail,” the American and Belgian hostages were allowed to write letters home to their families and then killed twelve hours later.
You can read on at the link to learn more about the terrorist attack on the Saudi embassy and how the attack affected those working in the U.S. embassy in Khartoum.
L. Paul “Jerry” Bremer was appointed by President Ronald Reagan as the State Department’s Coordinator for Counterterrorism (S/CT) in 1986. As the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, his job was to help infiltrate and track down terror groups in order to get actionable intelligence on them.
However, this was easier said than done. Some countries, like Greece, turned a blind eye to their terror groups.
You can read on at the link to learn more about the fight against terrorism 15 years before 9/11.
Saudi Arabia today announced it had executed 47 people on “terrorism” charges, among them top Shia cleric Nimr Al Nimr.
Last year (2015), Saudi Arabia executed a total of 158 people, or an average of one person every two days, the highest recorded number since 1995.
Saudi Arabia Executes Top Shia Cleric Nimr Al Nimr Under “Terrorism” Charges
With the many terrorist attacks that have happened in recent years, it’s easy to forget that the 70s and 80s saw much more chronic terrorist threats across Europe.
The 17 November (17N) terrorist organization was one such threat that operated in Greece from the 70s up until the lead up to the 2004 Olympics in Athens. Before then, there was not enough political will to crack down on the group, which had support among far-left Greeks.
Read on at the link to learn more about the 17N and their impact on U.S. FSOs, who were among their targets.
Stores were closed and public transit was halted in Belgium on Saturday after the government raised the country’s threat to the highest level possible amid warnings of an imminent attack.
Photo by Youssef Boudlal/Reuters
On this day in 1976, exiled Chilean Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his American assistant Ronni Moffitt were assassinated in Sheridan Circle in Washington, D.C. by a car bomb.
Often called the “first terrorist attack in the U.S.,” it was later revealed that the United States had intelligence that there was an assassination plot to kill Letelier but chose to ignore it.
Read on at the link to learn more about the attack and the “Kissinger Cables.”
“We don’t negotiate with terrorists.”
On August 4, 1975, five members of the Japanese Red Army stormed the 9th floor of the AIA Insurance building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in other words, the U.S. embassy.
The AIA Insurance building was the tallest in Malaysia at the time, and it held five different embassies. When the JRA took the embassy, they held 53 people hostage for four days. When Henry Kissinger heard what was happening, he reiterated the famous quote above.
Follow the link to learn more about this hostage situation and how the FSOs did, in fact, negotiate with the terrorists.
