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Terror Throughout the Land: Terrorist Attacks in Western Europe
Ilan Michael Shalev
PSCI 4700- Western European Terrorism
Professor John Books
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Prof. John Books24 November 2010
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Terror Throughout the Land: Terrorist Actions in Europe
Why do terrorists pick the targets they choose? Can anything significant be
deduced by how an attack is carried out, the weapons and logistics used or the people involved,
targeted or avoided? This paper will look at four terrorist attacks, two nationalist and two
religious that have taken place in Europe and will focus on the more well known groups. First,
we will look at the Provisional Irish Republican Army also known as the Provos or PIRA and the
attack on the Derryard Checkpoint. Next, we will evaluate the Basque separatist groupEuskadi
Ta Askatasuna or ETA and the assassination of Francoist Prime Minister Admiral Luis Carrero
Blanco. Third, we will look at the Black September attack on Israeli athletes at the Munich
Olympics. Finally we will focus on the Glasgow International Airport firebomb attack of 2007.
In evaluating these attacks we will look at the people involved, the target selected, the why and
how of the attack, the logistics and finally the outcome of the attacks.
While there is no universally accepted definition of terrorism, the FBI defines it as the
unlawful use of force and violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a
government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social
objectives.1
Other definitions explicitly state that terrorism is a tactic used against civilians.2
If
an action is used against a military target, it may be termed asymmetric warfare defined as a
broad and unpredictable spectrum of military, paramilitary, and information operations,
conducted by nations, organizations, or individuals or by indigenous or surrogate forces under
their control, specifically targeting weaknesses and vulnerabilities within an enemy government
1Federal Bureau of Investigation, Terrorism 2002-2005. Washington, DC., 2006. http://www.fbi.gov/stats-
services/publications/terrorism-2002-2005/terror02_05 (accessed November 21, 2010.)2 Walter Laqueur. Quoted in Steven Best, Terrorists or Freedom Fighters: Reflections on the Liberation of Animals.
(New York: Lantern Books, 2004), 371.
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or armed force.3
For the purposes of this paper, I will use the FBIs definition which may be
interpreted to cover all targets, military or civilian.
The Provisional IRA is not the first, nor the last manifestation of the armed struggle to
secure a united Ireland under sole Irish rule. These roots extend all the way back to the late
1700s, when the Society of United Irishmen instigated an uprising against the Crown.4 While the
rebellion ultimately failed, the desire for self-rule has never left the Irish spirit. The Provos
themselves grew out of another revolutionary group, the Irish Republican Army which was in
turn a descendent of the Irish Volunteers, who carried out the Easter Uprising of 1916.5 While
the IRA was seen as shrewder and sharper, the Provos were the militant side of the schism.6
It would be the Provos that would develop the Armalite and Ballot Box Strategy of armed
action coupled with political gains by Sinn Fin to gain the withdrawal of British forces due to
overwhelming public pressure.7
To affect the Armalite portion of the strategy, the Provos embarked on a campaign of
bombings, sniper attacks and small scale guerrilla combat against the British army and Irish
police units. The inevitable heavy handed reaction of security forces against these actions
however would lead to an upwelling of public support for the Provos.8
This further emboldened
3Michael Kolodzie. Commentary: The Asymmetric Threat,Army Logistician 33, no. 4 (July-August 2001).
http://www.almc.army.mil/alog/issues/JulAug01/MS628.htm (accessed November 22, 2010).4
The Irish Uprising of 1798,History Today , 48, no. 6 (June 1998): 12,https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:9443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=wdh&AN=6
89654&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed November 22, 2010)5Peter Hart, The Social Structure of the Irish Republican Army, 1916-1923, The Historical Journal42, no. 1
(March 1999): 207, http://www.jstor.org/stable/3020901 (accessed November 21, 2010).6 Marc Mulholland, Irish Republican Politics and Violence Before the Peace Process, 1968-1994,European
Review of History14, no. 3 (September 2007): 400,https://libproxy.library.unt.edu:9443/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=wdh&AN=2
7256703&site=ehost-live&scope=site (accessed November 21, 2010)7
John A. Hannigan, The Armalite and the Ballot Box: Dilemmas of Strategy and Ideology in the Provisional IRASocial Problems 33, no. 1 (October 1985): 34, http://www.jstor.org/stable/800629 (accessed November 21, 2010).8 Mullholland, 401.
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the Provos to take on more complex and dangerous missions. One of the most spectacular actions
would occur in December 1989 when the Derryard Checkpoint was attacked by a Provo unit of
at least 12 terrorists armed with rockets, flamethrowers, Armalite and AK47 rifles, machine
guns and fragmentation grenades.9
The checkpoint itself was located in Derryard, Fermanagh
County and was manned by a small detachment of the Kings Own Scottish Borderers as well as a
lone officer of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
In preparing for the attack, the Provo unit was much more heavily armed than the guard
unit. The operation itself would be carried out by a special flying column of about twenty
handpicked veterans. To ensure strict secrecy, only a few of the group was told of the plan with
the majority of men would not be told until right before the operation.10
The plan itself was
audacious in its scope. A small unit was tasked to close off the roads into and out of the
checkpoint while the bulk of the flying column was to attack the base itself. To carry out the
attack, the Provos were able to draw on Libyan supplied arms including a flamethrower and
heavy machine guns. The ultimate goal was to provide cover for a 400 pound van-borne bomb
that would be exploded next to the soldiers living quarters.11
The Provos that were known to operate in the Fermanagh area were not known for spur
of the moment actions. In fact, the Army saw them as highly professional; integrating common
military tactics such as reconnaissance, proper operational planning and ensuring superiority of
firepower before engaging in such an operation. Nor could they be considered cowards.
According to a senior Army officer discussing the Derryard operation; They are murdering
9 The Kings Own Scottish Borderers, 20th and 21st Centuries, http://kosb.webs.com/20thcentury.htm (accessed
November 21, 2010)10
Ed Moloney,A Secret History of the IRA (New York: WW Norton and Co, 2002), 333.11 Ibid.
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bastards, but they are not cowards. This team actually pressed home a ground attack right into
the heart of the compound. That takes guts when there are people firing back.12
Initially, the attack was a success. The Provos were able to infiltrate the base and place
the bomb while killing two soldiers in the KOSB: L/Cpl Michael Patterson and Pte James
Houston while wounding a third. What the flying column did not count on was a nearby British
patrol that heard the gunfight and moved to engage. Supported by a helicopter, the British patrol
moved in close to engage, driving the Provo unit off before it could complete its mission.13
At the same time the mission was a success and a failure. A heavily armed, highly trained
and well organized small unit was able to battle their way into a hardened target and plant a large
bomb while killing two professional soldiers and apparently taking no casualties in return.14
However the bomb did not go off and further investigation showed that the fuse had been
sabotaged at some point. The Provos were robbed of a substantial victory because of a traitor, a
common problem for the IRA. This failure would mean an end to the flying column after only
one operation.15
Within a few years though, the checkpoint was gone. Though the government
claimed it was not a result of the attack and stated that mobile patrols were more effective, some
believed it was in response to the action.16
In the larger scheme of things, the Derryard operation was hardly out of the norm for the
Provos. One of their primary strategies of this time was to attack British and Loyalist personnel,
so the ability to potentially take out men of both hated institutions at once was probably too
12 Ian Bruce, Calculating, Professional Enemy that Faces KSOB,Herald Scotland, December 15, 1989,
http://www.heraldscotland.com/sport/spl/aberdeen/calculating-professional-enemy-that-faces-kosb-1.598672
(accessed November 21, 2010)13
Moloney, 333-334.14 Bruce, Calculating Professional Enemy that Faces KSOB.15
Moloney, 334.16
Northern News, The Irish Emigrant, March 25, 1991,http://www.emigrant.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=36958&Itemid=200 (accessed November
23, 2010).
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much to ignore. It was also not the only checkpoint attack, coming a few years before the more
successful Cloghogue checkpoint attack where a similar gun battle and bombing successfully
destroyed a vehicle checkpoint and left another British soldier dead.17 The strategy of attacking
defended checkpoints was not as efficient as the sniping campaign, but had the added
psychological and propaganda benefits of appearing to take the fight into the enemys lairs.
Francoist Spain was not a pleasant place for anyone who was not of the same
philosophical mindset as the ruling class. Francisco Franco was the product of a tyrannical,
freewheeling father and a devoutly religious mother who would be the major influence over his
life and whose Catholic morals would shape Francos ideology.18
Unlike his father and
grandfather who were navy men, Franco was forced to join the Army and attended the officers
academy in Toledo where he graduated well in the lower half of his class. However when he
went into battle during the Moroccan crisis he developed a reputation as a cool, brave and
prepared combat officer. Eventually his merits would see him made the youngest general officer
in the Spanish Army.19
While Francos star was rising, the Spanish governments was plummeting. This was a
ripe time for various groups to rise up and demand radical change in the governmental and social
conditions of the country.20
It was during this period the monarchy abdicated and a coup led by
General Jos Surjano failed. Franco did not take part in the coup, but his associations with hard
17Paul Rocks. Watchtower with a History, BBCNews, May 9, 2003,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/3014291.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).18
Paul H. Lewis,Latin Fascist Elites: The Mussolini, Franco and Salazar Regimes (Westport, CT: Praeger
Publishers, 2002), 71.19 Ibid., 71-72.20 Ibid., 72.
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right former Prime Minister Primo de Rivera caused his being cashiered first in the Balearic
Islands, then later the Canary Islands far from power.21
Politically things began to come to a head at this point. With the election of a far left
government, landowners and businessmen began to rally around the most traditional of Spanish
institutions: the Catholic Church. The left government began to crack down on rightist groups
such as the Falangists and Bloque Nacional, arresting, imprisoning and executing leaders such as
Calvo Sotelo, leaders of the Bloque Nacional. It was his murder that finally caused the military
to revolt and Franco to begin mobilizing his former Moroccan troops.22
The Spanish Civil War was a bloody, international affair, with Franco being supported by
Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.23
On the other side, advisors and equipment for the Republicans
were supplied by the Soviet Union.24
In the end, it would be Franco and his Nationalists that
would come out on top. Through savvy political maneuvering and not a little luck, Franco had
managed to get himself proclaimed the Caudillo, or supreme leader of the Nationalists. As the
war wound down, Franco began to set up his government and lay down his view of how the
country was to be run.25
To put into one word the general thrust of policies that Franco instituted, perhaps ultra-
conservative is the most apt. His ultimate goal was to save the country from chaos and he
fashioned his political theories on that single basis.26 The chief source of laws were the teachings
21 Ibid., 72-73.22 Ibid., 74.23 Ibid., 75.24 James M. Anderson, The Spanish Civil War: A History and Reference Guide (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press,
2003), 90-91.25 Lewis, 75-76.26
Library of Congress. Spain: Francos Political System, http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/estoc.html#es0033(accessed November 22, 2010).
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of the Catholic Church which now rose to a prominence not seen since before the Republican
government had relegated them to a secondary role in Spanish society. Strikes, political parties
and many forms of free expression were illegalized. The act of striking alone was codified as
treason against the State, as it was the duty of every Spaniard to serve the State alone. Most
importantly for this paper, he did away with regional autonomy, strengthened the central
government, and severely curtailed the traditions of the Catalan and Basque minorities.27
Perhaps no other group suffered as much as the Basques. For centuries, they had been left
to effectively rule themselves with few exceptions.Fueros, or charters of rights and privileges
given by the Crown, had been granted to the Basques in the Middle Ages and except for a period
after the French invasion of 1812 and again around the Carlist Wars, there had been little effort
to take them away. Franco, however, saw them as a serious impediment to his centralization of
powers. As well, the drive for modernization controlled by a centralized apparatus instituted by
Franco was, if not intentionally designed to, effective in trampling Basque customs and practices.
It was inevitable that the Basque people would begin to push back against these attacks on their
heritage.28
The ETA grew out of the Basque National Party, or PNV, andEkin, a militant youth
group that saw the PNV as too passive.29
In 1962, the ETA held their First Assembly and laid out
what would be the guiding principles of the movement. Among them were the following:
1. ETA is a Basque revolutionary national liberation movement.
2. Its goal is the creation of an independent Basque Country.
27Ibid.
28Cameron J. Watson, Basque Nationalism and Political Violence: The Ideological and Intellectual Origins of the
ETA (Reno: University of Nevada/ Center for Basque Studies, 2007), 185.29 Ibid.
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3. ETA requests the disappearance of economic liberalism. It calls for the socialization
of basic resources and the development of cooperatives as the basis of the
economy of the new Basque State.
4. The way to reach these goals is through armed fight.30
The ETA moved fast to implement these ideas. Using bank robbery, kidnapping, murder,
and extortion, they began to push hard against the government.31
But this would not be enough
and the ETA knew they must strike at the leaders of the Franco government. One such possible
target was Admiral Luis Carrero Blanco, a trusted confidant and friend of Francos as well as his
deputy leader. Carrero Blanco was named as Prime Minister by Franco due to ailing health in
1973; striking at him would also be striking against the future of the regime.32
The ETA decided to assassinate Carrero Blanco and began to lay out the plan. He was
known to be very much a creature of habit, attending Mass daily in the same church in mid-
Madrid near the American embassy.33 Knowing what car he drove, the small guard he usually
had and the route he would take, the ETA began the hunt.34
The operation was dubbed Operation
Ogre, a play on the nickname given to Carrero Blanco by the ETA. The main goal behind the
mission was to strike the most important person in the Francoist government and shake the
political structure enough that it would fall once Franco, already in failing health, died.35
The group charged with carrying out the assassination chose to use a bomb as opposed to
kidnapping or shooting. Once named Prime Minister, the guard on Carrero Blanco increased
30 Yovnah Alexander, Michael S. Swetnam, and Herbert M. Levine, ETA: Profile of a Terrorist Group (Ardsley,
NY: Transnational Publishers, 2001), 4-5.31 Ibid., 5.32
Stanley G. Payne, The Franco Regime: 1936-1975 (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1987), 585, 588.33
Ibid., 588.34 Mark Kurlansky, The Basque History of the World(New York: Walker Publishing Co., 1999), 253.35 Ibid.
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heavily and shooting was too chancy. During the surveillance, the team noticed that the car the
target drove in stopped at the same spot every day. The decision was made to use an explosive
device hidden in a shallow trench. To cover the necessary commotion, the team disguised
themselves as workers building large sculptures. Under this cover, they spent a week and a half
digging a tunnel from a small apartment under the street to where Carrero Blanco would park.
After completing the tunnel they packed it with over 150 pounds of dynamite and waited.36
The chosen day was to be December 20, 1973. This was the day that a show trial of
Communist labor leaders was to commence. On that morning and precisely on time the car
carrying Carrero Blanco stopped in its usual place. At 9:30 AM, the bomb was detonated and the
car was thrown over fifty feet in the air, over the cathedral and monastery and landed on a
balcony, the occupants dead. Confusion reigned and in the immediate aftermath, Franco was told
that his friend had died in a gas explosion. However, the truth soon became known and the
Francoist state eventually slid to inevitable ruin.37
With Carrero Blanco dead, the future of the government became a question mark. A new
Prime Minister, Carlos Arias Navarro was appointed, but Francoism was for all intents and
purposes dead. The fact that Francoism died with Franco seems to suggest that the assassination
of Carrera Blanco was a resounding success. The nation itself was relieved and began to make
plans to form a democratic government.38 The people felt enough sense of impending freedom
that they began to make jokes about Carrero Blanco. Two common jokes heard on the street
36Kurlansky, 253-254; Payne 588.
37 Kurlansky, 254.38 Ibid.
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were that the Admiral had become the first Spanish astronaut and Una bache mas, un cabron
menos or one more pothole, one less asshole.39
On November 20, 1975, the end of the Francoist regime came with the death of its
namesake from several health issues. The proclamation of his death was read by Prime Minister
Arias and the plans for succession began. Two days later, Juan Carlos de Bourbon, personally
named to sit on the throne by Franco himself took the oath as King of Spain and the transition
from a dictatorship to an open democracy began its first halting steps.40
At first, the Francoists
that remained in government pushed to continue the repression of the Basques but the King,
thought to be little more than a handsome figurehead, eventually prevailed and began granting
limited autonomy to the Basque people.41
Among the wishes of the Basques that were eventually
granted were a general amnesty for political prisoners, the right to display the Basque flag, or
ikurria, and the right to form an autonomous government approved by the national legislature
was permitted in the new Constitution.42 Among the local functions allowed are local
parliaments, schools, roads and tax systems.43
This seems to have had a deleterious effect on the ETA. The last three decades has seen
sporadic acts of bombings, extortion and murder intermixed with periods of ceasefires. As usual,
the attacks have been directed at such targets as businessmen, politicians, the Guardia Civil, and
important landmarks such as the Madrid airport and Lemoniz nuclear power plant. However, the
Spanish government has been unwilling to give the ETA the complete autonomy that they desire
and for the most part the Basque people have accepted the status quo, undermining the ETAs
39 Ibid.40
Payne, 619-620.41
Kurlansky, 267.42 Ibid., 269, 271, 274.43 Ibid., 274-275.
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support. This support dipped so low that in September of 2010, the ETA has stated that they will
no longer carry out actions, though the Spanish government does not believe this.44
For now,
though, the Spanish peninsula is in a wait and see mode to see what ETA will do next.
The fall of 1972 was a heady time for the world. In Munich, the largest Olympic Games
ever, and the first Games held in Germany since Hitler was in power, opened with more than
7000 athletes marching into the stadium. Among these were a few dozen Israeli athletes who saw
this opportunity to raise the blue and white Israeli flag on German soil as the ultimate defeat of
Nazism by the Jewish people. This small groups return to a place that just thirty years before
was the homeland of the most dangerous threat to the Jewish people was also a grand
opportunity for the world to see that Germany had repudiated its horrific past.45
To facilitate the appearance of a New Germany, organizers kept minimal security on
hand and other control features such as the fence around the athletes village was notoriously
easy to sneak over.46 This led to widespread unease among everyone concerned as documented
in the Kopel report which stated the testimony of athletes, delegation leaders, journalists and
television crews makes clear that members of the delegation, other officials, and family members
frequently talked among themselves about the obvious lack of security in the village, particularly
their housing.47
This lack of security was to have horrific consequences because of the Black
September Organization.
The Black September Group was a new development in the patchwork of Palestinian
militant groups. They formed as a response to Jordanian repression and massacre of Palestinians
44Giles Tremlett, ETA Declares Permanent Ceasefire, The Guardian, March 23, 2006.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2006/mar/23/spain.topstories3 (accessed November 23, 2010)45
Aaron J. Klein, StrikingBack: The 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre and Israels Deadly Response, trans. Mitch
Ginsburg (New York: Random House, 2005), 24-25.46 Ibid., 26.47 Ibid., 27.
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with the goal of avenging these killings.48
While a very secret, decentralized organ of Fatah, they
were controlled by Yasser Arafat, who decided to use them to enhance his prestige in the
world.49 For the first several months, the organization focused on Jordanian targets, so perhaps it
can be expected that Mossad would be caught off guard at the high jacking of a Tel Aviv bound
airliner by Black September operatives. However, their continued insistence that this was an
anomaly and that Jordan was to remain the prime target shows the indifference of the Israeli
intelligence services towards the BSO.50
The operation itself was very well set up. Those that knew the specifics of the plot were
kept to the barest minimum, numbering about half a dozen. There was also an outer group
responsible for transporting weapons, arranging apartments and cars and obtaining forged
documents were more numerous, but were informed of nothing beyond their specific tasks.51
Two of these people, termedsayaan or helper, were responsible for smuggling in the eight
AK-47s, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and ten grenades that would be used to in attack;
stashing them at a train station to be picked up by a member of the operational group.52
The operational group itself consisted of eight men from the age of nineteen and up and
included various pursuits such as a chemistry student and a soccer player. A few had lived in
Germany while others were products of the refugee camps. The leader, Muhammad Massalha
was only twenty-seven and had lived in West Germany for many years, learning to speak fluent
German.53
Regardless of their individual differences, all were devoted to the cause.
48Ibid., 31.
49 Ibid., 32.50
Ibid., 33-34.51
Ibid., 32-33.52 Ibid., 29-30.53 Ibid., 37-38.
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At 4:15 AM on September 5, the team struck. Disguised as athletes, they scaled the fence
with the help of a group of American athletes and made their way to the Israeli apartments.54
The
terrorists first entered Apartment 1, which housed the Israeli coaches and referees. Here they lost
the element of surprise. Having trouble opening the door to the apartment, they were discovered
by wrestling referee Yossef Gutfreund who used his 285 pounds to try and keep the door closed
while raising the alarm. Despite this warning, only one person, trainer Tuvia Skolsky would
survive out of the occupants of this apartment.55
(SB 42-43)
Turning to the remaining occupants of the apartment, the terrorists began to bind the
captives and restore order. One, Moshe Weinberg, decided to fight back and was shot in the face
before being overpowered. Once the men in the apartment were taking care of, the group
proceeded to Apartment 3, housing the wrestlers and weight lifters. This group was also
overpowered and marched back towards Apartment 1. Wrestler Gad Tsabari took this
opportunity to escape and succeeded while Moshe Weinberg was killed in his escape attempt,
becoming the first to die. Wrestler Yossef Romano also attempted to overcome the attackers and
was killed, leaving nine surviving hostages.56
A standoff was now underway.
The goal Black September wished to accomplish was the release of 236 prisoners from
jails in Israel and Germany including the founders of the Baader Meinhoff gang, a Japanese
terrorist that had attacked travelers in Tel Aviv and the women who had hijacked the Sabena
airliner that could have tipped off Mossad about the BSOs change in target.57
Money was
emphatically rejected by Massalha, who was going by the name Issa. When offered an
54Ibid., 40-41.
55Ibid., 42-43.
56 Ibid., 44-47.57 Ibid., 49.
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unlimited amount of money, he rejected the offer by stating the talk of money is demeaning.58
Instead, the hostage takers demanded the release of the prisoners or they were willing to become
martyrs.59
For their part, the Israeli government chose to leave all matters relating to the crisis in
German hands, expecting that the German traits of efficiency and precision would see the matter
handled in good stead. They did not realize that not only did Germany not have a counter terror
team, but that under the German Constitution the federal government was not allowed to send
any troops into Bavaria for any reason. This was to have grave consequences in the outcome of
the case. Instead of trained professionals, the Bavarian government ultimately had to rely on
police officers that were operating well out of their training.60
The endgame began during the evening of September 5. Becoming more impatient with
delays and requests for time extensions, Issa demanded a plane be made ready to take the
kidnappers and their hostages to Cairo.61 The Germans decided that the transfer to the airport
would be the perfect time to strike. Three teams, one consisting of undercover officers on the
plane would take down the leaders while a team of five snipers would kill the remaining
terrorists. Finally a team of armored vehicles would rush the group and remove the now free
hostages.62
The decision was made to use two helicopters to fly everyone to Frstenfeldbruck
airport and the pieces began to fall into place.63
What happened next could only be termed a catastrophe. Shortly after 10:30 PM, the
helicopters carrying the hostages and kidnappers landed at the airport. Here things began to go
58Ibid., 51.
59 Ibid., 52.60
Ibid., 56.61
Ibid., 61.62 Ibid., 65.63 Ibid., 67.
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very wrong. Unbeknownst to everyone involved, the team of undercover officers on the plane
had abandoned their posts out of fear for their lives.64
Issa and his second in command, noticing
the lack of aircrew sensed the trap and began to head back to the helicopters. Here the second
part of the plan went wrong. When setting up the mission, the Germans had expected there to be
only five terrorists, not eight, and had detailed only five snipers to the operation. Assuming that
each sniper hit their first target with their first round, there would still be three terrorists capable
of action.65
Of the first two shots fired, one missed. On this signal the other snipers opened fire but it
was too late. The terrorists went to ground underneath the helicopters and returned fire. The
decision was finally made to approach the terrorists, but the police refused to do so except under
cover of armor. Inexplicably, the armored vehicles had never been ordered to leave the athletes
village and once sent to the airport, were immobilized in the traffic jam. Consequently, the police
remained in place for more than an hour and a half until the armored units could arrive.66
This was the final straw for the hostage takers. Knowing the end was near, they acted.
One terrorist jumped out of a helicopter and threw a grenade inside, killing four of the hostages
aboard. Another leaned into the second helicopter spraying automatic fire into the bodies of the
other five, killing them as well. At this point the terrorists made their break for freedom. Issa was
killed by a marksman while only three others were able to make it to the trees. These three were
the only survivors of the massacre and were captured within hours.67
Like many terror attacks, the Munich massacre was a tactical success and a strategic
failure. The operation initially went off without a hitch. The terrorists managed to overcome any
64Ibid., 72.
65Ibid., 73.
66 Ibid., 74-75.67 Ibid., 75-76.
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resistance by the athletes, force the police to play be their rules and ultimately get out of the
village and to an airport. As Issa desired, the attack had the effect of broadcasting the plight of
the Palestinian people to a billion people around the world.68 Strategically though, the plot was a
failure. No prisoners were released and a hard core group of terrorists was removed from play.
The massacre also had the effect of sending the Israelis on a rampage. Within a few days,
the Israeli Air Force launched retaliatory airstrikes on Palestinian bases in Lebanon and Syria,
killing and injuring hundreds of people. The Israeli Army sent a battalion size force into Lebanon
killing a reported forty-five terrorists and capturing sixteen.69 But the government knew this
would not be enough. They would have to strike at the hierarchy that planned and completed the
attack.
The operation was to be calledMivtza Zaam Hael; Operation Wrath of God. Mossad
officers were directed to find and watch any perpetrator connected to the massacre, then await
the order of a small group of government officials who would decide whether or not the target
was to be assassinated. If the answer was yes, a special Mossad team set up in Paris was
dispatched to carry out the deed. The team was divided into five groups of two assassins, two
guards, and two agents to provide cover, two communications specialists and a team of six to
eight agents to provide logistical support.70
The number of actual hits carried out is not known for sure and range from twenty to
thirty-five.71
But some of the targets were the ones that could be expected on such a list and
included high ranking members of the PLO such as Ali Hassan Salameh who was being groomed
68Ibid., 34.
69Ibid., 94-95.
70 Simone Reeve, One Day in September(New York: Arcade Publishing), 162.71 Ibid.
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as a possible replacement to Yasser Arafat.72
The group did not just use pistols and bombs to
make their point. Using psychological warfare, obituaries of healthy members of the PLO were
run in newspapers as warnings and others would receive phone calls from strangers that were
well acquainted with the recipients family and job.73
Another failure of the attack was the realization that highly trained teams of police and
military members had to be set up to deal with terrorist attacks. Germany, stung by a series of
inept moves that resulted in the death of the Israelis set up GSG-9 with the help of the Israeli
government. This extremely professional police organization was just one of many that were
formed, consequently making the success of terror operations involving hostages a chancy thing
at best and a suicide mission at worst.
Its only within the last few decades that international terrorism has become a problem.
The IRA has generally been a problem for the Irish, the ETA did not act outside of Spain and
France and other groups such asAction Directe, the Red Brigades and Red Army Faction were
problems for their home countries. Only with the rise of militant Islam did terror cross
international boundaries on a regular basis. Attacks such as the Munich massacre and high
jacking of aircraft and ships became the wave of the future. It took the actions of September 11,
2001 to bring the daily realities of the world home to most Americans. Since that day, terrorism
has become the boogie man for us as it has been for much of the world.
As the war between the British government and the IRA began to wind down, the war
between the British people and Islam began in earnest. A small number of homegrown and
immigrant militants among the poor immigrant class began to act. The stated goal among many
72 Ibid., 162-163.73 Ibid., 167.
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of these groups, such asHizb-ut-Tahir, is to bring about the world wide Islamic Caliphate under
Muslim rule and with Shariah law as the basis for societal conduct and law.74
A key feature in
this movement is convincing mainly second generation children of immigrants that their loyalty
should be to Islam, not the country theyve been raised in; they seem to have had a large degree
of success based on feelings of exclusion from the larger culture.75
While the 7/7 Metro bombings are one of the most well known actions of Islamic
terrorism in Britain, there have been other attacks against the British people, most of which have
been failures. One such attack was the attempted firebombing of the Glasgow airport in 2007.
The brainchild of Bilal Abdulla, a UK born Iraqi doctor, it was his means of striking back at a
society he saw as murdering my people. Therefore, if no one else would dispense justice on the
infidel, it would be his task.76
While he stated in his trial that he did not want to kill people, he obtained a Jeep
Cherokee and filled it with a large gasoline bomb that would have been more than enough to kill
or injure many people.77
Unlike the other attacks looked at in this paper, this attack was almost
amateurish in execution. However, Abdulla did one thing right: he kept the number of people
involved to the bare minimum. In this case, only one other person was privy to the entire plot.
While Abdulla was the brains behind the attack, it was Kafeel Ahmed, an Indian born Muslim
that was to actually drive the vehicle.
74 Yamin Zakaria, interview with Imran Khan, Newsnight, BBC, August 27, 2003.75 European Police Office, EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report (The Hague, 2009),
http://www.europol.europa.eu/publications/EU_Terrorism_Situation_and_Trend_Report_TE-SAT/TESAT2009.pdf
(accessed November 23, 2010).76
Dominic Casciani, Iraqi Doctors Road to Radicalism, BBCNews, December 16, 2008,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7784799.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).77 Ibid.
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Both of these men were not poor, uneducated lackeys that could be led to do anything.
Abdulla was a medical doctor who completed his schooling in Baghdad and was licensed in
London in 2006.78 Ahmed was an engineer who studied at Queens University and Anglia
Ruskin University. This implies not only that they were of high intelligence and were capable of
doing great things, but also had the ability to fashion comfortable lives for themselves if they
chose to.
Along with the Glasgow attacks, the men were both connected and responsible for the
failed London car bombings.79 In this case, the men were a little more professional conducting
reconnaissance before placing the bombs. In the Glasgow case however, appears to have been a
spur of the moment kamikaze mission. Police on the scene believed the men were determined to
die, and when that did not happen, it confused them.80
Logistically, the attack was
straightforward. Using Abdullas Jeep, which was packed with gasoline and nails, they simply
drove into the front entrance of the Glasgow Airport.
Originally, the intent was to ignite the bomb inside the terminal, but the vehicle became
stuck on a steel bollard. Changing up the plan, the men then doused the Jeep in gasoline and lit it
on fire, hoping the bomb would explode.81
To prevent the police from interfering, Abdulla exited
the Jeep and attacked a constable while Ahmed escaped the Jeep in flames. Another constable
78Bomb Plot: Arrests and Releases, BBCNews, October 5, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/6264230.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).79 Behind the London-Glasgow Attacks.80
Adam Fresco, Duo Who Attacked Glasgow Airport Were Resigned to Death, Say Officers, The SundayTimes, July 5, 2007, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article2033389.ece (accessed November 23, 2010)
81 Behind the London-Glasgow Attacks.
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put out Ahmed while bystanders came to the aid of police, kicking and subduing the two
suspects.82
Order was quickly restored, though the airport would be shut down for many hours.83
(BBC overview) Both men were arrested and Ahmed was rushed to the hospital with burns over
90% of his body. He would ultimately die from these wounds a month later.84Abdulla was
ultimately charged with conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosions and sentenced
to two life terms, of which he will have to serve a minimum of 32 years.85
The attack was an unqualified failure on every level. Poorly planned and executed, no
one was seriously hurt except for Ahmed. The Glasgow airport was back in operation within a
few days.86
Abdulla, defiant as he was on the stand, will spend most of the rest of his life in
prison. And in their failure, all that was accomplished was to remind the world that terror was an
omnipresent threat that must be watched for, therefore making it all the more difficult for other,
more sophisticated plots to have a chance of success.
No two terrorist attacks are the same. They may use similar methods, be based on similar
ideologies and have some of the same types of, or in the case of successful attacks, the same
exact people. However, the target, the logistics and the people involved will always have a subtle
effect on how an attack will be carried out. An engineer will more than likely conceive a more
82Fresco;Blazing Car Crashes into Airport, BBCNews, June 30, 2007,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6257194.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).83 Blazing Car Crashes into Airport.84
Glasgow Airport Attack Man Dies, BBCNews, August 3, 2007,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/glasgow_and_west/6928854.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).85
Bomb Plot Doctor Jailed for Life, BBCNews, December 17, 2008,http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7786884.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).86 Houses Searched Following Attack, BBCNews, July 1, 2007,
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/scotland/6258206.stm (accessed November 23, 2010).
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complicated mission than a laborer while a religious terrorist might consider options like suicide
bombing that most ideological terrorist might dismiss.
This is why our understanding of terrorism and its perpetrators is important. For example,
by seeing an escalation from robbery to extortion to assault, to kidnapping to murder, a person
may be able to discern what kind of target may be sought out. And a possible target must be
anticipated to protect it. As the saying goes, to defend everywhere is to defend nowhere.
Fortunately, the terror groups that are springing up now as the older ideological groups die are
very good at telegraphing their intentions. By putting themselves in the open, at least when it
comes to the generalities of their plans, the ability to pluck that first string that unravels the rest
is greatly enhanced; a thing practically unheard of in more secret groups such as the ETA.
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