Achille Lauro hijacking ends - Oct 10, 1985 - HISTORY.com Achille Lauro hijacking ends Publisher A+E Networks The hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro reaches a dramatic climax when U.S. Navy F-14 fighters intercept an Egyptian airliner attempting to fly the Palestinian hijackers to freedom and force the jet to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily. American and Italian troops surrounded the plane, and the terrorists were taken into Italian custody. On October 7, four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. Some 320 crewmembers and 80 passengers,were taken hostage. Hundreds of other passengers had disembarked the cruise ship earlier that day to visit Cairo and tour the Egyptian pyramids. Identifying themselves as members of the Palestine Liberation Front–a Palestinian splinter group–the gunmen demanded the release of 50 Palestinian militants imprisoned in Israel. If their demands were not met, they threatened to blow up the ship and kill the 11 Americans on board. The next morning, they also threatened to kill the British passengers.

The Achille Lauro traveled to the Syrian port of Tartus, where the terrorists demanded negotiations on October 8. Syria refused to permit the ship to anchor in its waters, which prompted more threats from the hijackers. That afternoon, they shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish-American who was confined to a wheelchair as the result of a stroke. His body was then pushed overboard in the wheelchair. Yasir Arafat’s Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned the hijacking, and PLO officials joined with Egyptian authorities in attempting to resolve the crisis. On the recommendation of the negotiators, the cruise ship traveled to Port Said. On October 9, the hijackers surrendered to Egyptian authorities and freed the hostages in exchange for a pledge of safe passage to an undisclosed destination. The next day–October 10–the four hijackers boarded an EgyptAir Boeing 737 airliner, along with Mohammed Abbas, a member of the Palestine Liberation Front who had participated in the negotiations; a PLO official; and several Egyptians. The 737 took off from Cairo at 4:15 p.m. EST and headed for Tunisia.

President Ronald Reagan gave his final order approving the plan to intercept the aircraft, and at 5:30 p.m. EST, F-14 Tomcat fighters located the airliner 80 miles south of Crete. Without announcing themselves, the F-14s trailed the airliner as it sought and was denied permission to land at Tunis. After a request to land at the Athens airport was likewise refused, the F-14s turned on their lights and flew wing-to-wing with the airliner. The aircraft was ordered to land at a NATO air base in Sicily, and the pilot complied, touching down at 6:45 p.m. The hijackers were arrested soon after. Abbas and the other Palestinian were released, prompting criticism from the United States, which wanted to investigate their possible involvement in the hijacking. On July 10, 1986, an Italian court later convicted three of the terrorists and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 30 years. Three others, including Mohammed Abbas, were convicted in absentia for masterminding the hijacking and sentenced to life in prison.

They received harsher penalties because, unlike the hijackers, who the court found were acting for “patriotic motives,” Abbas and the others conceived the hijacking as a “selfish political act” designed “to weaken the leadership of Yasir Arafat.” The fourth hijacker was a minor who was tried and convicted separately. Related Videos BBC ON THIS DAY | 7 | 1985: Gunmen hijack Italian cruise liner About This Site | Text Only 1985: Gunmen hijack Italian cruise liner Palestinian militants have hijacked an Italian cruise liner, the Achille Lauro, in the Mediterranean and threatened to blow it up. The gunmen are demanding the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners held in Israel. There are said to be 420 passengers and crew on board the ship including six Britons. Little is yet known about the hijackers but Egyptian and Italian authorities are said to be in communication with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Emergency meeting The Naples-based ship was commandeered this afternoon shortly after leaving the port of Alexandria in Egypt on its way to Port Said. Most of the passengers disembarked in Alexandria to go on a sight-seeing tour and were planning to rejoin the cruise further up the Egyptian coast.

The Achille Lauro's present position and intended destination is unknown, but the Italian Navy is sending ships and reconnaissance aircraft in an attempt to establish its location. Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi is understood to be holding an emergency meeting to discuss options with his foreign and defence ministers. Marine hijackings are uncommon. In 1961 the passenger liner Santa Maria was taken over by opponents of the Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar, but it ended peacefully. Notable sea hijacks have also occurred off Singapore, Greece and Cambodia in the 1970s. Experts say a forced boarding of the Achille Lauro could result in heavy hostage casualties. I was there When the Achille Lauro was hijacked in October 1985 I was working as a receptionist at a Cairo Hotel. At around 0200 hours on my late night shift I received a phone call from one of the Egyptian travel agents asking if I have 300 rooms available! I was surprised and answered with hesitance that we do have availability. In three hours around 350 guests arrived in shocked condition.

They were passengers of the Achille Lauro that went on a trip to Cairo and were supposed to rejoin the ship at PortSaid. I remember that I had to deal with this situation for three days nonstop. They were the longest three days I worked during my entire career. Mohamed Samy, Egypt In Context The hijackers were from the Palestinian Liberation Front, a splinter group of Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organisation. They shot dead a disabled American tourist, 69 year-old Leon Klinghoffer and had his body thrown overboard with his wheelchair. The crisis ended on 10 October. Egypt gave free passage to the hijackers in exchange for the rest of the hostages. But US Navy jets intercepted a chartered Egypt Air 737 carrying the gunmen and forced it to land in Italy. Four of them were tried in Italy and sentenced to long prison terms. Abu Abbas, the alleged mastermind escaped jail and stands convicted in absentia. He was arrested by US special forces in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, in April 2003 and died in custody in March 2004. A post mortem examination showed he died of heart disease.

The Achille Lauro caught fire and sank in 1994. Italian Cruise Ship Hijacked Off Egypt by Palestinians : Terrorists Demand Israel Release Prisoners; 400 People Are on Liner - latimes YOU ARE HERE: LAT Home → Collections Italian Cruise Ship Hijacked Off Egypt by Palestinians : Terrorists Demand Israel Release Prisoners; 400 People Are on Liner October 08, 1985 |DON A. SCHANCHE | Times Staff Writer ROME — A group of armed Palestinians hijacked an Italian cruise ship with more than 400 people aboard--most of them crew members--off the Egyptian coast Monday, demanded the release of prisoners held by Israel and threatened to blow up the ship if attacked. Egyptian authorities notified Italy that the ship was seized by the Palestinians after it left Alexandria en route to the Suez Canal city of Port Said. They said the ship, the liner Achille Lauro, then steamed away from Port Said into the Mediterranean. Italian Foreign Ministry spokesman Francesco Verga said early today that the ship was reported to be heading north, about 40 miles from Port Said.

As of early today, Egyptian port officials said they had received some radio communications from the hijackers. PLO Denies Responsibility Italian Foreign Minister Giulio Andreotti called the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Rome and was told that the PLO has no knowledge of the hijacking and denied responsibility for it, the spokesman said. A spokesman at the PLO's Tunis headquarters said, "There is no connection between the PLO and this operation." According to news agency reports from Port Said, the hijackers identified themselves as members of a group called the Palestine Liberation Front and were led by a man named Omar. The reports said the commandos, carrying firearms and explosives, have demanded the release of 50 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and threatened to blow up the cruise liner if their demands are not met or if the ship comes under attack. Israeli short-wave radio monitor Mickey Gourdus told Israel radio that the hijackers have threatened to execute some of the passengers, beginning with the Americans on board, unless Egyptian TV agrees to broadcast their demands.

Patrizia Terese, a duty officer at the Foreign Ministry, told the Associated Press that 72 Americans were among 600 passengers who left the ship in Alexandria for a daylong tour on shore and were to have reboarded the ship at Port Said after sightseeing. But when the passengers arrived in Port Said, they were placed on buses and taken back to Cairo, 138 miles southwest of the canal city, and checked into hotels. Some of the American passengers who left the ship land told the ABC News program "Nightline" that there still are Americans on board, wire services reported. Harriet Hauser, of Hollywood, Fla., said in Cairo, "I have two friends that stayed on ship because they had been here before." Another passenger, Matthew Polito of New Jersey, also said he knew of Americans still aboard the ship. An Egyptian security official told United Press International that the seven-man commando team threatened to kill the hostages, one by one, but had set no deadline. Other Egyptian officials said they believe the leader is Omar Mustafa and that the group he heads is opposed to PLO chief Yasser Arafat.

Arab specialists said that the Palestine Liberation Front is close to two other radical groups, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine. There were conflicting reports concerning the number of passengers and crew members aboard at the time of the hijacking. Officials of Flotta Achille, the shipping company that owns the Achille Lauro, could not be reached to give the names and nationalities of passengers and crew. But a Naples Port Authority spokesman said that when the ship left Italy, there were 840 passengers aboard including West Germans, Italians, Britons, French, Spaniards and Americans. The Italian Foreign Ministry said that 70 to 80 passengers and 340 crew members were aboard the ship when it was hijacked. In Constant Contact Andreotti spent most of Monday night and early today closeted with Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi and Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini, all of whom were said to be in constant contact with Egyptian Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel Meguid. The spokesman said that both Italian and Egyptian military aircraft would fly reconnaissance missions over the hijacked cruise liner at first light today. Spadolini placed the Italian armed forces on alert late Monday.

The Italian news agency ANSA said that the first signal heard from the ship was an SOS intercepted by a ham radio operator in Goteborg, Sweden, as the Palestinians seized the ship Monday morning. The Foreign Ministry spokesman said that Egyptian authorities told Andreotti that the hijackers have demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel. "We don't know which organization these people belong to or which prisoners they want freed," said the spokesman. No immediate reaction was reported from Israel, where government authorities in the past have consistently said they would not deal with terrorists. One Name Mentioned In Egypt, there were reports that the hijackers have specifically demanded the release of an imprisoned Palestinian named Samir Konaitery, responsible for a guerrilla attack in the late 1970s at Nahariya in northern Israel. Three Presidents and a Hijacking at Sea | The American Spectator Three Presidents and a Hijacking at Sea April 9, 2009, 10:09 am Total: 0 Email Hijacked at sea.

President Barack Obama has just joined an exclusive club of three modern presidents of the United States who were all faced with a version of the same problem: what is the right response for the United States when an American ship, or a ship with American passengers, is hijacked at sea? The three other members of the club are Lyndon Johnson, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan. The ships and incidents were: 1. The USS Pueblo — A US Navy intelligence ship captured by the North Koreans on January 23, 1968, in what the United States insisted was international waters off the coast of North Korea. 2. The S.S. Mayaguez — An American merchant ship seized by the Khmer Rouge Communists in international waters off the coast of Cambodia on May 12, 1975. 3. The Achille Lauro — An Italian cruise ship sailing the Mediterranean hijacked on October 7, 1985, by four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists. The three incidents provide the dovish Obama with vivid examples of not only what to do but what not to do. First, the Pueblo and LBJ.

On January 23, 1968, Lyndon Johnson was virtually under siege in the White House for his conduct of the Vietnam War. The American left, in what is now a reflexively dovish pattern stretching all the way back to its beginnings in the late 1960s, was in full cry. Senator Eugene McCarthy of Minnesota was mounting an unexpectedly strong challenge to Johnson in the New Hampshire primary, and New York Senator Robert F. Kennedy was waiting in the wings. Former Vice President Richard Nixon, the hard-line nemesis of Communists from Alger Hiss to Khrushchev, had not only begun to stage a startling comeback from two earlier defeats but was now the frontrunner for the GOP presidential nomination. At 2:34 in the morning, a haggard LBJ was awakened by the duty officer in the Situation Room. The USS Pueblo, which LBJ would later describe as “a highly sophisticated electronics intelligence ship” — a.k.a. a spy ship — was boarded and captured in international waters off the coast of North Korea. The ship was over 15 miles from the North Korean mainland, well outside the 12-mile territorial claim of the Koreans.

Of the crew of 6 officers, 75 enlisted men and 2 civilians, 1 was killed and 3 injured. Now what? The ship was “virtually unarmed,” LBJ said. Which Nixon, furious at hearing this, immediately described as a “tactical blunder,” in turn infuriating Johnson. Why? Tellingly, the outline of mistakes emerges that in retrospect shine the light on the difference in mindset between even the relatively hawkish LBJ and the emerging conservative consensus on what would be described in the Reagan era as “peace through strength.” The reason the Pueblo was so vulnerable was LBJ’s belief that “the cost of providing military protection for all our sea and air intelligence operations would have been prohibitively expensive, and under any circumstances such armed protection so close to their shores would have been provocative to foreign governments.” In other words, LBJ, already losing the Vietnam War for precisely the same reason — a fear of antagonizing the Chinese and the Russians — now found that the North Koreans had read his reluctance with precision. So, they boldly sent out two sub chasers, four patrol boats and two MiG 21 fighters.

Surrounding the Americans, the North Koreans charged aboard the Pueblo with guns blazing, capturing the ship. The ship was taken into the port of Wonsan, the crew blindfolded, beaten and stuck with bayonets. Next they were shifted off the ship to POW camps, where they were repeatedly tortured. The Pueblo‘s Commander, Lloyd Bucher, told that his crew would be executed unless a confession was forthcoming, finally signed a “confession.” This went on for almost the rest of the year. In November, Nixon was elected president. In an eerie foreshadowing of the Reagan-Carter transition, in which American hostages were released literally as Reagan was being sworn in, the North Koreans set out to humiliate LBJ. In the Nixon-Johnson version, with the legendary hardliner Nixon getting closer and closer to Inauguration Day, the North Koreans agreed to release the Pueblo crew — for a price. LBJ must sign off on an apology, a written admission that the Pueblo was spying and a promise the U.S. would not do it again. Defeated, humiliated as would be Carter in a similar position twelve years later and for the same reason, Johnson gave in.

Two days before Christmas, December 23, 1968 — 28 days before Nixon would be sworn in with full command of the U.S. military — North Korea released the crew of the Pueblo. But they kept the ship. In 1999, during the Clinton presidency, the North Koreans decided to move the Pueblo to the capital of Pyongyang, which meant a trip back out into international waters. The Clinton administration decided not to try and take it back, so the ship is now on exhibit in the North Korean capital — as a symbol of victory in defeating America. Next to be hijacked at sea was the S.S. Mayaguez, an American merchant ship hijacked on May 12, 1975. It was barely a month after what President Gerald R. Ford would call a “humiliating retreat” from South Vietnam and Cambodia, a retreat that came specifically as a result of the left-leaning Democrats in Congress cutting off funding over Ford’s objections. The Mayaguez was decidedly not a spy ship, but as with the Pueblo it was well within international waters, this time off the coast of Cambodia.

By now, the Khmer Rouge had begun the mass slaughter that liberal activists insisted would never occur if Americans left the area, winning the name for the time period as “the Killing Fields.” The President was acutely aware the forced withdrawal from Southeast Asia had begun causing questions about American resolve in the Cold War. He made up his mind that “as long as I was President…the U.S. would not abandon its commitments overseas. We would not permit our setbacks to become a license for others to fish in troubled waters. Rhetoric alone, I knew, would not persuade anyone that America would stand firm. They would have to see proof of our resolve.” Ford, the House Minority Leader during the Pueblo incident, also said that he was “determined” not to repeat LBJ’s mistakes. He was particularly disturbed that the crew of the Pueblo “had languished in a North Korean prison camp for nearly a year.” He was not going to let the Mayaguez crew suffer the same fate. The seizure of the Mayaguez, said Ford publicly, was nothing less than outright “piracy.” Literally, the President called in the Marines. But just as LBJ faced obstacles, so too did Ford. U.S.

destroyers and the aircraft carrier Coral Sea were too far away to be of immediate help. The Marines would have to be airlifted from bases in Okinawa and the Philippines, and thus would have to use Thailand as the “jumping-off” point for a rescue. The Thais, as they made plain, were not happy about this. Responded the plain-spoken Ford: “I didn’t give a damn about offending their sensibilities.” In went the Marines. The Navy. The Air Force. There were air strikes. There was a battle, a battle costing the lives of 14 Marines, two Navy corpsmen, two Air Force crewmen. Estimates put Khmer Rouge casualties at 360. Every single member of the Mayaguez was rescued, as was the ship. Anthony Lewis, a columnist for the New York Times, sneered that Ford was simply trying to “impress the world.” Ford felt terrible at the casualties, yet went to his grave believing his critics were “hopelessly naïve.” The view of America, so severely damaged by the forced retreat from Vietnam and Cambodia only a month earlier, began to rise once again as the character of the relatively new American president was noted by both American friends and foes.

The rise of the doctrine known as “peace through strength” began further to define itself. Finally, in 1985, there was the tale of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro. Sailing off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt, to Port Said, it was taken over by four terrorists from the Palestinian Liberation Organization. Making demands for the release of 50 terrorists held by Israel, the group sought out American passengers. They elected one, an elderly, wheelchair-bound American Jew named Leon Klinghoffer. They shot him dead, in his chair, then threw Klinghoffer, still in his chair, into the sea. Ronald Reagan was furious. By the time the U.S. could react, the Egyptians were already involved, and the terrorists were not only back on land — Egyptian soil — but had been ushered to an airport and a getaway plane that would fly them to Tunisia and freedom. In an instant Reagan decided this would not stand. Flying back to Washington on Air Force One, Reagan demanded to know what was possible for him to do, turning to a young Marine Lieutenant Colonel named Oliver North to coordinate his options. Options in hand, the President acted.

From the decks of the aircraft carrier Saratoga, F-14 Tomcats launched, ordered to divert the Egyptian charter plane carrying the terrorists not to Tunisia but to a NATO air base in Sicily. They were ordered not to shoot, but rather “persuade” by whatever airborne means other than shooting down the plane, which, of course, carried others than the terrorists. Shortly afterwards the word was flashed to the White House: the plane had been “acquired” by the F-14’s. The Americans instructed the pilot to accompany them to Signolla, Italy, the site of the NATO base. They did. The Italians objected — they didn’t want this problem in their lap. They began scrambling F-104’s from the Italian air force to keep the America jets and their captured prey out of Italy. Arguments ensued. The President picked up the phone and called the President of Italy. He got what he wanted, saying he was prepared to just do it — land the planes at the base — regardless. The plane landed, bad guys in hand. “Good enough” snapped Reagan. The four terrorists went to jail, although the mastermind, Abu Abbas, got away. To Iraq, where he died during the American invasion.

But even without his capture in 1985, the point was made. Said Reagan’s Secretary of State George Shultz later: “Terrorists and their sponsor states [read, the Soviet Union] were now on notice that the United States would and could take action and that the rule of law could apply to them.” This policy of Reagan’s, the same principle invoked by Ford and disregarded by LBJ, was by 1985 known as “peace through strength.” As former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher would say at Reagan’s funeral, it was a policy that enabled him to win the Cold War “without firing a shot.” LBJ, and later Jimmy Carter, never understood the importance of this principle. They lost their presidencies because of it. Now, it’s Barack Obama’s turn to face a hijacking at sea. The world is watching.

Palestinian terrorists hijack an Italian cruise ship - Oct 07, 1985 - HISTORY.com Palestinian terrorists hijack an Italian cruise ship Share this: Palestinian terrorists hijack an Italian cruise ship Author Palestinian terrorists hijack an Italian cruise ship URL Publisher A+E Networks Four Palestinian terrorists board the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauroshortly after it leftAlexandria, Egypt, in order to hijack the luxury liner. The well-armed men, who belonged to the Popular Front for the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), the terrorist wing of the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) led by Abu Abbas, easily took control of the vessel since there was no security force on board. Abbas had been responsible for many attacks on Israel and its citizens in the early 1980s. On multiple occasions, he sent men on hang gliders and in hot air balloons on bombing missions to Israel, all of which turned out to be miserable failures. In an attempt to salvage his reputation, Abbas ordered the hijacking of the Achille Lauro. Yet there were no specific goals or demands set forth in the mission. At first, the terrorists demanded that Israel release imprisonedPLF members and sought entry to a Syrian port.

But when Syria denied the request, the terrorists lost control of the situation. Gathering the American tourists on board, the terrorists randomly chose to kill 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer. The wheelchair-bound American was shot in the head and thrown overboard. Klinghoffer’s cold-blooded murder backfired on the terrorists. The world’s outrage forced PLO chief Yassir Arafat to cut PLO ties with the terrorists and to demand that Abbas end the situation. On October 9, Abbas contacted the terrorists, ordered them not to kill any more passengers, and arranged for the ship to land in Egypt. Meanwhile, the elite U.S. Navy SEALs were dispatched to raid the Achille Lauro. But by the time they arrived, the terrorists had already gotten off the ship in Egypt and boarded a plane to Libya. The United States then sent out two F-14 fighter jets, which intercepted the plane and forced it to land in Italy. A three-way standoff between the PFLP terrorists, the Americans, and the Italian Army on the runway in Sicily ended with the Italians taking Abbas and the other terrorists into custody.

Despite intense American pressure, the Italians allowed Abbas to leave the country,and then prosecute the four who were on board. All were convicted, but only one received a sentence of 30 years; the others got off with lighter prison terms. Italy tried and convicted Abbasin absentia, but did not seek extradition until 2003. He was captured by U.S. Special Forces in Baghdad that year and died in American custory in 2004. Related Videos G.I.s SNAG '85 HIJACKER Terrorist Abbas nabbed in Iraq - NY Daily News G.I.s SNAG '85 HIJACKER Terrorist Abbas nabbed in Iraq G.I.s SNAG '85 HIJACKER Terrorist Abbas nabbed in Iraq NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Wednesday, April 16, 2003, 12:00 AM The Palestinian terrorist whose men hijacked the cruise ship Achille Lauro in 1985 and hurled a wheelchair-bound New Yorker into the sea has been captured by U. S. forces in Iraq.

Abu Abbas, who lived in Baghdad under Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's protection, fled the city before the Americans took it and tried to escape to Syria. Arab media said the Syrians turned Abbas back at the border, and U. S. Central Command confirmed he had been captured by Special Forces outside the capital, along with several associates. Commandos who raided several sites also seized rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons and documents, defense officials said. "He's a big catch for us," said Vince Cannistraro, a former CIA counterterrorism chief. "It's an old score to settle. " Abbas' capture ended an 18-year manhunt for the chief culprit in the murder of 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, who was shot on the Italian ship because he was a Jew - then tossed in his wheelchair into the Mediterranean. The brutality of Klinghoffer's murder shocked the world and put tourists on notice that they could be targets of Palestinian terrorists. Believed to be about 54, Abbas was being held by U. S. forces in Baghdad, but where he would be sent next was not clear. He is wanted in Italy, where he was convicted of Klinghoffer's murder in absentia.

Although the FBI has labeled Abbas a terrorist, warrants for his arrest were dropped after the Italian conviction, a Justice Department official said. The so-called long-arm statute that allows the U. S. to pursue and prosecute terrorists who have attacked Americans overseas was enacted after the Achille Lauro hijacking. Klinghoffer's adult daughters praised the capture last night and urged the U. S. to bring Abbas to trial. Born Mohammed Abbas in a Syrian refugee camp after his family fled Haifa, Israel, the 16-year-old Abbas joined the Palestinian Liberation Front, a splinter group of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and devoted his life to bringing down Israel. Operating from a base in Jordan, Abbas directed four men to hijack the Achille Lauro and its 400 passengers during a cruise off the Egyptian coast in October 1985. He demanded the release of 50 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. A plan arranged by Egypt to fly the hijackers and Abbas to Tunisia three days later was foiled by then-President Ronald Reagan, who sent U. S. war planes to divert the flight to Sicily. But Italy insisted it did could not legally hold Abbas - a decision later overturned by a judge.

By then, Abbas had fled. Asked why he chose the Iraqi capital as his base to plot attacks against Israel, Abbas told an interviewer, "because I haven't any place to go. " Saddam's terror-trove He isn't the only terrorist to get a warm welcome from Saddam. Palestinian guerrilla kingpin Abu Nidal was living outside Baghdad until his death last year. And Abdul Rahman Yasin, a co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, was living there despite a $5 million bounty on his head. In recent years, Abbas tried to change his ways - or at least his words. He denounced suicide bombings against Israelis and was allowed to return home to Gaza. He fled back to Baghdad after the latest Palestinian uprising erupted in 2000. Overweight and slowed by a hearing ailment, he called the Achille Lauro hijacking a mistake and expressed some regret for Klinghoffer's death, even as he vowed to fight for Saddam. The hijacking he masterminded was turned into a Hollywood movie called "Voyage of Terror" starring Burt Lancaster and an opera by composer John Adams called "The Death of Klinghoffer.

" As for the Achille Lauro, it sank in 1994 after catching fire in the Indian Ocean. U.S. Navy SEALs and the Achille Lauro Mission | National Navy UDT-SEAL Museum U.S. Navy SEALs and the Achille Lauro Mission U.S. Navy SEALs and the Achille Lauro Mission U.S. Navy SEALs and the Achille Lauro Mission Shante The MS Achille Lauro was a cruise ship based in Naples, Italy. On October 7, 1985 four heavily armed Palestinian terrorists hijacked the ship in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Alexandria, Egypt. Some 320 crewmembers and 80 passengers were taken hostage. Identifying themselves as members of the Palestine Liberation Front–a Palestinian splinter group–the gunmen demanded release of 50 Palestinian militants imprisoned in Israel. If their demands were not met, they threatened to blow up the ship and kill the 11 Americans on board. The next morning, they also threatened to kill the British passengers. At this juncture, highly trained U.S. Navy SEAL assault forces were launched from the U.S.

to capture or kill the terrorists before they could harm any of the Achille Lauro passengers or crew. The Achille Lauro traveled to the Syrian port of Tartus, where the terrorists demanded negotiations on October 8. Syria refused to permit the ship to anchor in its waters, which prompted more threats from the hijackers. That afternoon, they shot and killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish-American, who was confined to a wheelchair as the result of a stroke. His body was then pushed overboard in the wheelchair. The ship then headed back towards Port Said, where, after two days of negotiations, the hijackers agreed to abandon the ship and surrendered to the Egyptians in exchange for safe passage Tunisia. On 10 October, the four hijackers boarded an EgyptAir Boeing 737 airliner, which took off from Cairo and headed for Tunisia. U.S. Navy carrier based fighter jets located the airliner 80 miles south of Crete and, without announcing themselves, trailed the airliner in darkness as it sought and was denied permission to land at Tunis.

After a request to land at the Athens airport was likewise refused, the fighters turned on their running lights, flew wing-to-wing with the airliner, and ordered it to land at the Naval Air Station and NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily. Unbeknown to the terrorist the U.S. Navy SEAL assault force was also trailing behind them and the F-14s in two U.S. Air Force C-141 transport aircraft. When all aircraft landed somewhat simultaneously at Sigonella, the SEAL assault force immediately surrounded the escape plane with all intentions of capturing the terrorists and taking them into custody. Simultaneously, however, Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi claimed Italian territorial rights over the NATO base, and deployed Italian Air Force personnel and Carabinieri (the national military police of Italy), who lined up surrounding the SEALs. A delicate international standoff ensued, but the situation was resolved before an assault became necessary. The U.S. eventually capitulated to the Italians and allowed the hijackers to be taken into Italian custody after receiving assurances that the hijackers would be tried for murder.

On July 10, 1986, an Italian court convicted three of the terrorists and sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 30 years. The fourth hijacker was a minor that was tried and convicted separately. Cruise Ships Vulnerable to Attacks Cruise Ships Vulnerable to Attacks Associated Press | November 09, 2005 MIAMI - Cruise lines say their crews and ships are well prepared for attacks like the one off the coast of Somalia this past weekend, when pirates fired rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns at the luxury vessel Seabourn Spirit. The ship safely evaded two pirate boats after using an earsplitting sonic weapon, changing course and heading out to sea. But security experts say that despite all the preparations, cruise liners remain vulnerable to attacks like this or the deadly bombing by al-Qaida-linked militants of the USS Cole in Yemen five years ago. The Cole was rammed by an explosives-laden boat in the port city of Aden; 17 U.S. sailors were killed and 37 were injured.

"No ship apart from a naval vessel is really prepared to protect against a waterborne assault of the sort against the Cole," said Kim Petersen, president of maritime security consultant SeaSecure and a former cruise line security official. "Even those ships that are best equipped to cope with such a threat, in the case of the Cole, are in a difficult situation." Cruise industry officials said the Spirit's successful efforts to repel the attackers validate security plans that all ships must have in place under U.S. and international law. They point out that no passenger was injured on the Spirit and just one crew member had minor injuries. "Cruising is and has been one of the most safe vacations that you can engage in and will remain so," said Michael Crye, president of the International Council of Cruise Lines, an industry lobbying group. Cruise lines are in constant communication with authorities on land, and the U.S. military responded to the attack on the Spirit, Crye said. The U.S. counterterrorism task force for the Horn of Africa is based in Djibouti, which borders Somalia.

But he also noted that attacks on cruise ships are rare - this was the first since Palestinian terrorists hijacked the Achille Lauro in the Mediterranean in 1985 and killed a wheelchair-bound American. Cruise lines are reluctant to talk about their specific security plans, fearing that the information could help those willing to pounce on ships. Crye said companies are permitted to arm their crews, but he wouldn't say if they did. Kenneth Bissonnette, staff manager for surveillance and security at Carnival Cruise Lines, told The Associated Press in March 2004 that security personnel for the world's largest cruise line didn't carry firearms, but had defenses like pepper spray. He said the company's security staff recruited heavily among Gurkhas, elite Nepalese soldiers renowned for their fearlessness. Bissonnette declined to comment Monday. Tim Gallagher, a spokesman for company parent Carnival Corp., declined to comment on specific security procedures. Cruise lines are reluctant to have armed guards onboard because that might hurt their image with some passengers, said William Callahan, president of maritime security consultant Unitel. He proposes that they should have armed speedboats as escorts when traveling in dangerous areas.

Other known defenses on cruise ships include high-pressure firehoses used to prevent intruders from boarding ships. That method was also used by the Spirit's crew. Seabourn Cruise Line, the Carnival Corp. subsidiary that operates the ship, also has bought high-tech sonic weapons, which were developed for the U.S. military after the Cole bombing. The Long Range Acoustical Device sends earsplitting noise in a concentrated beam. Its maker, American Technology Corp. of San Diego, doesn't know of any cruise lines other than Miami-based Seabourn that have installed them, said A.J. Ballard, the company's director of military operations. But Callahan questioned why the Spirit was about 100 miles off Somalia, which has no effective government and is ruled by warlords. The International Maritime Bureau has for several months warned ships to stay at least 150 miles away from Somalia's coast because of an increase in pirate attacks. "That place is teeming with high-speed stolen vessels," Callahan said. Many cruise lines have tried to avoid the area, but vessels going from the Mediterranean to Asia or Africa must pass through there. Seabourn spokesman Bruce Good said the line hasn't decided whether to change its routes.

But he said the Spirit was on its highest alert while there. "As far as we're concerned, the incident is behind us. We are now in the next phase, getting people where they need to be and continuing with what we do for a living, which is make people happy on board," he said. Seabourn has said it appeared the attackers were pirates whose motivation was robbery. But Petersen doubted that was the case, because he said pirates would have tried to disable the ship's steering and propulsion if they wanted to get onboard. Witnesses said the attackers shot grenades toward passengers. Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Monday the attackers might have been terrorists. Either way, cruise lines fear that their image as safe havens of fun could be tarnished. After the Achille Lauro hijacking, the eastern Mediterranean cruise market had a sharp decline in traffic. The Sept. 11, 2001, attacks forced cruise companies to offer heavy discounts to lure leery passengers onto ships, and ticket prices are only now getting back to pre-attack levels as the industry is having a year of record profits and traffic.

Because no one was killed in the Spirit attack, travelers probably won't be spooked, said Jeff Sharlach, chairman and CEO of The Jeffrey Group, a public relations firm that runs crisis management teams for companies like FedEx Corp. "You want to avoid making it into a bigger news story than it is naturally. Sometimes if you respond too aggressively, you make it more frightening than it is," said Sharlach, whose company doesn't work with cruise lines. Is Cruising Safe? A Chilling Look at an Industry Under Siege Is Cruising Safe? A Chilling Look at an Industry Under Siege Pin it Share A member of Spanish Guardia Civil stands guard, as the MSC Splendida cruise ship, some of whose passengers were among the victims of a terrorist attack in Tunisia, arrives at the port of Barcelona on March 20. (Photo: Alex Caparros/Getty Images) This week, I attended an annual trade show where tens of thousands of members of the cruise industry meet in Miami Beach to discuss trends in the world of cruising. The executives present a “state of the cruise industry” speech.

The CEOs of Carnival , Royal Caribbean , Norwegian Cruise Line (NCL), and MSC Cruises discussed building bigger ships and expanding into new markets such as Cuba and China. The CEO of NCL remarked that “Libya, Syria, Egypt, and Lebanon could be more lucrative than Cuba.” The convention audience politely applauded and the other cruise executives smiled. I couldn’t help tweeting “have you heard of ISIS?” The following day, fanatics targeted cruise-ship passengers , killing or injuring 38 people from Costa and MSC cruise ships visiting Tunisia. The victims were in tour buses attending a museum as part of excursions marketed on the Costa Fascinosa and MSC Splendida. News accounts indicate that the terrorists waited for the buses to arrive from the ships and then “hunted the tourists down.” When I was a child, I lived with my family in Libya. The Libyan people were peaceful and friendly. The country was beautiful. We have friends in Libya today. I always dreamed about traveling there and showing my family where I grew up. But it’s inconceivable now because of the risk of jihadist violence. As a maritime lawyer, my advice to travelers contemplating cruising to North African countries is the same, for these reasons.

Related: Following Tunisia Attack, is North Africa Safe for Tourists? As a history major, I look at this issue with a historical perspective. The Palestinian Liberation Organization’s (PLO) attack on the Achille Lauro cruise ship in the Mediterranean in 1985 instantly comes to mind. The PLO hijacked the Italian cruise ship after it left Port Said, Egypt. Leon Klinghoffer, an American Jew from New York, was sailing on the cruise ship with his wife. Four heavily armed PLO terrorists hijacked the cruise ship and targeted Jewish passengers. There were over 20 nationalities of passengers booked on the cruise, but the terrorists stated that U.S. citizens would be the first to be executed if their demands were not met. They picked Mr. Klinghoffer, who was disabled and in a wheelchair. The terrorists shot him in the chest and head, then forced two crew members to dump him over the side of the cruise ship. The terrorists demanded that the captain sail the ship to Syria and that Israel release 50 Palestinian prisoners. After a two-day drama, the hijackers surrendered, in exchange for a pledge of safe passage out of Egypt to Tunisia.

But when an Egyptian jet tried to fly the hijackers away from justice, U.S. Navy F-14 fighters intercepted the jet and forced it to land in Sicily. The terrorists were taken into custody by Italian authorities. The four terrorists were convicted and sentenced to jail. The cruise ship Achille Lauro, which was hijacked in the Mediterranean, off the Egyptian coast. (Photo: AP Photo) Terrorism against tourists has continued since Achille Lauro. But religious terrorists won’t agree to surrender and be arrested any longer; they seem more likely to blow up themselves and anyone around them. Former Director of Security at Princess Cruises, Commander Mark Gaouette, authored a bestselling book “ Cruising for Trouble: Cruise Ships as Soft Targets for Pirates, Terrorists, and Common Criminals “ in 2006. He points out that Islamic extremists have taken steps to target cruise ships since the 1990’s. Gaouette has also worked for Homeland Security and is an expert on the subject of cruise-ship safety and the threat of international terrorism. Gaouette wrote that terrorists are targeting passengers, yet cruise lines are not taking adequate steps to protect passengers from harm. This week, he criticized the cruise industry’s weak security measures.

”I believe the risk management process failed to properly assess the extremely volatile situation in North Africa,” he told IHS Maritime . ”At a minimum, more security should have been required for that excursion in the form of armed police or military escort, and armed presence at the museum itself.” Read More Related: How the Cruise Industry is Coping with ISIS Attacks on Passengers in Tunisia Rescue workers evacuate children and adults after gunmen opened fire at the Bardo museum in Tunisia’s capital on Wednesday, March 18. (Photo: Ali Ben Salah/AP) In 2012, CNN revealed a disturbing story regarding Al Qaeda’s planned attack on cruise ships. CNN’s article was titled “ Documents Reveal al Qaeda’s Plans to Seize Cruise Ships .” The CNN article explained that an Al Qaeda operative was caught with encoded digital data, which, once deciphered, revealed some of the terror group’s “most audacious plots and a road map for future operations.” The terrorist group had far-reaching plans to conduct operations in Europe and to kill cruise-ship passengers in the Mediterranean as part of its reign of terror.

The terrorists would “start executing passengers on those ships and demand the release of particular prisoners.” The plan would include “dressing passengers in orange jumpsuits, as if they were al Qaeda prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, and then videotaping their execution.” The South Florida Business Journal, here in Miami, also covered the story, stating : “the Coast Guard, cruise ship and facility operators, and law enforcement officials generally believe waterside attacks are a concern for cruise ships. Agency officials and terrorism researchers also identified terrorists boarding a cruise ship as a concern.” In 2012, I published an article titled “ Mideast Violence is Reminder of Vulnerability of U.S. Based Cruise Ships .” I included reference to numerous studies by security companies and U.S. governmental organizations, which have studied terrorist organizations and concluded that terrorism against cruise ships is likely. The Center for Terrorism Risk Management Policy published a comprehensive study in 2006 about terrorism against shipping companies. It concluded that targeting and killing cruise ship passengers was a likely scenario.

The World Cruise Industry Review publication concluded that a likely terrorist scenario is the hijacking of a cruise ship and its passengers: “A cruise ship is boarded and commandeered, while perpetrators hold and potentially injure or kill passengers if demands are not met — as in the Achille Lauro attack.” Related: T hey Fell Overboard … and Lived! Craziest Cruise Survival Tales In 2012, I wrote a second article “ Can Cruise Ships Keep Passengers Safe in the Middle East? ” I was concerned with protests in Egypt and Libya and threats of violence against tourists. After dictator Colonel Gaddafi of Libya was killed, the country went into chaos and, in my assessment, became more dangerous to U.S. citizens than ever. There were violent demonstrations in North Africa on the anniversary of 9/11 and the U.S. Ambassador to Libya in Benghazi was murdered. I wrote that “the current strategy (of cruise lines) seems to be to simply skip ports in Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia until things calm down. But that’s a short-term fix; when the street protests are over, there remains the risk of jihadists plotting a cruise ship to target. Will the cruise security teams be ready?

If terrorists can over-power several heavily armed U.S. Marines and kill our Ambassador in Libya, does anyone really think that they are safe sailing on a Holland America Line or Princess cruise ship sailing into Tunis or Port Said?” Later in 2012, newspapers in Cyprus and Israel reported that security forces in Cyprus thwarted a planned terror attack against Israeli cruise ship passengers. Cypriot security forces seized a powerful explosive in the port of Limassol. The explosive was described as capable of causing “massive damage.” The newspapers stated that the perpetrators intended to target Israeli tourists visiting on cruise ships to Cyprus which is a popular tourist destination for Israelis. A damaged bus after a deadly explosion near the Egyptian border through the bus filled with South Korean sightseers. (AP Photo) In February 2014, a bomb exploded on a bus carrying South Korean sightseers near an Egyptian border with Israel. You can watch the violent explosion on Live Leak . There have been other tourists targeted on buses carrying tourists in Egypt over the years. Last month, I predicted that it was only matter of time before terrorists would launch an attack targeting cruise passengers in Morocco, Tunisia, or Egypt.

In my article “ ISIS Poses Terrorist Threat to Cruise Ships in Mediterranean ,” I wrote: “We have all seen the stories on CNN about the gruesome killing and beheading of innocent aid workers and journalists by ISIS in an effort to terrorize the televised world. In the last two weeks, we have also read stories about the barbaric burning-alive-in-a-cage of the Jordanian pilot and the beheading of twenty-one Egyptian Coptic Christians in Libya … As we sit in front of the television in our homes here in the U.S., we all feel safe from the terrorists, don’t we? The beheadings are, after all, over there, in foreign places like Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Libya, and other unstable Arab countries. But when U.S. citizens decide to fly to Europe and go on a cruise vacation with their family in the Mediterranean, are they placing themselves in harm’s way? In a word, yes … Families thinking of cruising in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle, Vancouver, Alaska) may be reasonably safe from an ISIS attack. A terrorist attack seems extremely unlikely to happen in the Caribbean. But sailing into a port in Morocco, Tunisia or Egypt on a cruise ship? It’s not a matter of if.

It’s just a matter of when.” Cruise lines have an obligation to avoid potentially dangerous ports and to warn of dangers throughout the entire cruise. The comment by the cruise executive this week about how potentially “lucrative” the North African ports may be to the cruise industry, without any recognition of the history of danger there, is a scary indicator of the mindset of the cruise industry today. Jim Walker is the editor of Cruise Law News and a Miami-based maritime lawyer.

Question: Which ship was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in the Mediterranean in 1985?
Answer: Achille Lauro