How Terrorists Stole an Italian Cruise Ship

Monday the 8th of October 1985. the 23 000 ton Italian cruise liner Akili lauro is docked at the Port of Alexandria on the coast of Egypt this is day five of the ship's 12-day Mediterranean voyage that started in Genoa and saw ports of coal in Naples and Syracuse Alexandria is just another stop on this holiday cruise there is nothing to indicate that it will end up being anything more than such at some time in the morning hundreds of passengers begin disembarking the ship transferring to buses that will take them to see the Pyramids in Cairo around a two and a half hours bus Journey away this Exodus leaves only 70 to 80 passengers on board Who Remain with the ships 340 person crew once de-boarding is complete the captain leaves the port of Alexandria plotting a course for the port of Saeed roughly 225 kilometers to the east of their position here they intend to Rendezvous with the Cairo tourists in roughly 14 hours time however the Cairo tourists would never see the ship they would arrive at 10 30 PM that evening to an empty dock long after it was due to arrive with no ship to be found they would wait three hours into the night under the impression that congestion around the mouth of the Suez Canal had caused its delay but that wasn't the case earlier that day at around 1pm the distress call had been broadcast from the achille Laurel and picked up by a Swedish radio station in Gothenburg four hijackers had seized the ship as it was leaving the port of Alexandria cornering the passengers in the dining room as they were having lunch firing their weapons above their heads and shouting commands at them but who were these hijackers exactly what do they want well that was not immediately apparent the four men had steered clear of the passengers for the entire trip the extent of their interactions with those on board was limited to an earlier exchange with one of the aquililauros staff a Hostess had asked the group where they were from to which they answered with a terse one word response saying only that they were quote Norwegian whoever they were and whatever the aim of their hijacking of the ship it had snagged the attention of the Italian and US governments and their respective crisis management teams the U.S had not initially thought much of the hijacking as one White House staff at the time recalled that it seemed like every week brought another terrorist incident but once they caught wind that American passengers were on board at around 4pm they switched into crisis mode as the two governments deliberated on the best course of action the hijackers remained very much active on the achille Laurel they had southerned the ship's Captain Gerardo deroza to the bridge where they verbally bombarded him in Arabic before commanding him to sail for the Syrian Port of Tartus in broken English their claim to being Norwegian Nationals was becoming ever more dubious yet it would take some time longer before the aim of their abduction and who they exactly were was clarified later that day on the night of the seventh the hijackers hailed the port officials at Port Saeed while sailing off the coast of Egypt here they said they were members of the Palestinian Liberation Front or plf a breakaway militant faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization or PLO the governing body of Palestine during this conversation the plf demanded that 50 Palestinians incarcerated in Israeli prisons be released suddenly the hijacking acquired a more complex character it had now brought Israel into the mix this made negotiating a peaceful end to the incident more challenging it meant the Italian government now became far more passive in its negotiations the Italian Prime Minister betino kraxi initially reasoned that because the hijacker's demands were aimed at Israel Italy could not engage in negotiations with them but more importantly because Italian foreign policy had shifted in the past decade to focus on improving relations with Mediterranean Arab states they were wary Not to cause tensions with their allies by coming down too hard on these hijackers and appearing too friendly with Israel Arab Israel tensions had skyrocketed recently just a week prior Israeli forces had bombed the plo's Tunis headquarters in retaliation for the murder of three Israelis in Cyprus the bombing had killed 60 and wounded 100 more and had incensed to Tunisia to such a degree it had called a U.N vote to condemn the attack in this delicate diplomatic environment what Italy wanted was a bloodless solution where tensions were not inflamed and Italy could boast of its intermediary capabilities and its diplomatic independence from the US ideally this would mean a complete de-escalation with no casualties and no extraditions of the Middle Eastern hijackers however Italy still mobilized four helicopters carrying units from its Elite called muskin Battalion to the acrotiri air base in Cyprus just in case a diplomatic end to the crisis became impossible The Americans on the other hand were not shy about using Force they had a zero tolerance policy for negotiating with terrorists and wanted them apprehended and prosecuted they saw an opportunity in the fact that the ship remained in international waters which made it susceptible to a military operation therefore the U.S elected to deploy joint Special Operations Command forces to sigonella air base in Sicily and planned an armed intervention for Wednesday night this response detail included the famed SEAL Team Six but back on the achille lauro on the morning of Tuesday the 8th of October the hijackers began separating the hostages and seizing their passports in one of the ship's lounges they identified 12 Americans and six British hostages as valuable leverage as well as a couple of elderly vacationers from Austria these two were quizzed on their backgrounds and revealed that they were Jewish which prompted one of the gunmen to throw the husband to the floor and beat him with the butt of his weapon one passenger from the sectioned off group was a particular interest to the hijackers a wheelchair-bound Jewish American by the name of Leon klinghoffer as he was immobile he was unable to accompany the hostages when they were told to move to the pool deck above them and as such he was forced to stay with one of the hijackers his wife protested attempting to convince them to let her bring him upstairs but she was ordered to leave him it would be the last time she would ever see her husband at around 11AM the ship finally reached the coast of Tartus in Syria at which point the hijackers demanded they be permitted to dock at the Port reiterating their demands for 50 prisoners to be released in Israel and asking for British and American negotiators to present themselves at the ship if their requests were not met they claimed they would start executing hostages at 3 pm their requests to Anchor at the Port of tardis was not granted likely because the United States had embarked on a diplomatic campaign to ensure states in the region did not Grant the hijackers a safe haven keeping them isolated in international waters at 232 around three and a half hours after their initial requests they hailed the port of Tartus with an ominous message what about the negotiators negotiators we will start killing at 3 pm we cannot wait any longer we will start tickling what are the developments Tartus we will kill the second we are losing patience the ship is heading toward is you for negotiations we warn against the further delay please sail back to the position fixed for you I that is all this message at 3 23 implies that they had executed one of the passengers between 258 and the time of its delivery rumors began circulating in intelligent circles in the United States that an American passenger had been executed and indeed that was the case at around three the leader of the hijackers ordered one of the ship's waiters to assist with bringing Leon klinghoffer to the stern of the ship an isolated spot far away from the rest of the hostages here he dismissed the waiter and shot the wheelchair-bound American twice once in the chest and once in the face killing him instantly once he had finished the execution he summoned the waiter and the ship's hairdresser to toss him overboard klinghoffer's body would wash up five days later on a beach in Syria on the 13th of October where Syrian authorities would conduct an autopsy on him by the afternoon of the same day the hijackers had left the scene of the crime steaming off in the direction of Cyprus while on Route the hijackers received a radio communication from an Arab language radio station in Cyprus called Monte Carlo the transmission was from a man going by the pseudonym of Abu Khaled who appeared to be the orchestrator of the hijacking he commanded that the hijackers turn the ship around and set a course for the port of Saeed adding that the hijackers should quote treat the passengers well and maintain constant radio contact with authorities in the Egyptian port in a separate radio transmission later that night as they approached Portside Khaled also ordered the hijackers to apologize for the seizure of the ship asking them to emphasize it was not their original intention and that they would not do anything to jeopardize the positive relations between Italy and Palestine this is likely why they only targeted American British and Jewish hostages as the hijackers made haste to Port Said So did U.S intelligence make haste to identify the mysterious Abu Khaled the U.S Bureau for intelligence and research established a tenuous connection between the pseudonym and the leader of One plf faction Muhammad Abbas through a newspaper clipping that indicated that Khaled was the name of his firstborn son this somewhat rickety theory was later confirmed by Israeli intelligence contacts that said that they had encountered this sobra Cave of four and that they were 99 sure it belonged to Muhammad Abbas now this was a problem for multiple reasons the first was because unbeknownst to foreign observers on Tuesday the 8th Muhammad Abbas had been waylaid in Cairo on his way to Tunis by the Egyptian government One account describes that at 10 30 PM the previous day roughly nine hours after the hijacking the Italian foreign minister kyolo andreotti had contacted the Egyptian Minister of Foreign Affairs boutrosgali requesting that Palestinian diplomats be involved in mediation so Gali tried to reach out to the de facto Palestinian leader yaser Arafat to request the Diplomatic Envoy but he was unable to reach him shortly thereafter however the Egyptian Secret Service informed him that a high-ranking member of the Palestine National Council was soon due to pass through Cairo on his way to Tunis that high-ranking member was Muhammad Abbas so when Abbas arrived in Cairo he was taken off the aircraft dragged to the foreign Ministry and plopped down in front of Italian and Egyptian diplomats as a mediator in the very hijacking he had orchestrated this was a clear conflict of interest and it wasn't long before every party involved in the crisis knew his true role the Italian geopolitical Journal limes noted that the hijackers addressed him instinctually as Commander after hearing his voice on the radio during negotiations instantly alerting intelligence listening stations to his identity so obviously that was a problem secondly the Revelation that the hijacking was being led by a PLO loyalist made the situation far more delicate since the PLO was the only semi-respectable Authority in Palestine that could be negotiated with if Italy or the US began accusing it of terrorist activities they would lose their only diplomatic Bridge into Palestine knowing this some American analysts began advising against a military operation so that the Palestinians could save face and negotiate their way out of the conflict with the Egyptian government a strategy the Italians were already following to keep tensions down in any case whether a military operation should be conducted was now out of their hands by 7 15 am on Wednesday the 9th the aquililauro had entered Egyptian territorial Waters despite American protests and had engaged in negotiations with Egyptian and Palestinian emissaries rendering a U.S intervention impossible over the next few hours Muhammad Abbas would be in the privileged position of mediating the de-escalation of a hijacking he himself had orchestrated and with this in mind it is no surprise that negotiations proceeded so quickly by 1 30 PM just over six hours after negotiation started Captain De Rosa of the aquililauro made the following statement via radio communications with Portside I am the captain I'm speaking from my office and my officers and everybody is in good health that Assurance which implied all the hostages had been unharmed was enough for the Italian and Egyptian governments to allow the hijackers to go free in exchange for the release of the ship and its passengers the American Diplomat in Egypt Nicholas velietz refused to sign off on these release terms in the view that nothing short of prosecution would be satisfactory as such only Italian and Egyptian pens were put to paper unbeknownst to the two signatories at the time though DeRosa was fully aware not all of the passengers were unharmed shortly following the merge of klinghoffer the day before the leader of the hijacking Squad Magid al-walki had made his way up to the bridge of the ship handing to Rosa klinghoffer's passport and telling him that he had been eliminated De Rosa also later said in a TV interview that he was certain that Mulkey was telling the truth as he had bloodied trousers and shoes the only reason he had stated that everyone was fine was because he was being held at gunpoint during the conversation but before anyone was able to catch wind of the ruse the hijackers had already disembarked and relinquished the ship leaving around 3 30. they were escorted by Egyptian Patrol boats to the port of Saeed where they swiftly vanished onto the Egyptian mainland but where to that would take a little while longer to become clear meanwhile it was becoming ever more obvious to the Italians that something was Gravely amiss between 4 20 and 6 10 pm Italian officials ascertained through conversations with Captain DeRosa that they had in fact been a casualty at 6 30 the Prime Minister betino kraxy issued the announcement at a press conference shortly after contacting U.S president Ronald Reagan to inform him of the death of klinghoffer the Italian Diplomatic Corps was left with egg on their faces merely hours before foreign minister giulio andrioti had been boasting about the capabilities of Italian diplomacy saying the bloodless end of the crisis was quote the fruition of an Italian foreign policy that not everyone always understands on the contrary it now appeared that they had just let four murderers go and were no longer sure where they were the United States was Furious the next day on Thursday October the 10th Ambassador valiots boarded the aquilaro to confirm the death personally there he found klinghoff's passport but no klinghoffer he called the U.S embassy and in an impassioned statement demanded that Egypt quote prosecute these sons of [ __ ] Egypt had no intention of doing so in fact as U.S and Israeli intelligence would reveal they were facilitating their safe passage to Tunisia where they would be picked up by Pillow forces this despite the new developments of a murdered American citizen at 6 pm on October 10th 26 and a half hours after they disembarked the aquililauro intelligence placed the hijackers at almaza Air Base in Egypt they were preparing to board an Egypt Air flight out of the country the Egyptian president oznie Mubarak claimed that the hijackers had already left Egypt and he had no knowledge of where they were so his domestic intelligence was either so woefully pathetic that he had no idea hijackers were boarding a civilian flight at an Egyptian Military airport or he was lying American analysts suspected the latter but little did Mubarak or the hijackers know that while the flight had been preparing to take off a crisis management team in Washington had developed plans to intercept the aircraft as around 7 PM Central European Time a U.S aircraft carrier task force led by the USS Saratoga begins heading south from Greece at 8 15 four F-14 Fighters two ka-60 air tankers M2 e2c radar planes take off from the Saratoga and begin patrolling the airspace just north of the Egyptian Coast when the hijackers Boeing 737 takes off from almaza at 10 10 pm the task force monitors and Shadows the aircraft around 11 30 the four f-14s finally intercept the 737 shortly after it was denied Landing rights in Tunis at this point the intercept group radios the aircraft and demands that it follows them to the NATO sigonella Air Base in Sicily on board the Egyptian crew attempt to make radio contact with ground control back in Egypt but the radar planes accompanying the American task force are scrambling their signals unable to ask for instructions from Cairo the captain acquiesces agreeing to fly Northwest to Sicily shortly after midnight at 12 10 a.m on October the 11th the aircraft lands at sigonetta Air Base followed by two U.S troop transports the Italians were seething they had been in the dark about the entire operation until only 40 minutes before the plane arrived at sigonella they felt like the entire scheme had been hidden from them so as to make it impossible for them to refuse when it was dropped on them to make it worse as one FBI agent later explained the Italians were essentially forced into taking jurisdictional responsibility for the hijackers they felt that since the hijackers had committed crimes on an Italian ship and the plane had now landed on Italian soil they were Bound by law to prosecute them this meant that they could not let the Americans take the hijackers which had been the initial intention of the operation but now there are about 80 American Commandos crawling around on an air base in Sicily 50 of which had come from the arriving troop transports with the other contingent being a Seal Team Six force that had relocated back to Sicily from Gibraltar they were intent on taking these terrorists back home and Prosecuting them personally so a diplomatic standoff emerged with both the United States and Italy claiming jurisdiction over the hijackers however there was also quite a literal standoff developing on the ground as well U.S Special Forces who had been tasked with taking custody of the men were now being surrounded by some 50 Italian Air Force Commandos and John dance who had orders to intervene with Force if they tried to leave with them Italian reinforcements would soon put the Americans at a large numerical disadvantage at roughly 300 to 80. sources vary on when exactly this standoff ended and when an agreement was reached but it appears to have taken quite a while four to five hours passed well into the morning of the 11th of October before A call came in from the White House ordering U.S troops to stand down and let the Italians take custody of the hijackers an agreement had been reached by both the U.S Secretary of State and the Italian foreign minister American troops would stand down if the Italians promised the hijackers would be prosecuted on board the 737 Italian troops would find the four hijackers and their retinue and as a bonus the orchestrator of the hijacking itself Muhammad Abbas the crisis was over while there would still be issues between the US and Italy namely the refusal to extradite or even prevent The Mastermind Abbas from leaving the country due to what the Italians called quote a lack of evidence of his involvement the hijackers would be tried and sentenced in Italian courts the man who had killed klinghoffer Magid al-mulki received 30 years while his accomplices received more lenient sentences between 25 to 15 years Italy would later recance their conviction of abbasa's innocence and try him in absentia but he would never spend a day in Italian prison having found refuge in Iraq the hijackers always claimed they had never intended to seize the ship instead meaning to use it as a jumping off point for an attack on the Israeli Port of ashdod which had been in the ship's trip itinerary they claimed to have been discovered by the crew and had to improvise Italian courts and intelligence analysts doubt this story but that is a bag of worms that we unfortunately don't have time for if you're at all interested you can find further sources in the description this video covered polarizing topics like the israel-palestine conflict and a politically motivated hijacking if ground news had existed in the 1980s it would have helped me distill a loaded topic such as this and help me approach it in a balanced and unbiased way luckily ground news is available today I 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Channel: IMPERIAL

Views: 1,968,327

Keywords: mediterranean, Muhammed Abbas, PLO, PLF, Italy, Giulio Andreotti, Yasser Arafat, Bettino Craxi, Ronald Reagan, Diplomacy, Cold War, Arabic, Palestine, Israel, Egypt, United States, Hijacking, Achille Lauro, mediterranean sea, mediterranean 4k

Id: WlhCaVc7ftA

Length: 25min 16sec (1516 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 28 2023