The 1985 Sigonella Incident

in October 1985 four men hijacked an Italian cruise liner called the Achille Lauro just won that event in a year that included quite a lot of political violence worldwide while the hijacking of the ship the murder of one of its passengers the negotiation of the surrender of the hijackers and then the dramatic American interception of the flight carrying those hijackers made international news governments at the time downplayed the significance of the international tensions that all this involved many Americans at the time or since did not realize the significance of events that nearly brought NATO allies into armed confrontation the 1985 Sigonella crisis deserves to be remembered the Italian owned cruise ship Achille Lauro embarked from Genoa Italy on Thursday October 3rd 1985 with an itinerary for an eleven day cruise with ports of call in Italy Egypt Israel Cyprus and Greece the ship set sail with 748 passengers of 450 crew on October 7th 650 one of the passengers departed in Alexandria to take a day-long tour to the pyramids at giza during the day a cabin steward tried to deliver complimentary fruit to a stateroom to an unlocked door and surprised four men who are holding automatic weapons the man surprised with first to the dining room and then to the bridge taking control of the ship as most of the passengers had gone on the tour of the pyramids only 97 passengers were left aboard the four terrorists were members of a Palestinian political faction called the Palestinian Liberation Front or the PLF they demanded that the government of Israel released 50 Palestinian prisoners from its prisons and if the demand was not immediately met they would start killing hostages at 3 p.m. when there was no immediate action one of the hijackers murdered 69 year old American Leon Klinghoffer who owned a small appliance manufacturing Fermin was on the cruise to celebrate his wife's 50th birthday and the couple's 36th wedding anniversary klinghoffer was apparently chosen because he was an American and a Jew and because he was confined to a wheelchair as one of the hijackers later admitted in court to make them know that we had no pity for anyone just as the Americans who armed Israel take no consideration that Israel kills women and children of our people the hijacking do in a number of states with competing interest including Egypt Italy Israel the US and the Palestinian Liberation Organization before any other hostages were murdered the various parties engaged in negotiation with the hijackers and convinced him not to harm any more passengers at that point they had denied the murder of Klinghoffer and to leave the ship under the condition that they be turned over to the Palestinian Liberation Organization or PLO which claimed to be the legitimate representative of the Palestinian people the PLO for its part denied the involvement in the hijacking and saw the negotiations as an opportunity to legitimize the claim to statehood that claim was not recognized by among others the United States a representative of the PLF named Mohammed Zidan but also known as Abu Abbas volunteered to lead the negotiations after negotiations the hijackers agreed to have the ship returned to Egyptian waters they left the ship on an Egyptian tugboat at 5:00 p.m. on Wednesday October 9th but that did not resolve the situation there were many factors involved first the agreement was made without the acquiescence of the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom during the negotiation the hijackers had denied that any passengers had been harmed they had in fact made the ship captain report that all passengers were well by holding a gun to his head however after they left the ship the news of the murder of Klinghoffer was quickly released that fact changed the mind of Italian Prime Minister Bettina craxy who now argued that the hijacker should be extradited to Italy the US ambassador was livid demanding in a cable to Egyptian authorities that given the new facts egypt prosecute those sons-of-bitches the government of egypt was also in a difficult position president Hosni Mubarak was trying to maintain his peace agreement with Israel and good relations with the u.s. to preserve foreign aid but he also wanted to maintain good relations with the rest of the Arab world in October first the Israeli Air Force had bombed the PLO headquarters in Tunis and the Arab world in Egyptian population were already riled the problem had been forced upon him the ship was of Italian registry have no Egyptians aboard and none of the hijackers were Egyptian moreover the PLO was arguing that the murder of Klinghoffer was an American lie and a confused message in the u.s. suggested the US might accept PLO authority over the hijackers simply wishing to be rid of the problem we Bart decided to honor the original agreement and allow the hijackers access to a plane to take them someplace where the PLO would take responsibility for them but no the United States was not on board with that plan over North then at the National Security Council appears to be the official who originally posited the idea of intercepting the plane that would carry the hijackers out of Egypt north correctly surmised that the issues with Egypt's neighbours would compel them to fly the plane over the Mediterranean where there would be an opportunity to divert the plane with us fighter jets it was a plan that entailed diplomatic risks the operation will mean interfering with commercial airliner with strained relations with both Egypt and Italy and it offered a technical issue with finding the right plane but the Reagan administration had their concerns as well the administration had taken a tough stance on terrorism and yet had been unable to materially affect events such as the hijacking of TWA flight 847 in June and an ongoing hostage crisis in Lebanon the plan was supported by national security adviser bud McFarlane who presented the idea to the president while he was in the Chicago area Sarah leaf bakery touting his tax reform plan later came out that Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger opposed the plan thinking would draw international condemnation but was unable to convince his boss and Reagan gave the go-ahead the decision has since been called the Sara Lee decision there was the thorny issue of what to do after they intercepted the plane there were political concerns with forcing it to land in Israel or Cyprus so the decision was to force it to land at Naval Air Station Sigonella in Sicily the Naval Air Station was part of a NATO installation and served as a sort of hub for u.s. naval air operations in the Mediterranean the intercept will be done using planes flown from the supercarrier USS Saratoga than in the Mediterranean having just completed a NATO exercise a special operations team including SEAL Team 6 and members of the US Army Special Operations Delta Force which had originally been assembled to make a military assault on the Achille Lauro was diverted to Sigonella to capture the hijackers after the plane landed while the f-14s from the Saratoga South to Egypt air 737 the Egyptian plane was having its own difficulty Egypt had been in a hurry to remove the problem and the plane had taken off without a clear destination it was unclear exactly who would want for the hijackers to become their problem not knowing that they were being tailed by u.s. warplanes the pilots were denied permission to land in both Tunisia and Athens actions for which White House spokesman Larry speaks expressed gratitude in October 11th press conference at that point the fighter pilots began talking to the captain over shortwave radio ordering him to land at Sigonella at first the pilot refused but then the Americans turned on their landing lights and he realized that he was surrounded by military aircraft the pilot later claimed that they threatened to shoot him down however the planes had not carried missiles and no shots were fired the Egyptian POW was nervous being escorted by were plans and taken on an unfamiliar course his first attempt at landing was too shallow he had to wave off only made it to the ground and his second attempt but the situation was far from stable almost immediately as the Egypt airplane landed that plane scaring the US special forces also landed but as the special forces went to surround the plane the italians objected as a special forces officer Leonard told the New York Times we surrounded the plane and the Italians surrounded us Italy also had complex interests involved the Achille Lauro was not just Italian registered but was owned by the Italian government and many of its passengers and crew were Italian but Italy also worked to maintain good relations with Arab states and especially with the PLO its position in the Mediterranean made Italy particularly vulnerable to terrorism stemming from the Middle East and crack seeing the Italians wanted to avoid becoming targets the cracks he also had to balance that with relations with the most powerful member of NATO the United States this was all complicated by the legal situation the Egypt air flight was a civilian flight it was authorized by the Egyptian government the u.s. intercepting that flight with military warplanes was against international law at least a justification that America was using was well thin ironically the United States who had called the hijackers pirates was now being accused of piracy the Americans had not warned the Italian government of the plan to use Sigonella and the base was under the authority of the Italians moreover the u.s. act was not under the auspices of NATO and the u.s. use of Sigonella was predicated on that organization the Italian government demanded jurisdiction but the American special forces were under orders to arrest the hijackers Italian and American troops both NATO allies were now in an armed standoff the situation was tense with both sides facing political consequences for backing down the leader of the US Special Operations Group reported that his men had the firepower to win a fight with the Italians but that I don't believe that our beef is with our ally the Italians but rather with the terrorists in fact he was concerned about the discipline of the Italian troops and feared a mistake that would lead to a fight that would lead to a lot of Italian casualties President Reagan called Prime Minister craxi arguing that the US would demand extradition for the murder of Klinghoffer crack's he argued that the crime was under Italian jurisdiction as the ship was Italian registered newspaper reports at the time downplayed the tension in a press conference Secretary of Defense Weinberger simply said that American force was unnecessary as Italian authorities agreed to take the hijackers into custody but in fact this armed standoff lasted more than five hours American officials essentially decided that even if their special forces could fight their way to capture the hijackers they would never be allowed to take off from the base having been made clear that the Italian troops had been given authority to use deadly force to prevent the Americans from taking the hijackers cooler heads eventually prevailed in the u.s. ceded jurisdiction to the Italians under the agreement that the hijackers would be tried for the murder of Klinghoffer to make matters even more complex by that point the United States had concluded that the person who presented himself as the PLF negotiator Abu Abbas was actually the mastermind of the hijacking the u.s. demanded that he be arrested and tried along with the other four hijackers craxi went him at least held to provide evidence but Mubarak who felt as he's been personally insulted demanded that he be treated as a diplomat with extraterritorial rights when craxi refused Egypt refused to release the Achille Lauro while the four hijackers were arrested craxi announced the plane would be taking a boss in the PLO negotiator to Rome to consult with the PLO office they're concerned that Abbas was about to be released the u.s. general and commanded the special operations forces tried to follow in an American Navy executive jet when denied permission to take off the jet ignored the Italian authorities and took off anyway in response the Italian Air Force sent up two jet fighter aircrafts who were then approached by US fighter aircraft for the second time the two NATO allies were in an armed standoff a US National Security Council staff earlier reported that pilots on board the US and Italian Jets exchanged colorful epithets over the radio the u.s. fighter jets broke off as soon as it was clear that the plane was indeed landing in Rome the Navy executive jet was denied permission to lay em but declared a flight emergency in order to force Italian officials to let it land although press at the time barely commented on it the US and Italian militaries have put their gunsights on each other twice in as many days by October 28th the New York Times reported that Italian prosecutors had decided that there would be no charges filed against any US military for anything that happened during the crisis a November fourth craxy gave a speech to the italian parliament criticized the u.s. actions at Sigonella said they should never be repeated but reaffirmed the strong relationship between Italy and the United States craxi initially gained widespread acclamations in Italy and throughout Europe for standing up to the United States but his decision to allow Abbas to escape caused a rift with his defense minister withdrew his party from crack seas coalition the move weakened cracks his parliamentary position and might have played a role in the follow cracks his government two years later u.s. and Egyptian relations were more strained the embark government demanded an apology and Americans refused instead attempting to move on in the end the u.s. needed Egypt as part of the Middle East peace process and Egypt needed the billions that received in u.s. $8 crisis did not materially affect relations between the two countries American actions in intercepting the plane and in the signal crisis who are clearly very heavy-handed in by most agreements illegal under international law but the negotiations that had allowed these four hijackers to be handed to the PLO were incredible duplicitous information census made it clear that the person that was presented as negotiator Abu Abbas was actually the man who had masterminded the hijacking that the PLO had never planned to try the band as they had promised but instead was simply going to grant them asylum and that they'd all crassly lied about the murder of Leon Klinghoffer the four hijackers were eventually tried in Italian courts all were convicted and sentenced to various terms although none served their entire sentence the Italian government allowed Abu Abbas to leave the country cracks the argue that they didn't have any grounds to hold him despite American complaints but the local prosecutor in Sicily disagreed and he was eventually tried in absentia convicted and sentenced to life in prison it was never successfully extradited but in 2003 he was captured by US troops in Iraq he died in an American prison in Iraq of natural causes in 2004 as his legal status was still being determined for many years the PLF denied that they had murdered Leon Klinghoffer even going so far as to suggest that his wife had killed him for insurance money the family sued them in u.s. civil court and eventually they admitted culpability and the PLO played an undisclosed amount as a settlement that settlement was used to create a foundation that now fights terrorism through education and political and legal means that helped to spur the passage of the 1990 anti-terrorism Act which made it easier for victims of terrorism to sue terrorists for damages in civil court the Achille Lauro was put back into service but in 1994 while saying on a cruise to South Africa in the Indian Ocean the ship caught fire and eventually sank two passengers died in the incident in the end what is most interesting about the Sigonella crisis is how much effort the government's put into hiding it from the people despite all the complex political questions and legal issues that were involved in the end the relationship between the United States and Italy and Egypt was more important to everybody involved the hijacking the dramatic intercepting the plane the trials that never seemed to provide justice for anyone or perhaps indicative of the complexities and the contradictions of international relations I hope you enjoyed this episode of the history guys where it's snippets of forgotten history between 10 and 15 minutes long and if you did enjoy please go ahead and click that thumbs up button if you have any questions or comments or suggestions for future episodes please write those in the comment section I will be happy to 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Channel: The History Guy: History Deserves to Be Remembered

Views: 576,889

Keywords: history, the history guy, history guy, italy, 1985, achille lauro, sigonella incident

Id: YpoKpNI29kg

Length: 16min 2sec (962 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020