Munich Olympics Massacre Said to Be PLO Operation

CNS ^ | 1999 | Patrick Goodenough

[doug from upland]

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Munich Olympics Massacre Said to Be PLO Operation

05 May, 1999

By Patrick Goodenough
CNS Jerusalem Bureau Chief

Jerusalem (CNS) – Yasser Arafat's PLO was directly responsible for the assault on Israel's athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, one of the men who oversaw the attack has confirmed 27 years later. Abu Daoud, currently a member of the Palestine National Council, made the admission in his French-language autobiography, "Palestine: From Jerusalem to Munich," which was launched in Paris on Monday. Daoud, whose real name is Mohammed Daoud Machmoud Auda, was a leader of Black September, a terrorist group which the PLO claimed it had no links with, but which experts have long said was a deniable, covert PLO unit. In his book, he says the gunmen had not intended to kill the 11 Israelis who died after being taken hostage at the Olympic Village. However he offered no apology, blaming German police and Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir for their deaths. Daoud writes that Arafat had been briefed on the planning for Munich by his PLO number two, Abu Iyad (Salah Khalaf), who was subsequently assassinated by another Palestinian group. He says Arafat and two other men saw him off on the mission with the words, "Allah protect you."

On September 5, 1972, eight heavily-armed Black September terrorists stormed the Israeli team's apartment, killing an athlete and a coach in the process. They took nine others hostage, and demanded that Meir release 234 Arab prisoners in Israeli jails and two German terrorist leaders imprisoned in Frankfurt in return for their safe release. They also wanted safe passage out of Germany. The 17-hour standoff ended when German police snipers tried to shoot the terrorists at a German air base where a jetliner was standing by, ostensibly to fly them to Cairo. In the ensuing gunbattle, all nine of the blindfolded Israeli hostages, five of the Arab gunmen, and a German policeman were killed. Daoud said the two Israelis killed early in the attack had to die because they had threatened their captors. The German police, he said, had broken their pledge to let the gunmen go by opening fire. He also sought to place blame on Meir for refusing to give in to the demands to free the Arab prisoners. Daoud cited press reports saying that eight of the nine Israelis were shot by the Germans. Other reports from the time say five of the Israelis died from a terrorist handgrenade detonated in their midst, and the other four were shot dead by the terrorists.

Dan Eisenberg, an Israeli writer who has published books on Israeli counter-terrorism, said Wednesday it came as "no surprise whatsoever" that Munich was a PLO operation, and that Arafat was behind it. He said Daoud's attempt to blame the German police was misguided. While the police could be accused of failing to provide adequate protection at the Games, and of bungling the rescue attempt at the airport, they were not responsible for what happened. "The police can't be blamed for the deaths. What really killed the Israelis was the terrorists. The blame can't be shifted from the terrorists, or from Arafat." Daoud, now 62, is a PNC member and lawyer in the Palestinian Authority-ruled town of Ram'Allah. He writes that he regrets that the PLO used violence – because the result had been a public outcry, rather than the sympathy for the Palestinian cause he had hoped for. Daoud was expected to attend the book launch Monday, but French authorities barred him from entering at Orly airport in Paris. The last time he visited France, in 1977, he was arrested and expelled to Algeria.

Although this is said to be the first public acknowledgment that the PLO was behind Munich, Daoud himself essentially admitted this when under interrogation by Jordanian police in 1972. The Al-Dustur newspaper quoted him at the time as telling them: "There is no such organization called Black September. Fatah announces its own operations under this name so that Fatah will not appear as the direct executor of the operation." Fatah is Arafat's faction of the PLO. Following the Munich massacre, Meir gave instructions for Israeli agents to hunt down and kill those behind it. She told the Knesset on September 12: "We have no choice but to strike at the terrorist organizations wherever we can reach them. That is our obligation to ourselves and to peace. We shall fulfil that obligation undauntedly." At least 12 PLO/Black September members were reportedly assassinated in the ensuing months. Besides Daoud, at least one other PLO man linked to the Munich attack is living freely in the PA areas – Amin al-Hindi, who heads Arafat's General Intelligence Service. Israel objected in 1995 when Arafat tried to appoint another Munich suspect, Mustafa Liftawi (Abu Firas), as PA police chief in Ram'Allah.

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[onedoug]

This was a secret?

[onedoug]

Ping.

[Stefan Stackhouse]

Don't we now have an International Criminal Court set up to deal with crimes against humanity like this? Here is an excellent opportunity for it to prove its worth.

I'm not holding my breath, because I am much too fond of oxygen for that.

[sheik yerbouty]

Everyone knew Arafart was behind it..

[onedoug]

And still knows.