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As Brian promised in his blog on Friday, here is the first of many installments in our new blog series "Real to Reel," taking a look at news events in recent history. Each week, we'll offer you a glimpse of a different historical event, how NBC covered it (with video straight from the broadcast when our archives allow) and a brief explainer from a producer or correspondent on what it was like to cover the event, how it affected them as journalists, and what significance it might have to the world today.
We hope you enjoy this series, and, as always, we welcome your comments and discussions.
Oct. 10, 1985 -- Achille Lauro hijacking ends
Video: Watch Nightly News coverage of the hijacking
The hijacking of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro ended after nearly four days when U.S. Navy F-14 fighters intercepted an Egyptian airliner attempting to fly the Palestinian hijackers to freedom.
The jet was forced to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily, and American and Italian troops surrounded the plane, taking the terrorists into Italian custody.
It was a dramatic end to the October 7 hijacking that started when four heavily-armed terrorists attacked the cruise liner off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean Sea. Some 320 crewmembers and 80 passengers, including 11 Americans, were taken hostage. One, 69-year-old Leon Klinghoffer, was killed.
On July 10, 1986, an Italian court convicted three of the terrorists for the hijacking, as well as three others in absentia, including mastermind Mohammed Abbas, who was convicted but not captured and went on to orchestrate several other terror attacks. He was finally captured by U.S. forces in a raid in Iraq on April 15, 2003. He died on March 9, 2004, at the age of 56 of natural causes in U.S. custody in Iraq.
Here, NBC News Investigative Producer Robert Windrem shares his recollections of covering the Achille Lauro hijacking, and how the news events played out, even as the broadcast was taking place, and how the story has affected him since:
"You report what you know, not what you don't know...or couldn't know. That was the case on Oct. 10, 1985 . Even as Nightly News was being broadcast, U.S. fighter jets were forcing down an Egyptian Air jet containing the hijackers of the Achille Lauro.
"We didn't have a clue during the 6:30 p.m. broadcast where the hijackers were or that President Reagan had ordered the U.S. Navy to bring the plane down, preventing them from reaching Tunisia and PLO headquarters. When our correspondents at the Pentagon and White House learned the plane had landed at a NATO base in Sicily, we went into overtime updating the program and feeding out bulletins. It was one of the more dramatic nights ever for Nightly News, made even more dramatic by the boldness of the stroke. (Later, we learned the idea for the operation came from a then-obscure Marine lieutenant colonel in the NSC named Oliver North.)
"Probably the most interesting part of the story now, looking back, was President Reagan dismissing the idea of invading a country because it harbored terrorists who had killed Americans. For better or worse, the current administration has now done that...twice.
"Personally, I think of the story often. Leon Klinghoffer is buried about a mile from my house and I pass by it several times a week, never failing to recall that night."
Video: Watch Nightly News coverage of the hijacking
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Fighting fire with fire creates ...more fire. The Amish are a group of Americans setting a very good example. Who cares what popular perception tells us is right or wrong--if something isn't working, examine it...change it. Is all this killing of terrorists with no qualms about it solving the growing hatred and violence among terrorists, particularly in Iraq and Afghanistan? No, it seems to be perpetuating it. Yet many react with the sentiment "yeah, its ok to kill them and lets keep killing all the terrorists--no questions asked-- because they're killing us"...as if terrorists could not possibly be human beings in a state of defense against western pressures for oil...as if we understand whats in their hearts and minds...as if we have absolute certainty that we are composed entirely of good and they of evil. I can list two other peoples in which this "certainty" of an ordained right to kill, torture, and subjugate them occurred within American thought: the "savage" Native Americans, and the "primitive" African Americans. When the Native Americans fought and killed American settlers, it was considered "proof" of their savage natures and justified for many the entire, almost complete eradication of Native American people. In the case of African Americans, it justified stripping these people of their rights as human beings because they were considered less-than-human in development. When an African responded to this suppression with aggression, it was considered "proof" of his animalistic tendencies.
The problem isn't between good vs. evil people. It’s between ignorance vs. understanding. Maybe we are wanting more than our share of the pie, maybe our thirst for oil and power has taken us into mid-eastern lands and created "bad blood" because of our selfish sense of superiority. In 19th century China, foreign traders who were exasperated by trade deficits began shipping opium from India into China. As the craving for opium grew, so outflowed the silver from China. Soon much of China was comprised of opium addicts and so the Chinese, in a reaction to protect their own, began to grow weary of "western influence" and began restricting opium trade (hence, The Opium Wars). China's sense of nationalism strengthened as they endeavored to rehabilitate their citizens, and many believe this laid the foundation for Communism to later be so popularly accepted. This story illustrates how western capitalism can cross "borders" and insert pressures and contaminants that weren't previously there. It was all done in the name of commerce. Are terrorists simply born terrorists? Or are they made so by environmental stressors? I lean towards the latter, and, unless we abolish our ignorance that prevents us from examining and adverting the underlying causes, how can we expect the enduring motive behind terrorist acts to be alleviated?
But, unlike the Amish reaction to violence, some can continue with blanket hatred towards terrorists and think of them as "the bad guys". After all, its the "right thing" to believe, right? Yeah, we're always good, they're always bad...we just love our families, "they" just love to kill, kill, kill...they're "savages", "primitives", "evil-doers", "terrorists" ...We do no harm as a nation, they-- "the terrorists"--do all the harm in this world...yeah, thats how it is...lets go after them...lets kill them and not question it lest we be labeled as "sympathizers" of these murdering heathens...
Tiffany, Beijing (Sent Oct 9, 2006 10:42:57 PM)
Leon Klinghoffer is buried about a mile from Robert Windrem's house? News reports at the time said the terrorists shot Mr. Klinghoffer in the head and then dumped him overboard. Were those reports wrong? And to Duke of Myrtle Beach: If we do not rise above the behavior of terrorists, what exactly separates us from them?
Editor's Note: Mr. Klinghoffer's body was recovered off the shore of Syria and returned to the U.S. on Oct. 20, 1985. He was buried at Beth David Memorial Park in Kenilworth, New Jersey.
(Sent Oct 9, 2006 6:12:13 PM)
Did we ever figure out how did Abbas escaped and or released after the plane landed in tunisa and who orchrestrated that escape, or is that still classified?
Editor's note: Mohammed Abbas was not on board the flight that was forced to land in Sicily. He was not in custody until 2003.
hounddog (Sent Oct 9, 2006 5:43:32 PM)
I wouldn't question "natural causes" I'm glad he is dead. If the enemy is dead, I wouldn't question, why, where, how, and when, I would just say Thank God! oh, yes and God Bless America!
Carrie Hilpp (Sent Oct 9, 2006 4:50:38 PM)
One or more of the hijackers decided that Leon Klinghoffer should die and pushed him into the water.
One or more of the guards watching over Abbas may have decided that Abbas should be dead.
Can anyone tell me what makes the first one wrong and the second one less wrong?
Hasn't the recent Amish reaction to the school shooting given you pause? Aren't we a nation built upon laws of right and wrong? Have we reverted back to our Darwinian nature of survival of the strongest - or in this case, might makes right, the one in charge is always correct?
Abbas probably did die from natural causes but with the U.S. reputation being as it is and Bush recent success in changing the rules of conduct of questioning suspects of war it is no wonder the American military is held in such low esteem in the Middle East.
56 is quite young to die of natural causes (at least in this country). Couldn't the release have been more specific - heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, kidney failure, infection from previous injuries, etc.? Why foster the illusion that Abbas may have been tortured to death by being so nonspecific? Why fuel the anger against America?
Dewey Quong, Reno, NV (Sent Oct 9, 2006 4:42:07 PM)
It's too bad Abbas didn't die from 'un-natural' causes!
(Sent Oct 9, 2006 4:38:07 PM)
oh boo hoo for poor abb-ass, he's dead and of natural casues, what about the man the deliberatly and intentionally killed aboard that ship??I tell you what, you give me the reason for killing Mr. Klinghoffer and the why's and wherefopre's of it and I will turn over a new leaf and start making substantial donations to these scumbags for the rest of my life , just as soon as you make the case for logic in all of this, "K"???? pinhead.
Duke, myrtle beach, sc (Sent Oct 9, 2006 3:34:38 PM)
I wouldn't question "natural causes." I would leave it alone and let our country do what it needs to do to protect itself.
Caitlin, NYC, NY (Sent Oct 9, 2006 3:30:46 PM)
Natural or not, Mohammed Abbas got what he deserved. The only one thing that’s certain is that he's burning in Hell.
Phil, Olney, MD (Sent Oct 9, 2006 2:22:21 PM)
Mastermind Mohammed Abbas died of natural causes at the age of 56 while in U.S. custody in Iraq.
Given the recent history of U.S. treatment of captured terrorist suspects I would question "natural causes."
Dewey Quong, Reno, NV (Sent Oct 9, 2006 12:10:21 PM)
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