Basahin mula sa Learning Network ng New York Times ang ukol sa isang pangyayari na naganap 26 na taon na ang nakakaraan.
D. R. WalkerItalian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro, shown here around 1989, returned to service following the hijacking. On Dec. 2, 1994, it caught fire and sank off the coast of Somalia, killing two and injuring eight passengers.Historic Headlines
Learn about key events in history and their connections to today.
On Oct. 7, 1985, the Italian cruise ship MS Achille Lauro was hijacked by four members of the Palestine Liberation Front off the coast of Egypt in the Mediterranean. The hijackers took the more than 400 passengers and crew members hostage and demanded the release of 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
The Oct. 8 New York Times reported: “The hijackers were quoted as saying they would blow up the ship if a rescue mission was undertaken. According to unconfirmed reports from Israeli radio monitors, the hijackers said they would begin killing the hostages unless their demands were broadcast on Egyptian radio and television.”
The following day, after the Syrian government refused to let them dock at the port of Tartus, the hijackers decided to execute one of the hostages: Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old Jewish American, was tossed off the ship — in his wheelchair and in front of his wife, Marilyn Klinghoffer — after being killed.
The hijackers surrendered on the condition that they and the hijacking mastermind Abu Abbas be given a plane to escape. However, on Oct. 10, the plane was intercepted by United States military aircraft and forced to land at a NATO base in Sicily, where Mr. Abbas and the hijackers were arrested.
The American and Italian governments argued over jurisdiction to prosecute the hijackers. Italy would not extradite the men to the United States and, though it did convict the four hijackers, allowed Mr. Abbas to escape to Yugoslavia. He remained a free man until 2003, when he was captured by United States troops in Iraq; he died in custody the following year.
The Achille Lauro, meanwhile, went back into service as a cruise ship. In 1994, it caught fire while sailing off the coast of Somalia and sank. Two of the nearly 1,000 people on board died in the accident.
Connect to Today:
Today, there are many news stories of ship hijackings by pirates off the coast of Somalia, a country described by the Piracy at Sea Times Topics as one “of grinding poverty and internal chaos.”
What comparisons, if any, can you draw between the Somali pirates of today and the Palestinian gunmen who hijacked the Achille Lauro? How do their motives differ? How do the response and approach to negotiations differ? Given the increase in attacks in recent years, would you be willing to board a ship sailing near the East African Coast? Why or why not?
Learn more about what happened in history on Oct. 7»
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