Achille Lauro highjacking

[hist2004]

On October 7, 1985, four men representing the Palestine Liberation Front took control of the liner off Egypt while she was sailing from Alexandria to Port Said in Tunisia. This has been linked to the Israeli bombing of the PLO headquarters in Tunis on October 1.

The hijackers had been surprised by a crew member and acted prematurely. Holding the passengers and crew hostage, they directed the vessel to sail to Tartus, Syria, and demanded the release of fifty Palestinians then in Israeli prisons. Refused permission to dock at Tartus, the hijackers killed one wheelchair-bound passenger – the American Leon Klinghoffer – and threw his body overboard. The ship headed back towards Port Said, and after two days of negotiations the hijackers agreed to abandon the liner for safe conduct and were flown towards Tunisia aboard an Egyptian commercial airliner.

The plane was intercepted by United States Navy fighters on October 10 and directed to land at a NATO base in Sigonella, Sicily, where the hijackers were arrested by the Italians after a disagreement between US and Italian authorities. The other passengers on the plane (possibly including the hijackers' leader Abu Abbas) were allowed to continue on to their destination, despite protests by the United States. Egypt demanded, but did not receive, an apology from the United States for forcing the airplane off course.

When the Egyptian Airliner was forced down at Sigonella, Sicily, the disagreement between US and Italian authorities almost ended up in
a shootout between the two. US Delta Force or Seal Team 6 (haven't been able to confirm which) surrounded the aircraft in anticipation
of taking the hijackers into custody. The Italian police felt it was their jursidiction. The JSOC commander Gen. Carl Stiner draw his sidearm
and threaten to shoot the Italian police he was dealing with if they didn't turn over the hijackers to his men. It was only at the Secretary
of State George Schultz's SAT phone request (read order) that Gen. Stiner back down and let the Italian authorities take them into custody.
If anyone has more info on this near shootout, I'd appreciate your posting it here. Thanks.

Regards,
Hist2004

[MEGR]

Seal Team Six was the one that surrounded the plane. This has been documented in numerous texts, and books.

[Sir Zach of R.]

Delta was there too. Can't remember what book, but I'll look it up.

[Aussie E]

Shadow Warriors by Tom Clancy has 2 detailed chapters on the incident. It's basically General Carl Stiners (Ret.) autobiography. He was the Second commander of SOCOM and was in command of JSOTF during the incident. Been awhile since I read it so the details are a little vague, but it was a good read. I also remember that it was one of the first uses of sending a photo over SATCOM (technology and circuitry which was developed by a young army captain, after industry leaders said it couldn't be done) to ID the terrorist leader (Abu Abbas, who was captured in Baghdad after the war. Co-incidence or terror link to Saddam?). Before this technology they would have had to flown the photos by special courier and time was of the essence as they were on Italian soil and under pressure to ID the suspects.