Global Security, Privacy, & Risk Management

“40 Years Later”; Remembering the Munich Olympics Massacre July 25, 2012

I apologize for not posting.  I have been in Moab with my family hiking and driving RZRs around.  With the start of the start of the XXX Olympic Games this week, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the 1972 Games of the XX Olympiad in Munich.  For those who don’t remember (or who have not seen the movie), in 1972 the second Olympics since the 1936 games were held in Germany.  11 Isreali athletes, as well as a German police officer and 5 terrorists were killed in what has become known as the Munich Massacre.  According to Wikipedia: “the Munich massacre is an informal name for an attack that occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Bavaria in southern West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually killed by the Palestinian group Black September.^{[3][4][5][6][7]} Shortly after the crisis began, the Palestinians demanded the release of 234 prisoners held in Israeli jails.^[8] They also demanded the release of all members of the German Red Army Faction being held in German prisons.^[9] Black September called the operation “Ikrit and Biram”,^[10] after two Christian Palestinian villages whose inhabitants were expelled by the Haganahin 1948.

The kidnappers killed eleven Israeli athletes and coaches and a West German police officer. Five of the eight members of Black September were killed by police officers during a failed rescue attempt. The three surviving assassins were captured, but later released by West Germany following the hijacking by Black September of a Lufthansa Flight 181 airliner. Israel responded to the killings with Operation Spring of Youth and Operation Wrath of God, during which Palestinians suspected of involvement in the massacre were systematically tracked down and killed by Israeli intelligence and special forces. The Israeli operations killed one innocent in Norway and four passersby in Lebanon, with 18 others injured during the killing of Ali Hassan Salameh.^[11][12]”

As many of us watch the games this week, let not forget those athletes murdered 40 years ago.