Saturday, October 30, 2010
New Bomb Threat to Aircraft Comes 36 Years After Convicted PLO-Hamas Terrorist Destroyed TWA 841, Less than Two Years After His Release from a US Jail
UPDATE: 20 EXPLOSIVE DEVICES SUSPECTED TO BE EN ROUTE TO USForgotten history....
On September 8, 1974, TWA Flight 841 departed Tel Aviv en route to JFK International Airport with stops scheduled for Athens, Greece and Rome, Italy. After a 68 minute stop in Athens, the flight departed for Rome. But radio contact was lost 18 minutes after takeoff. The jet crashed into the Ionian Sea, and all 79 passengers and nine crew members were killed.
The United States National Transportation Safety Board determined that the probable cause of the crash was the detonation of an explosive device within the cargo compartment of the aircraft.
About six months before the crash, this reporter, then working for a national magazine, was told by the head of TWA's public relations department that he was increasingly concerned that the airline was not taking sufficient security precautions against possible terrorist attacks and hijackings. TWA, he explained, was the PLO's number one airline target after El Al because TWA was (a) a U.S. carrier and (b) the only U.S. airline with regular service to Israel.
Bombed Out of the Sky
He was right to be concerned: intelligence experts have determined that TWA 841 was bombed out of the sky and that one of the men responsible for the atrocity was a PLO/Black September terrorist, Khalid Al-Jawary, who was subsequently arrested, convicted, and imprisoned in the United States for his role in attempted car bombings. Incredibly, he was released last year from a U.S. prison after serving only half of a 30-year sentence. He received time off for good behavior, and was deported to Sudan.
Khalid Al-Jawary was let go 36 years after he placed bombs in two cars on New York City's Fifth Avenue and a third at Kennedy Airport that were timed to coincide with the arrival of Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. The bombs did not detonate. Al-Jawary was convicted of the crime in 1993.
In 2000, Al-Jawary claimed in a sworn statement to U.S. immigration officials that he was a member of the PLO and of Hamas.
He left the U.S. on February 26, 2009, and arrived in Sudan, after Algeria changed its mind about accepting him. He had wanted to go to Jordan, where his family lives, but Jordan did not agree to accept him.
Al-Jawary has dual citizenship in Jordan and Iraq.
He has refused to admit his involvement in any other terrorist incidents, but an AP investigation found that Al-Jawary may have been involved in a lethal letter-bombing campaign in addition to the bombing of TWA 841.
His release was an early sign that the Obama administration had decided to appease Palestinian Arab and Islamist terrorists in the context of downgrading the War on Terror to the level of a law enforcement challenge and narrowing the focus of the anti-terror struggle to defeating only Al Qaeda and so-called irreconcilable elements of the Taliban.
