Achille Lauro anniversary; Leon Klinghoffer; Abu Abbas; Tailhook

Debbie Schlussel reminds us of another forgotten anniversary today. Twenty years ago this past weekend, Palestinian terrorists under the direction of Abu Abbas hijacked the Achille Lauro cruise ship and murdered a wheel chair bound American named Leon Klinghoffer. [The anniversary of Klinghoffer's murder is October 8th.] The MSM/DNC prefers to remain silent about this anniversary because it wants us to believe that terrorism began during the Presidency of George Bush - just like hurricanes.

Achille Lauro - subject of 1985 terrorist hijacking






The Achille Lauro was destroyed in 1994 by an unrelated fire. I do not know of any terrorist connection to that fire. The left knows of no connection between George W. Bush and that fire.

The fire that destroyed the Achille Lauro occurred several weeks after George Bush was elected governor of Texas in 1994 - why didn't Bush prevent this tragedy? Where is the Halliburton connection?



But I digress -

There is more info at Debbie's blog.

After the hijacking, American jet fighters captured the terrorists as they attempted to escape.

Abu Abbas was later captured by U.S. forces after liberating Baghdad. Ann Coulter wrote an excellent summary of the whole incident and the left's continued struggle to appease the terrorists and punish the American military who captured them:

In 1985, Muslim terrorists hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and threatened to kill the passengers and crew unless 50 imprisoned Palestinians were released by Israel. The terrorists doused American and British women with gasoline and taunted them with matches. They forced passengers to hold live grenades. When their demands were not met, the terrorists shot a wheelchair-bound American, Leon Klinghoffer, and forced other passengers at gunpoint to throw him overboard in his wheelchair.

Oliver North and Admiral Kelso then conceived and executed the plan to capture the terrorists.

Adm. Frank Kelso, the officer in charge of America's Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean, ordered his men to carry out the mission. In no time flat, Tomcat fighters had taken off from the U.S. aircraft carrier Saratoga. After refueling in midair and guided by Hawkeyes, the Tomcats caught up with the EgyptAir flight. The fighters stealthily trailed their target for a while in total darkness, their lights off, even in the cockpit. Then the Tomcats swooped in on the EgyptAir flight, surrounded the plane, and forced it to land at a NATO base on Sicily controlled by the United States.

The New York Post headline the next day was: "GOT 'EM." Reagan said: "I salute the Navy."

And then Abul Abbas was released by the Europeans -- whom liberals insist on approval from in this war. Abbas dashed to safety in Iraq under Saddam Hussein -- whom liberals have assured us was not harboring terrorists. Republican presidents keep catching terrorists while liberals keep sending them back.

emphasis added

The American left responded to the capture of the terrorists by punishing Admiral Kelso with the trumped up tailhook scandal.

If there is a parable of how liberals support the enemy, this is it. Adm. Kelso, whose men carried out the dauntless EgyptAir interception, was cashiered out of the Navy because of "Tailhook." Feminists don't care about Saddam Hussein and his rape rooms. But they were hopping mad at Adm. Kelso for walking through the Tailhook convention to say hello to his boys -- boys who captured Leon Klinghoffer's murderers.

The many lessons from this anniversary have much relevance for the war on terror:

Now liberals are demanding that the Europeans be let into Iraq so they can release some more terrorists, while liberals do their part at home, carving up the colonels and admirals who capture people who murder Americans.

Read the whole Coulter and Schlussel articles and send them to the next person you hear demanding that we leave Iraq.