[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

factors combined for a lethal matrix that triggered the decisive motivational
push toward innovation. The group was then further aided by an absolutely
unparalleled level of human and material resources, which allowed Aum to
come closer to reaching the dreaded overlap between the motivation and the
capability to bring about mass destruction than any other group in history.
4 Popular Front for the Liberation
of Palestine  General Command
The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine  General Command
(PFLP-GC) is a Palestinian terrorist organization founded in 1968 as a
breakaway faction of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine
(PFLP) by a former Syrian army captain and demolitions expert Ahmed
Jibril.246 The group s operations, which reached their peak between 1970
and 1988, were characterized by daring attempts to introduce new forms of
attack, emphasis on technology, innovation and high lethality. Overall, the
PFLP-GC s terrorist activity resulted in the deaths of at least 300 civilians
and injuries to hundreds more, a staggering number considering that the
group was one of the smallest factions of the Palestinian struggle. Among
the main 13 Palestinian groups the PFLP-GC was characterized by several
unique elements, among them the lack of any distinct political ideology, the
emphasis on both tactical and technological innovation and military
strength, and a virtually unconditional allegiance to Syria. Along with
Jibril s shyness toward the media and absence of a foothold in Gaza or the
West Bank, the group s relationship with Syria was a key factor why Jibril
never achieved the level of prominence that one might expect based on his
military excellence and a touch for spectacular attacks. Nevertheless, the
PFLP-GC serves as an excellent example of a highly innovative terrorist
organization, which has pioneered tactics such as the use of barometric pres-
sure devices to detonate bombs on-board civilian aircraft in mid-course
flight, the use of modern communication technologies, booby-trapping the
equipment of fighters in high risk operations, and the use of a motorized
hang-glider to infiltrate enemy territory.
History of operational progression
In order to understand fully the tactical and technological trail of PFLP-GC
operations, it is key to factor in attacks perpetrated by entities around
Ahmed Jibril, as opposed to focusing solely on the PFLP-GC itself. Jibril s
original involvement in terrorist activity predates the formation of the
PFLP-GC; in 1961 he and several other Palestinians formerly serving in
the Syrian army founded the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF) in Cairo.
82 PFLP GC
The group s original activities concentrated on propaganda, recruitment of
students and the obtainment of financial support from the Palestinian dias-
pora. For most of 1961, PLF members flooded Cairo with propaganda
leaflets and posters promising the immediate liberation of Palestine. It
would not take long for the group to obtain the capability to back up words
with actions. Having received training in camps established by the Damas-
cus government, Jibril s men began preparing for armed operations.247
Between 1964 and 1967 the PLF would become known as one of the most
violent factions within the Palestinian liberation movement, having con-
ducted at least 95 cross-border raids into Israeli territory from Jordan and
Syria,248 in which the group claimed to have inflicted a ridiculously over-
stated 3,500 casualties.249 These raids, usually highly coordinated and syn-
chronized and making use of sophisticated radio equipment, would become
an operational constant for Jibril and the PFLP-GC for years to come. In
December 1967, following the debacle of the Six-Day War, the PLF merged
with the Heroes of the Return Group and The Youth of Revenge Group to
form the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) under the
leadership of George Habash. This marriage of convenience would only be
short lived. Following internal disputes and disagreements about ideology
and operational considerations, but also private ambitions of dominant per-
sonalities, Jibril split from the PFLP in April 1968 and formed his new
organization  the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine  General
Command (PFLP-GC).250 The name itself would signal Jibril s love for
action and his dissatisfaction with rhetoric, which he argued would fall short
of accomplishing a free Palestine. Further, the name also signaled Jibril s
desire to add a conventional military dimension to the Palestinian forces as a
necessary part of taking the struggle to the next level, a task he would take
on himself for the duration of his terrorist career.251 From early on, Jibril s
rhetoric was full of optimism regarding the immediacy of an eventual
victory, and was filled with promises of spectacular operations. Throughout
the following 30 years, he would fulfill at least the second part of his
promise.
In the heyday of PFLP-GC s activities in the early 1970s, one of Jibril s
obsessions became the targeting of civil aircraft. In contrast with his former
colleagues from the PFLP whose modus operandi of hijacking airplanes would
become legendary, Jibril saw hijackings as worthy only of people too weak
actually to pull the trigger.252 As a result, shortly after the influential PFLP
hijacking of an El Al airliner from Rome to Algiers, Jibril made the decision
to raise the stakes by bringing an airliner down in mid-course flight instead.
As early as late 1968, Jibril reportedly ordered his top bomb maker, Marwan
Kreeshat, to construct a novel and diabolical device: the altimeter bomb.253
After working for several months in a Sofia safe house, Kreeshat succeeded in
constructing two devices that were then tested on the top of the Feldberg
mountain in Germany.254 Having found the devices functional, PFLP-GC
operatives then set the barometric pressure mechanisms to be activated at
PFLP GC 83
the altitude of 14,000 feet, disguised the bombs in transistor radios, and
mailed them to Israel from a Frankfurt post office. The packages made their
way on board two airliners on 21 February 1970, when 15 minutes after
takeoff the Swissair flight 330 crashed in a forest near Wurenlingen,
Switzerland, killing all 47 on board. On the same day, an Australian Air-
lines plane flying from Frankfurt to Vienna with 33 passengers and five crew
was rocked 20 minutes after takeoff by an explosion that blew a hole
through the bottom of the fuselage. Fortunately for the passengers, the
mailbag containing the device was placed between layers of tightly wadded
newspaper which absorbed most of the shock, allowing the plane to land
safely in Frankfurt.255 In Beirut, PFLP-GC spokesman Abu Meriam took
credit for the Swissair operation and the PFLP-GC was on the map.
Having successfully perpetrated its first large-scale operation against
civilian targets the PFLP-GC set a high standard for itself, also signaling
that the group s campaign would be an unusually bloody and indiscriminate
one. This fear was confirmed four months later, when on 22 May 1970 a
PFLP-GC commando team crossed 500 yards from the Lebanese border near
Moshav Avivim, Israel, and simultaneously fired four bazooka shells at a
school bus, killing 12 children and wounding 22 more.256 This audacious [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]