The Achille Lauro Hijacking: Lessons in the Politics and Prejudice of Terrorism [Paperback]

Michael K. Bohn (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 15, 2005

Political speeches and public rhetoric paint the phenomena of terrorism with a black-and-white brush, presenting it as a clear-cut battle between evildoers and heroes. With The Achille Lauro Hijacking", Michael K. Bohn, who watched the incident unfold from the White House Situation Room, uses one of the most infamous terrorist incidents of the past twenty-five years to illuminate the folly of such oversimplified jingoisms. The 1985 hijacking of the Italian cruise ship, the amazing capture of the terrorists, and a previously untold story of American bigotry come together in this book as a case study in the complex forces that shape both terrorism and the responses that it triggers.

In October 1985, four Palestinian men hijacked an Italian cruise ship, Achille Lauro, holding hundreds hostage for two days. The hijackers killed a partially disabled, sixty-nine year old Jewish American, Leon Klinghoffer, and threw his body into the sea. Many remember Klinghoffer’s death, but few know of the other murder associated with the hijacking, that of Alex Odeh. Odeh defended on television Yasser Arafat’s apparent role in defusing the hijacking. He was killed the next day by a terrorist’s bomb, which exploded as he opened the door of his Los Angeles office - the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

Palestinians killed Klinghoffer because he was Jewish, yet Jewish extremists killed Odeh because he was a Palestinian. The Klinghoffer family’s long crusade to bring the hijacking mastermind, Abu Abbas, to justice was partially satisfied with his April 2003 capture in Iraq. The Odeh family still waits for charges to be brought against Alex’s murderers, a particularly disheartening situation as Israel, America’s friend and ally, refuses to extradite two suspects.

These two deaths pale in comparison to the atrocities of September 11, 2001. Yet understanding both the Achille Lauro incident, and the extraordinary sequence of events that followed, will help Americans better understand the threat of terrorism. Terrorism is not an enemy, it is a tactic chosen by some to further political goals. Terrorism is not just about crime and punishment; it is about violence, power politics, prejudice, hatred, land, religion, greed, money, and a host of venal factors that influence human society. All of these forces are present in the Achille Lauro hijacking and its aftermath.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Bohn, who directed the White House situation room under Reagan, relates the harrowing tale of one of the most spectacular terrorist acts of the 1980s and its aftermath. In October 1985, Palestinian gunmen under the command of Abu Abbas commandeered an Italian cruise ship, murdered the wheelchair-bound Jewish-American Leon Klinghoffer and tossed his body overboard. Negotiations yielded the perpetrators safe passage in an Egyptian aircraft, but the U.S. intercepted the flight and the terrorists were put on trial in Italy. During the crisis, Arab-American activist Alex Odeh appeared on television and seemed to justify Palestinian terrorism; his remarks were quoted out of context. Police suspected that Jewish extremists were responsible for his subsequent murder. Bohn, a former navy officer, juxtaposes the murders of Odeh and Klinghoffer, two Americans killed because of their differing affiliations in a still-simmering conflict, in drawing lessons about the "politics and prejudice" of terrorism. He attempts to understand the motivations and grievances of the terrorists, not to justify them but to encourage a more effective policy for confronting terror. For Bohm, terrorism is "not just about good versus evil" but exists in a political and cultural context; his book effectively illuminates the backstory of a gruesome example of it.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Review

"Bohn presents a thorough narrative of the event. . . . This captivating book is a very good read. Recommended." --CHOICE

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Potomac Books Inc. (December 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1574887807
• ISBN-13: 978-1574887808
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,446,867 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Bohn has been writing for publication since 1996, but led a varied life before that. A career naval intelligence officer from 1969 to 1988, Bohn served aboard ships and intelligence centers, including a tour in South Vietnam. He was a military social aide to President Nixon and ran the White House Situation Room for President Reagan. He sent a twice-daily summary of world events to Reagan and senior White House staff members and provided crisis management support during dozens of international dust-ups during Reagan's second term. He was swept up in the Iran-Contra scandal while working for Reagan and became a victim of political posturing of the highest order.

Mr. Bohn managed defense contracts for Booz*Allen, 1988-92, and owned a residential remodeling company 1992-2001.

Michael was a primary contributor and on-screen personality for a 1999 Discovery Channel documentary on submarine warfare during the Cold War. He acted as a program consultant for, and appeared in, two BBC Television documentaries about crisis management in the White House, one in November 2002 and the other in April 2003. Also, Mr. Bohn appeared in a July 2003 special, "The White House at War," a joint ABC News, New York Times, and Discovery Channel project; and in a 2004 German public TV special, "Palaces of Power."

In seeking to establish a writing career, Bohn turned to his friend Gene Gibbons, then the Reuters White House correspondent. "Write for the local paper," Gibbons said, "they'll print anything." In 1996, he sold his first article to the Mount Vernon Gazette, which circulates in the Virginia suburbs outside Washington DC. Since then he has written features and reported on golf for the Gazette and 18 other papers in the Connection Newspaper group in Virginia.

His first book was Nerve Center, Inside the White House Situation Room (2003). The second soon followed--The Achille Lauro Hijacking (2004), and his third, Money Golf (2007), a history of the gentlemanly wager on the golf course, was named by Golf Digest as one of the most intriguing golf books of 2007.

Bohn's latest book, Heroes & Ballyhoo: How the Golden Age of the 1920s Transformed American Sports, will be published in late October by Potomac Books.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Good volume on the Achille Lauro hijacking and aftermath, September 23, 2011

By 

G.C. (St. Louis, MO, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Achille Lauro Hijacking: Lessons in the Politics and Prejudice of Terrorism (Hardcover)

In October 1985, the world and US media were gripped by the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro by 4 Palestinians, and subsequently were revolted at the hijackers' murder of the elderly, wheelchair-bound US passenger Leon Klinghoffer. Michael Bohn worked in the Reagan Administration at the time, and reviews the history of the hijacking and its aftermath in this book. He also tries to draw lessons and parallels in how the media and Americans demonized Palestinians then with anti-Muslim hysteria and xenophobia in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks. As well, Bohn recalls the murder of the Palestinian-American activist Alex Odeh in the wake of controversial remarks that Odeh made after Klinghoffer's murder became known, but where there was much less attention at Odeh's murder compared to Klinghoffer's.

Bohn does a good job with his coverage of the history surrounding the hijacking and how his colleagues in the Reagan administration handled the events, although one has to be aware of a slight lack of emotional distancing when he continually refers to "Bud MacFarlane" (not "Robert MacFarlane") and "Ollie North" (rather than "Oliver North"). He does take pains to try to bring Odeh's story from out of the cold in the overall history of these events, to emphasize that the way Odeh was murdered was just as monstrous as the way that Leon Klinghoffer was murdered. Yet perhaps unwittingly, as a reflection of the coverage at the time, it's perhaps inevitable that the Odeh aspect of the history would occupy less space compared to the Klinghoffer aspect, regarding pursuit of justice and of the murderers in both cases. Bohn also has an "interlude" chapter about the history of the Achille Lauro itself, in the middle of the book, which sort of disrupts the linearity of the narrative. He also notes how this incident was treated in various made-for-TV movies in both the USA and Europe, with different worldviews and degrees of political understanding and sophistication.

Bohn's point that there are lessons to learn in how the US media particularly treat both sides in Middle East-related events still rings true now, as does the subliminal message that Americans need to be aware of the social contexts and historical perspectives of other cultures besides their own, to look past individuals to see larger pictures as well. For a refresher course on this past tragedy, with caveats noted, this book is worth a read.