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The Black September Organization (BSO) ( ar, منظمة أيلول الأسود, translit=Munaẓẓamat Aylūl al-Aswad) was a
Palestinian Palestinians ( ar, الفلسطينيون, ; he, פָלַסְטִינִים, ) or Palestinian people ( ar, الشعب الفلسطيني, label=none, ), also referred to as Palestinian Arabs ( ar, الفلسطينيين العرب, label=non ...
militant organization founded in 1970. Besides other actions, the group was responsible for the assassination of the Jordanian Prime Minister
Wasfi Tal Wasfi Tal ( ar, وصفي التل; also known as Wasfi Tell; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 an ...
, and the
Munich massacre The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members ...
, in which eleven Israeli athletes and officials were kidnapped and killed, as well as a West German policeman losing his life, during the
1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
in Munich, their most publicized event. These attacks led to the creation or specialization of permanent
counter-terrorism Counterterrorism (also spelled counter-terrorism), also known as anti-terrorism, incorporates the practices, military tactics, techniques, and strategies that governments, law enforcement, business, and intelligence agencies use to combat or ...
forces in many European countries.


Origin

The group's name is derived from the
Black September Black September ( ar, أيلول الأسود; '' Aylūl Al-Aswad''), also known as the Jordanian Civil War, was a conflict fought in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan between the Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF), under the leadership of King Hussei ...
conflict which began on 16 September 1970, when
King Hussein Hussein bin Talal ( ar, الحسين بن طلال, ''Al-Ḥusayn ibn Ṭalāl''; 14 November 1935 – 7 February 1999) was King of Jordan from 11 August 1952 until his death in 1999. As a member of the Hashemite dynasty, the royal family of ...
of Jordan declared military rule in response to '' fedayeen'' attempting to seize his kingdom – resulting in the deaths and expulsion of thousands of Palestinians fighters from Jordan. The BSO began as a small cell of
Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and s ...
men determined to take revenge upon King Hussein and the
Jordanian Armed Forces The Jordanian Armed Forces (JAF) ( ar, الْقُوَّاتُ الْمُسَلَّحَةُ الأرْدُنِية, romanized: ''Al-Quwwat Al-Musallaha Al-Urduniyya''), also referred to as the Arab Army ( ar, الْجَيْشُ الْعَرَبي ...
. Recruits from the
PFLP The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine ( ar, الجبهة الشعبية لتحرير فلسطين, translit=al-Jabhah al-Sha`biyyah li-Taḥrīr Filasṭīn, PFLP) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist and revolutionary soc ...
,
as-Sa'iqa As-Sa'iqa ( ar, صاعقة, lit=Thunderbolt, translit=Saiqa) officially known as Vanguard for the Popular Liberation War - Lightning Forces, ( ar, طلائع حرب التحرير الشعبية - قوات الصاعقة ) is a Palestinian Ba ...
, and other groups also joined. Initially, most of its members were dissidents within Fatah who had been close to
Abu Ali Iyad Walid Ahmad Nimr ( ar, وليد أحمد نمر ; 1934 – July 23, 1971), better known by his ''nom de guerre'' Abu Ali Iyad ( ar, أبو علي إياد), was a senior Palestinian field commander based in Syria and Jordan during the 1960s and ...
, the commander of Fatah forces in northern Jordan who continued to fight the Jordanian Army after the PLO leadership withdrew. He was killed, allegedly through execution, by Jordanian forces on 23 July 1971. It was alleged by them that the Jordanian Prime Minister at the time,
Wasfi Tal Wasfi Tal ( ar, وصفي التل; also known as Wasfi Tell; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 an ...
, was personally responsible for his torture and death.


Structure of the group

There is disagreement among historians, journalists, and primary sources about the nature of the BSO and the extent to which it was controlled by
Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and s ...
, the
Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and st ...
(PLO) faction controlled at the time by Yasser Arafat. In his book ''Stateless'', Salah Khalaf (
Abu Iyad use both this parameter and , birth_date to display the person's date of birth, date of death, and age at death) --> , death_place = Carthage, Tunisia , death_cause = Assassination , resting_place = , resting_place_coord ...
), Arafat's chief of security and a founding member of Fatah, wrote that: "Black September was not a terrorist organization, but was rather an auxiliary unit of the resistance movement, at a time when the latter was unable to fully realize its military and political potential. The members of the organization always denied any ties between their organization and Fatah or the PLO." The denial described in Abu Iyad's claim was mutual: according to a 1972 article in the Jordanian newspaper '' Ad-Dustour'', Mohammed Daoud Oudeh, also known as
Abu Daoud Mohammad Daoud Oudeh ( ar, محمد داود عودة), commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Daoud or Abu Dawud ( ar, أبو داود) (1937 - 3 July 2010) was a Palestinian militant, teacher and lawyer known as the planner, architect and ma ...
, a BSO operative and former senior PLO member, told Jordanian police: "There is no such organization as Black September. Fatah announces its own operations under this name so that Fatah will not appear as the direct executor of the operation." A March 1973 document released in 1981 by the U.S. State Department seemed to confirm that
Fatah Fatah ( ar, فتح '), formerly the Palestinian National Liberation Movement, is a Palestinian nationalist social democratic political party and the largest faction of the confederated multi-party Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and s ...
was Black September's parent organization. According to American journalist
John K. Cooley John Kent Cooley (November 25, 1927 – August 6, 2008) was an American journalist and author who specialized in islamist groups and the Middle East. Based in Athens, he worked as a radio and off-air television correspondent for ''ABC News'' and w ...
, the BSO represented a "total break with the old operational and organizational methods of the ''fedayeen''. Its members operated in air-tight cells of four or more men and women. Each cell's members were kept purposely ignorant of other cells. Leadership was exercised from outside by intermediaries and 'cut-offs' ", though there was no centralized leadership.Cooley 1973 Cooley writes that many of the cells in Europe and around the world were made up of Palestinians and other Arabs who had lived in their countries of residence as students, teachers, businessmen, and diplomats for many years. Operating without a central leadership (see
Leaderless resistance Leaderless resistance, or phantom cell structure, is a social resistance strategy in which small, independent groups ( covert cells), or individuals (a solo cell is called a " lone wolf"), challenge an established institution such as a law, econom ...
), it was a "true collegial direction". The cell structure and the need-to-know operational philosophy protected the operatives by ensuring that the apprehension or surveillance of one cell would not affect the others. The structure offered plausible deniability to the Fatah leadership, which was careful to distance itself from Black September operations. Fatah needed Black September, according to historian
Benny Morris Benny Morris ( he, בני מוריס; born 8 December 1948) is an Israeli historian. He was a professor of history in the Middle East Studies department of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in the city of Beersheba, Israel. He is a member of ...
. He writes that there was a "problem of internal PLO or Fatah cohesion, with extremists constantly demanding greater militancy. The moderates apparently acquiesced in the creation of Black September in order to survive".Morris 2001, p. 379 As a result of pressure from militants, writes Morris, a Fatah congress in Damascus in August–September 1971 agreed to establish Black September. The new organization was based on Fatah's existing special intelligence and security apparatus, and on the PLO offices and representatives in various European capitals, and from very early on, there was cooperation between Black September and the PFLP. The PLO closed Black September down in September 1973, on the anniversary it was created by the "political calculation that no more good would come of terrorism abroad" according to Morris. In 1974 Arafat ordered the PLO to withdraw from acts of violence outside the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and Israel.


Munich massacre

The group was responsible for the 1972
Munich massacre The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September, who infiltrated the Olympic Village, killed two members ...
in which 11 Israeli Olympic athletes were murdered, nine of whom were first taken hostage, and the killing of a German police officer, during the
1972 Summer Olympics The 1972 Summer Olympics (), officially known as the Games of the XX Olympiad () and commonly known as Munich 1972 (german: München 1972), was an international multi-sport event held in Munich, West Germany, from 26 August to 11 September 1972. ...
in Munich, Germany. Following the attack, the Israeli government, headed by Prime Minister Golda Meir, launched
Operation Wrath of God Operation "Wrath of God" ( he, מבצע זעם האל ''Mivtza Za'am Ha'el''), also known as Operation "Bayonet", was a covert operation directed by Mossad to assassinate individuals involved in the 1972 Munich massacre in which 11 members of ...
and ordered Mossad to assassinate those known to have been involved in the Munich massacre. By 1979, at least one Mossad unit had assassinated eight Black September and PLO members, including
Ali Hassan Salameh Ali Hassan Salameh ( ar, علي حسن سلامة, ; 1 April 1941 – 22 January 1979) was a Palestinian militant who was the chief of operations (code name Abu Hassan) for Black September and founder of Force 17. He was assassinated by Mossad ...
, nicknamed the "Red Prince", the wealthy, flamboyant son of an upper-class family, and commander of Force 17, Yasser Arafat's personal security squad. Salameh was also behind the 1972
hijacking of Sabena Flight 572 Sabena Flight 571 was a scheduled passenger flight from Brussels to Lod via Vienna operated by the Belgian national airline, Sabena. On 8 May 1972 a Boeing 707 passenger aircraft operating that service, captained by British pilot Reginald Levy ...
from Vienna to Lod. He was killed by a car bomb in
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...
on 22 January 1979. In
Operation Spring of Youth The 1973 Israeli raid on Lebanon (known as Operation Spring of Youth, Hebrew: מבצע אביב נעורים, ''Mivtsa Aviv Ne'urim'') took place on the night of April 9 and early morning of April 10, 1973, when Israeli army special forces un ...
, in April 1973, Israeli commandos killed three senior members of Black September in
Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint of ...
, Lebanon. In July 1973, in what became known as the
Lillehammer affair The Lillehammer affair (Hebrew: פרשת לילהאמר, ''Parshat Lillehammer'', Norwegian: ''Lillehammer-saken'') was the killing by Mossad agents of Ahmed Bouchikhi, a Moroccan waiter and brother of the renowned musician Chico Bouchikhi, i ...
, Ahmed Bouchiki, an innocent Moroccan waiter who was mistaken for Ali Hassan Salameh was killed in Norway. Six Israeli operatives were arrested for the murder. Recent remarks by
Abu Daoud Mohammad Daoud Oudeh ( ar, محمد داود عودة), commonly known by his nom de guerre Abu Daoud or Abu Dawud ( ar, أبو داود) (1937 - 3 July 2010) was a Palestinian militant, teacher and lawyer known as the planner, architect and ma ...
, the alleged mastermind of the Munich kidnappings, deny that any of the Palestinians assassinated by Mossad had any relation to the Munich operation, despite the fact that the list includes two of the three surviving members of the kidnap squad arrested at the airport.


Other attacks

Other actions attributed to Black September include: * 28 November 1971: the assassination of Jordan's prime minister,
Wasfi al-Tal Wasfi Tal ( ar, وصفي التل; also known as Wasfi Tell; 19 January 1919 – 28 November 1971) was a Jordanian politician, statesman and general. He served as the 15th Prime Minister of Jordan for three separate terms, 1962–63, 1965–67 an ...
, in retaliation for the expulsion of the PLO from Jordan in 1970–71; * December 1971: the attempted assassination of Zeid al Rifai, Jordan's ambassador to London and former chief of the Jordanian royal court; * 6 February 1972: sabotage of a West German electrical installation and gas plants in Ravenstein and Ommen in the Netherlands and in Hamburg in West Germany; * 8 May 1972: hijacking of a Belgian aircraft, Sabena Flight 572, flying from Vienna to Lod. * September and October 1972: dozens of letter bombs were sent from Amsterdam to Israeli diplomatic posts around the world, killing Israeli Agricultural Counsellor Ami Shachori in Britain. * 1 March 1973:
Attack on the Saudi Embassy in Khartoum An attack on the Saudi embassy in Khartoum took place on 1 March 1973. It was carried out by the Black September Organization. Ten diplomats were taken hostage. After President Richard Nixon stated that he refused to negotiate with terrorists, ...
, Sudan: 10 hostages were held at the Saudi Arabian embassy, five of them diplomats. The US ambassador, the US deputy ambassador, and the Belgian ''chargé d'affaires'' were murdered. The remaining hostages were released. A 1973 United States Department of State document, declassified in 2006, concluded: "The Khartoum operation was planned and carried out with the full knowledge and personal approval of Yasser Arafat." * 2 March 1973: 1973 New York bomb plot * 5 August 1973: two Palestinian militants claiming affiliation with Black September opened fire on a passenger lounge in Athens' now closed Ellinikon International Airport, killing three and wounding 55. A Lufthansa Boeing 737 was hijacked from Rome in December 1973 to demand that the gunmen be freed from Greek custody. * 20 October 1981: Black September claimed responsibility for the 1981 Antwerp synagogue bombing in Belgium, which killed three and wounded 106 people.


Letter bomb attacks and the assassination of Ami Shachori

Ami Shachori was the agricultural counsellor in the Israeli Embassy to the United Kingdom in Kensington, London. Shachori was assassinated in a letter bomb attack on 19 September 1972, perpetrated by Black September. Eight bombs were addressed to embassy staffers. Four were intercepted at a post office sorting room in Earls Court, but the other four letters made it to the embassy. Three of the letters were detected in the consulate post room but Shachori opened his, believing it contained Dutch flower seeds he had ordered. The resulting blast tore a hole in the desk and fatally wounded Shachori in the stomach and chest. In Shachori's memory an annual
memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, Tragedy (event), tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objec ...
lecture on agriculture in London was established.


See also

* '' Black Sunday'' – 1977 John Frankenheimer film about a fictional Black September plot against the United States using the Goodyear Blimp fitted with a bomb to kill 80,000 people during the Super Bowl, based on the
Thomas Harris William Thomas Harris III (born 1940/1941) is an American writer, best known for a series of suspense novels about his most famous character, Hannibal Lecter. The majority of his works have been adapted into films and television, the most notab ...
novel of the same name. * '' Munich'' (2005 film) *
Sabena Flight 571 Sabena Flight 571 was a scheduled passenger flight from Brussels to Lod via Vienna operated by the Belgian national airline, Sabena. On 8 May 1972 a Boeing 707 passenger aircraft operating that service, captained by British pilot Reginald L ...
*
Palestine Liberation Organization The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ar, منظمة التحرير الفلسطينية, ') is a Palestinian nationalist political and militant organization founded in 1964 with the initial purpose of establishing Arab unity and st ...
*
Palestinian political violence Palestinian political violence refers to acts of violence perpetrated for political ends in relation to the State of Palestine or in connection with Palestinian nationalism. Common political objectives include self-determination in and sovereig ...
*
State-sponsored terrorism State-sponsored terrorism is terrorist violence carried out with the active support of national governments provided to violent non-state actors. States can sponsor terrorist groups in several ways, including but not limited to funding terrorist ...
* Palestinian Islamic Jihad


References

* Cooley, J.K.: ''Green March, Black September: The Story of the Palestinian Arabs''. Frank Cass and Company Ltd., 1973, * Bar Zohar, M., Haber E. ''The Quest for the Red Prince: Israel's Relentless Manhunt for One of the World's Deadliest and Most Wanted Arab Terrorists''. The Lyons Press, 2002, * Morris, B.: ''Righteous Victims: A History of the Zionist-Arab Conflict, 1881–2001''. Vintage Books, 2001. * Jonas, G. ''Vengeance''. Bantam Books, 1985. * Khalaf, S. (Abu Iyad) ''Stateless''. * Oudeh, M.D. (Abu Daoud) ''Memoirs of a Palestinian Terrorist''.


Further reading

* * Reeve, Simon. ''
One Day in September ''One Day in September'' is a 1999 documentary film directed by Kevin Macdonald examining the 5 September 1972 murder of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany. Michael Douglas provides the sparse narration throug ...
: the story of the 1972
Munich Olympics massacre The Munich massacre was a terrorist attack carried out during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, by eight members of the Palestinian people, Palestinian militant organization Black September Organization, Black September, who i ...
'', Faber & Faber, 2000, .
One day in September
Sony Pictures * Katz, Samuel M.: ''Soldier Spies – Israeli Military Intelligence'', Presidio Press, Novato, CA, 1992, .

''Time'', 25 August 2002 * Dahlke, Matthias, ''Der Anschlag auf Olympia 72'', Meidenbauer, 2006, (German). *


External links


FBI file on Black September

Incidents attributed to Black September on the START database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Black September (Group) 1970s establishments in Jordan 1973 disestablishments Organizations established in 1970 Organizations disestablished in 1973 Palestinian terrorism Defunct Palestinian militant groups Articles containing video clips