# Have hijackers/terrorists ever been successful?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [August 3, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776 "2001-08-03T14:38:51Z")
**Posts on this page:** 19
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/1 "2001-08-03T14:38:51Z")
I don’t mean successful in the sense of “we killed 10 people, yeah!” but in the sense of accomplishing their end result through terrorist acts.
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### Author:  [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/2 "2001-08-03T14:46:48Z")
The first thing that comes to mind is the terrorist attack in Beirut in 1983 that killed 260 American and 60 French military personnel. The terrorists wanted us out of the country, and we did get out a few months after the attack. Not knowing the minds of the terrorists, I can’t say if that was their ultimate goal.
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### Author:  [@casdave](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/casdave)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 2:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/3 "2001-08-03T14:55:19Z")
I do believe that they have been paid off by the French in the past.
This fits in with the French pragmatic view of things, after their defeat at Dien Ben Phu a ransom was demanded in return for captured POWs.
They eventually did pay up after much soul searching and sure enough hostages were returned.
I also think they changed their policy once it became clear that this encouraged more terrorist acts on French soil.
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### Author:  [@lno](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lno)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/4 "2001-08-03T15:10:02Z")
Yes, because not all hijackings are for grand political causes. Compare the recent bus hijackings in Russia that protest the occupation of Chechyna to a hijacking of an airliner for money. Cecil briefly mentioned such a hijacking in his [column](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_390.html) on opening airline doors in midair:
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> You may recall that in 1971 a hijacker named D.B. Cooper with $200,000 in his mitts parachuted out of the rear exit of a Boeing 727 flying over Washington state, never to be seen again. How’d he do it? Turns out the plane was flying at a low enough altitude–7,000 to 10,000 feet–to enable D.B. to get the door open.
I’d consider that a successful hijacking. The fact that he was never found seems to point towards success rather than failure, IMHO.
Regarding the question of whether national policy can be affected by determined terrorist acts, then I’d say yes, definitely yes. If Nation X hasn’t changed their policy due to terrorist acts, then my pessimistic viewpoint is that they haven’t reached their breaking point yet.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/5 "2001-08-03T15:14:04Z")
The hostages taken in the famous Iran crisis during Carter’s presidency were released some months later, allegedly after the U.S. had paid a ransom (or made other concessions to Tehran). The U.S. never admitted to have done so, but they almost certainly did.
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### Author:  [@schief2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/schief2)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/6 "2001-08-03T17:10:57Z")
It was just a year and a half ago that an Indian Airlines flight from New Delhi to Kathmandu (but with a large number of Westerners on board) was [hijacked to Afghanistan](http://www.cnn.com/2000/US/01/05/hijack.hostage/index.html), where it sat on the runway for a runway for a full week before the hijackers’ demands for the freeing of several imprisoned Kashmiri militants was met. The hijackers also demanded (and were given) getaway vehicles, and IIRC nobody’s accounted for them since shortly after they left the airport in Kandahar.
So I’d call that a successful political hijacking. But then, it’s probably easier to pull something like that off in Afghanistan than, say, Los Angeles.
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### Author:  [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/7 "2001-08-03T18:08:16Z")
> [@](#):
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> The hostages taken in the famous Iran crisis during Carter’s presidency were released some months later, allegedly after the U.S. had paid a ransom (or made other concessions to Tehran). The U.S. never admitted to have done so, but they almost certainly did.
I’ve never heard that before. Do you have any kind of citation?
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/8 "2001-08-03T18:13:41Z")
I found this on the web; maybe not a very official source, but I’ll research on it more thoroughly if necessary:
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> On November 4, 1979 militant Iranians seized the American Embassy in Tehran, and took more than sixty American hostages. At the request of Ayatollah Khomeini, nearly all the women and African-Americans were released, along with one very ill hostage. The remaining 52 hostages were held hostage for 444 days. The Iranians demanded that Shah Reza Pahlavi be returned to Iran to stand trial. The Carter administration tried diplomatic, economic and military action to free the hostages. Carter barred Americans from traveling in Iran, with the exception of journalists. He froze Iranian assets in the United States, and suspended the import of Iranian oil. On April 24 Carter dispatched a military force to rescue the hostages but helicopter malfunction forced the commander to abort the raid. Two aircraft collided and killed eight American servicemen. Iran scattered the hostages throughout Iran to discourage any future efforts to retrieve the hostages. The death of the Shah in Cairo brought an end to hopes for an early release of hostages. The hostages were given to the Iranian government by the militants. Khomeini agreed to the release of hostages only if the United States would not interfere in Iran’s affairs, if the US would cancel all claims against Iran, and unfreeze Iranian assets in the US. During this, Iran had entered a war with Iraq making the economic sanctions more hurtful to the Iranians. Khomeini finally agreed to release the hostages in return for the unfreezing of Iranian assets in the US. The hostages left Iran at the same time President Carter was turning over the government to Reagan.
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### Author:  [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)
#### Post date: [August 3, 2001, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/9 "2001-08-03T18:22:58Z")
The Columbia Enyclopedia (never heard of it before, but it sounds great 😉 ) states the amount of the Iranian deposits unfrozen at 8 billion dollars.
Obviously the American concessions were not hidden, but given very publicly; probably Carter agreed because he needed some sort of successs after the incredible failure of this helicopter operation that gave lots of inspiration for the _Hot Shots_ movies.
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### Author:  [@wring](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wring)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/10 "2001-09-04T18:37:06Z")
**Schnitte** - I can’t speak for all here, but when I see some one use a ‘quote’ from a web source but fail to give me the direct source, I take it with a grain of salt the size of Detroit. Not to suggest that you’re doing anything untoward, of course.
It’s just that I’d just as soon be able to view the entire document and the source to see how I personally would weigh it (a classic example of this was in another thread where some one-who shall remain nameless- ‘quoted’ some data, said it was fbi data, but neglected to name the source of the quote - it turned out to be a notorious white supremecy site).
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/11 "2001-09-04T18:49:28Z")
There were terrorists who took a bunch of hostages during the Olympics in Germany. (I forgot which year.) There was a fantastic documentary about the heinously incompotent handling of the situation by the German authorities. Some of the terrorists were caught, and later a seperate incident occured where a plane (suspiciously absent of women and children) was hijacked and the caught terrorist’s release demanded. Germany released the guy. It was revealed later (though it was somewhat obvious at the time) that Germany staged the whole airplane incident as part of a deal with the terrorists to keep them out of Germany in exchange for their buddy.
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### Author:  [@malaka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/malaka)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/12 "2001-09-04T18:57:48Z")
Who likes cheese?!
🙂
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### Author:  [@Running\_with\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Running_with_Scissors)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/13 "2001-09-04T19:18:15Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by friedo \*
> **There were terrorists who took a bunch of hostages during the Olympics in Germany. (I forgot which year.)**
Assuming there was only one Olympics in Germany in which hostages were taken, that would be the '72 olympics in Munich. Here’s an article about it:
[Terrorists turn '72 Munich Olympics into bloodbath](http://www.sptimes.com/News/122999/Sports/Terrorists_turn__72_M.shtml)
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### Author:  [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/14 "2001-09-04T19:33:53Z")
Thanks **frogstein**. Here is the link to the documentary, by the way. (It’s an excellent film. Highly reccomended.)
[One Day in September](http://us.imdb.com/Title?0230591).
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### Author:  [@hardhead365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardhead365)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/15 "2001-09-04T21:20:31Z")
Regarding the Munich terrorists, there is a book about the results of their actions. I believe the title is “Vengence”. To make a long story short, according to the book, Israeli intelligence hunted down and killed all of the terrorists that escaped Munich. It took a number of years to get the last one. An excellent response IMHO.
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### Author:  [@xicanorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xicanorex)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/16 "2001-09-04T22:26:24Z")
[QUOTE]
\*Originally posted by beatle \*
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> I’ve never heard that before. Do you have any kind of citation? \*\*
I think he is referring to the infamous “Iran-Contra Scandal”. Do a google search on that and you’ll find several hits. Here are some links for citation:
Digital National Security Archive
[http://192.195.245.32/icintro.htm](http://192.195.245.32/icintro.htm)
The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001.
[http://www.bartleby.com/65/ir/Irancont.html](http://www.bartleby.com/65/ir/Irancont.html)
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> in U.S. history, secret arrangement in the 1980s to provide funds to the Nicaraguan contra rebels from profits gained by selling arms to Iran. The Iran-contra affair was the product of two separate initiatives during the administration of President Ronald Reagan. The first was a commitment to aid the contras who were conducting a guerrilla war against the Sandinista government of Nicaragua. The second was to placate “moderates” within the Iranian government in order to secure the release of American hostages held by pro-Iranian groups in Lebanon and to influence Iranian foreign policy in a pro-Western direction.
XicanoreX
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### Author:  [@hardhead365](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hardhead365)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/17 "2001-09-04T22:53:40Z")
Actually I think that beatle is referring to the October Suprise (for more information go to Google and type in October Suprise Reagan) it is an allegation that Reagan and Bush cut a secret deal with the Iranian terrorists to hold onto the hostages until after the election so that Carter couldn’t get any advantage from their release. Unsuprisingly the hostages were released on January 20, 1981 just as Reagan was being sworn in.
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### Author:  [@pakrat22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pakrat22)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/18 "2001-09-04T23:12:08Z")
D.B. Cooper is considered to be the only successful terrorist/hijacker in the U.S. Although that would have to be tempered by the fact that no one knows what exactly happened after he jumped from the plane. He did get what he wanted, in the form of $$ and a number of parachutes.
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### Author:  [@xicanorex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/xicanorex)
#### Post date: [September 4, 2001, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/have-hijackers-terrorists-ever-been-successful/74776/19 "2001-09-04T23:33:08Z")
> [@](#):
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> \*Originally posted by hardhead365 \*
> **Actually I think that beatle is referring to the October Suprise (for more information go to Google and type in October Suprise Reagan) it is an allegation that Reagan and Bush cut a secret deal with the Iranian terrorists to hold onto the hostages until after the election so that Carter couldn’t get any advantage from their release.**
Yes, you are quite right. After doing a bit of reading on the Iran-Contra scandal, I had forgotten about the “October Surprise”.
I think one thing you have to take into account about the original OP, is that most terrorist/revolutionary organizations do not see hijacking or a terrorist act as an act that will lead them straight to a “final” victory, but as small “victories” in getting a larger goal. As such, there have been example of terrorist acts that back fire, but there are also a good number of terrorists that accomplish their goals. It is because of that fact that terrorist groups continue with hijckaging or similar.
XicanoreX