If you're old enough, you remember

[DVS]

It was 40 years ago in Munich. The 1972 Olympics. It was a sad time for the Olympics and for the countries involved. It also was the beginning of more stringent security put in force...something the Olympics organizers never thought would be necessary.

I think it was so unheard of that something like it would ever happen, the forces in charge knew very little about how to deal with these terrorists. The end result really showed how unorganized everything was.

 

[midwestyankee]

It was 40 years ago in Munich. The 1972 Olympics. It was a sad time for the Olympics and for the countries involved. It also was the beginning of more stringent security put in force...something the Olympics organizers never thought would be necessary.

I think it was so unheard of that something like it would ever happen, the forces in charge knew very little about how to deal with these terrorists. The end result really showed how unorganized everything was.

I don't think it's quite fair to say that because the organizing group did not know how to deal with a circumstance that had never before been a part of an Olympic games that its evident the games were disorganized.

What's more shameful, I think, is that the organizers of this year's games did everything they could to ignore the anniversary.

 

[DVS]

I don't think it's quite fair to say that because the organizing group did not know how to deal with a circumstance that had never before been a part of an Olympic games that its evident the games were disorganized.

What's more shameful, I think, is that the organizers of this year's games did everything they could to ignore the anniversary.

By saying "The end result really showed how unorganized everything was" I meant how unorganized the attempt to free the athletes was.

At the airport, which was the final stage of the rescue attempt, they had police positioned in a radius around the area the helicopters were going to land at the airport. They also had German police inside the plane dressed as a flight crew. They were going to overpower the terrorists, if they got that far. But, before the plan could be carried out, those police decided to abandon their post, because they thought their position was a suicide for them. They didn't even tell command.

When the two helicopters filled with terrorists and hostages arrived, they didn't land in the position that was expected, leaving two of the police sharpshooters in the line of fire from other sharpshooters. Once the shooting started, at least one sharpshooter was shot by his own people and others had to duck for cover to keep from getting shot. None of them had radios so communication was impossible.

The number of police shooters didn't even equal the number of terrorists and with the above problems and lack of communication, not all of the terrorists were shot, allowing one to shoot the athletes in one helicopter and one to toss a grenade into the other killing the remaining athletes.

This says they either didn't care enough to plan or were uneducated about how to plan for that type of rescue. While some thought it was the former, I like to think it was the latter, because there just wasn't any thought put in to the possibility of such an attack. The Israeli delegation had voiced their concern that there was no armed security in the games.

Yes, the UK Olympics could have at least marked the anniversary, but back in 1972, the Olympic games continued, while the siege was going on. There was a short memorial service but even that was viewed by many as almost thoughtless for the victims. And while many athletes left the games in protest, some stayed, because the games went on. If you ask me, that was so much worse for an event that is based on the spirit of peace.

When the UK Olympics began, I watched "One Day in September" on TV. I'd seen it before, but it brought back memories of how sad the whole ordeal was. How security was, how the rescue attempt was, and how it seemed to many that the Olympic committee just didn't seem bothered by it all.

Edited to add:
I just found this in an online article. It relates to your post about the lack of a memorial at the UK games. I think it should have been done and it was requested by the widows of the victims. See below.

"A petition by widows of the victims to remember the dead with a minute's silence at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on 27 July was rejected by Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee.

Instead, a minute's silence was observed at a ceremony headed by Mr Rogge inside London's Olympic Village."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19487315

 

[Netzach]

I don't think it's quite fair to say that because the organizing group did not know how to deal with a circumstance that had never before been a part of an Olympic games that its evident the games were disorganized.

What's more shameful, I think, is that the organizers of this year's games did everything they could to ignore the anniversary.

I am the kind of anti zionist that people call selfhating and anti-semitic, especially when you're a Jew. I think the idea of religiously justified psychic homeland as payment for genocide lies to global madness - I mean why am I entitled but we can never give back America, in reality, so indigenous Americans get the worst education and health care in the country and some open land as their consolation prize, till that land has some economic viability, of course?

But this, I agree with. Politics aside, these were athletes, dying in the prime of life in preventable fashion. Embargo away, call out the racism of the government, but any athlete should "get" this - if we're going to have games in this world at all there are a LOT of countries seething at each other having to put it aside during those weeks. If Armenians can be in a stadium with Turks, if Koreans and Japanese can cut it, Israelis/Palestinians can cool their jets and cope with one another in civilized fashion as athletes. In an ideal world the bombing of children and the killing of their parents in an apartheid state is as bad as the gunning down of athletes, but if every geopolitical injustice were given air time, then there would simply be no games.

If you can't leave that outside, don't be an athlete or deal in international atheletic competiton, go fight each other. This is a place where people put a hand over their heart for their enemies for a second and deal in gifts and talent.

 

[Netzach]

By saying "The end result really showed how unorganized everything was" I meant how unorganized the attempt to free the athletes was.

At the airport, which was the final stage of the rescue attempt, they had police positioned in a radius around the area the helicopters were going to land at the airport. They also had German police inside the plane dressed as a flight crew. They were going to overpower the terrorists, if they got that far. But, before the plan could be carried out, those police decided to abandon their post, because they thought their position was a suicide for them. They didn't even tell command.

When the two helicopters filled with terrorists and hostages arrived, they didn't land in the position that was expected, leaving two of the police sharpshooters in the line of fire from other sharpshooters. Once the shooting started, at least one sharpshooter was shot by his own people and others had to duck for cover to keep from getting shot. None of them had radios so communication was impossible.

The number of police shooters didn't even equal the number of terrorists and with the above problems and lack of communication, not all of the terrorists were shot, allowing one to shoot the athletes in one helicopter and one to toss a grenade into the other killing the remaining athletes.

This says they either didn't care enough to plan, were uneducated about how to plan for type of rescue. While some thought it was the former, I like to think it was the latter, because there just wasn't any thought put in to the possibility of such an attack. The Israeli delegation had thought there was.

Yes, the UK Olympics could have at least marked the anniversary, but back in 1972, the Olympic games continued, while the siege was going on. There was a short memorial service but even that was viewed by many as almost thoughtless for the victims. And while many athletes left the games in protest, some stayed, because the games went on. If you ask me, that was so much worse for an event that is based on the spirit of peace.

When the UK Olympics began, I watched "One Day in September" on TV. I'd seen it before, but it brought back memories of how sad the whole ordeal was. How security was, how the rescue attempt was, and how it seemed to many that the Olympic committee just didn't seem bothered by it all.

Edited to add:
I just found this in an online article. It relates to your post about the lack of a memorial at the UK games. I think it should have been done and it was requested by the widows of the victims. See below.

"A petition by widows of the victims to remember the dead with a minute's silence at the opening ceremony of the London Olympics on 27 July was rejected by Jacques Rogge, head of the International Olympic Committee.

Instead, a minute's silence was observed at a ceremony headed by Mr Rogge inside London's Olympic Village."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-19487315

I'm also inclined to chalk it up to surprise rather than some lurking Nazi conspiracy, like my mother is fond of doing and people of her generation. They shot their own dude. I just think the world was naive about the degree to which people were aggressively aggrieved in a way that we kind of re-learn once every decade or so.

 

[DVS]

I'm also inclined to chalk it up to surprise rather than some lurking Nazi conspiracy, like my mother is fond of doing and people of her generation. They shot their own dude. I just think the world was naive about the degree to which people were aggressively aggrieved in a way that we kind of re-learn once every decade or so.

I was just watching the first part of a video on YouTube that said it was "Olympic Massacre The True Story" of the Munich massacre. They were interviewing the retired Munich police captain and he said the whole thought behind security was to make Germany look the total opposite from the Nazi run Olympics the last time they were held in Germany.

He said a police presence was almost totally removed from the Olympic village, and what police were there weren't armed and mostly to give directions to people. He also said there was talk of what kind of retaliation they would provide if something did happen. While nothing like what happened had been brought up, he said if some kind of situation were to happen they actually talked about having women approach the suspects with flowers instead of guns, or even a group of dachshunds would be sent to bark at them, assuming this would only make them laugh and when someone laughs, they usually don't want to shoot any body.

Also, because of a German law created after WWII, the army was not allowed to participate in any armed situations within the country during peace time. There was no real armed security within the Olympic games, so the only group that was left to deal with the situation was the Munich police and the Bavarian authorities. They didn't have elite counter terrorism divisions for this kind of thing. This event directly led to the founding of their police counter-terrorism branch GSG 9, a couple of months later.

I think they were woefully unprepared for this sort of attack. And I think those who thought Germany was behind it all were thinking of the last time the Olympics had been there. And sadly, Germany's desire to show they were "a new Germany" and so much the opposite of the days of the Nazis, while nice in theory, it ultimately played against them.