Arrest warrants for the hijackers of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, charging them with murder and kidnapping, were reported to have been issued by a public prosecutor in Italy. Italian officials meanwhile attempted to resolve a diplomatic impasse over what to do with two senior officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization who were aboard the intercepted Egyptian airliner with the four accused hijackers. The two were flown from Sicily to Rome aboard the Egyptian plane. American officials urged Italy to investigate the two Palestinians to see if they, too, should be charged. Egyptians insisted that the two Palestinians were their guests and should be immune from investigation.
President Reagan speaks with Prime Minister of Italy Bettino Craxi to discuss the prosecution of the hijackers turned over to his government.
Shortly after noon Thursday, Eastern daylight time, President Reagan conferred in a private office at a cake factory near Chicago and, after weighing the risks, decided to try to intercept an Egyptian civilian jet with United States fighter aircraft. Mr. Reagan was told that intelligence experts expected that the plane would soon be flying from Cairo with the four hijackers of the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, and the President decided to try and force them away from a safe haven and into a court of justice. His order was racing through Pentagon channels by 1:30 PM. The bold plan for an airborne operation to seize some initiative from international terrorists was conceived and presented to the President early Thursday morning, according to White House officials.
After he gave initial approval at midday in Illinois, F-14 fighter planes were scrambled from the American aircraft carrier Saratoga and were flying over the Mediterranean at 2:15 PM Eastern time — it was already evening in Europe — to await his final order. At 4:37 PM, as he returned to Washington on Air Force One after his visit to the Chicago area, the President received confirmation that the Egyptian plane had taken off 22 minutes earlier, and he issued his final instruction to have the armed fighters carry out the interception plan.
Diversion of the hijackers to Italy had “sent a message to terrorists everywhere,” President Reagan said. “You can run, but you can’t hide,” he said. As legislators of both parties warmly praised the President’s decision to order Navy F-14 jets to intercept an Egyptian airliner carrying four suspected terrorists on Thursday, the White House announced that the United States would seek to extradite the Palestinians from Italy. The Italian Government is planning to place the four on trial for the ship hijacking and the murder of a wheelchair-bound New Yorker, Leon Klinghoffer. “What we want is justice done,” Mr. Reagan said at a brief White House news conference. “They could be tried in both countries.”
Suddenly, after years of faceless mobs and vanishing gunmen and anonymous martyrs driving dynamite-packed trucks, someone had been caught. Four terrorists — with faces, with names — were in Western hands, formally charged and facing trial for hijacking an Italian cruise ship and executing an American passenger. And for the American public, from Manhattan subway stops to Los Angeles construction sites, the capture of the Palestinian guerrillas by Navy fliers provoked patriotism and euphoria and unleashed a taste for retribution that has been building for years. Unlike the reaction to the release of the American hostages from Iran, the mood yesterday was not celebratory — flags, champagne, yellow ribbons — as much as it was deliberate and, often, vengeful.
The American diversion to Italy of an aircraft carrying the cruise ship hijackers has put strains on Italy’s Socialist-led coalition Government and its carefully cultivated relationship with the Arab world. Before American jets forced down an Egyptian airliner bearing the four Palestinians and two of their comrades at a Sicilian air base, Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s coalition had been only one diplomatic player in the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro. But Mr. Craxi’s decision today to try the terrorists -implicitly rebuffing an American bid to extradite them to the United States where they might face the death penalty — has committed his country to a firmer stand on such issues than it usually takes. “It’s an ugly mess for Italy,” said Fabio Tana, a Middle Eastern expert at Rome’s Institute for International Relations. “I believe the Government would have been much happier if they had gone somewhere else. The judiciary is very independent in Italy and they could be severely punished.”
Egypt condemned the interception of its plane. A Foreign Ministry statement said that Egypt “was regrettably taken by surprise” by the interception. The statement said Egypt, although “condemning the developments” in the hijacking incident, “reaffirms its often-stated position that these acts will not serve the peace process.” The reaction, which diplomats here said seemed mild, was interpreted as an effort to defuse tension. Cairo is one of Washington’s closest Arab friends, and the United States is Egypt’s most important economic benefactor. At the same time, Egyptian officials staunchly denied assertions, offered Thursday night by senior Italian officials, that Egypt, Italy, the United States and even the Palestine Liberation Organization had secretly collaborated to arrange the interception of the plane and its escort to Italy. Egypt refused to allow the Achille Lauro to leave Port Said, but permitted passengers to leave the ship.
An anonymous caller told a Western news agency here today that the United States would “pay dearly” if the hijackers in Italian custody were harmed. The caller, who said he was from the Palestine Liberation Front, the group linked to the hijacking of the Italian cruise liner Achille Lauro, urged the Italian Government to free the hijackers and two other Palestinians who had been taken into custody in Sicily with the hijackers. The six were on board an Egyptian plane that was intercepted over the Mediterranean by jet fighters of the United States Sixth Fleet and diverted to Italy early today. The call was made as many Palestinians in two districts of southern Beirut were showing intense interest in radio reports about what would happen to the six men seized aboard the Egyptian aircraft.
President Reagan attends a National Security Planning Group meeting to discuss the aftermath of the cruise ship hijacking.
Israelis from all walks of life today hailed the swift capture by the United States of the hijackers of the Italian cruise ship. “What the Americans did was great,” said a policeman on Hillel Street here who would not give his name. “The world has finally begun to feel what Israel has felt all along.” Using phrases like “courageous decision,” “flawless implementation” and “decisive action,” Prime Minister Shimon Peres told President Reagan in a letter that “your action is a landmark in the fight to eradicate terrorism, and a shining example of your resolve.”
The official Soviet press agency Tass today described America’s anger at the killing of an American by Palestinian hijackers as “understandable and just,” but then pointedly recalled that two Soviet hijackers had been given refuge in the United States. The first Soviet report about the American operation to divert an Egyptian jetliner and capture the Palestinian hijackers was published in the newspaper Izvestia without commentary. A later Tass dispatch said, “The crimes of terrorists, no matter where they are committed, must be punished most severely, and such severity must be shown unfailingly to all perpetrators of such crimes.”
Americans who had been hostages on the cruise ship Achille Lauro left Cairo tonight in a camouflage-speckled United States military airplane, apparently bound for home. They were clearly glad to be leaving. “Home, honey, wherever they take us, U.S.A.,” said Frank Hodes of Springfield, New Jersey, when asked his destination. He and 16 others boarded a bus outside the Nile Hilton, where they had been staying since they left the Italian ship Thursday.
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, in the face of doubts within her party, today reaffirmed the economic policies that have guided her Government. Her steadfastness came in the face of a warning from a senior Cabinet member, Energy Secretary Peter Walker, that a failure to deal with unemployment would be “political suicide” for the Conservative Party. Closing the party’s annual conference here, the Prime Minister insisted that no problem “occupies more of my thinking” than unemployment. Then, in a voice that was pitched to sound patient but sometimes came across as slightly vexed, she catalogued her Government’s efforts to speed job creation.
Students at a Roman Catholic university in Lublin, the only Catholic university in Eastern Europe, announced today that they would support a boycott of parliamentary elections on Sunday. Solidarity, the banned union movement, has called the boycott to protest a new law that limits academic freedom. The law says rectors can expel students for taking part in illegal demonstrations on campuses and can summon the police to break up the rallies. “We call on all the students in our university to boycott the elections,” said a statement by the student governing body at the college. Lech Walesa, the founder of Solidarity, has urged Poles not to vote because independent candidates were not allowed to run for Parliament.
Officials announced another espionage-related arrest today, bringing to 11 the number of suspects identified since August in West Germany’s spying scandal. A spokesman for the Federal prosecutor’s office identified the man as a 44-year-old merchant who was arrested Wednesday and later was released on $20,000 bail pending further investigation. The spokesman declined to name the man but said he was from the central city of Gutersloh. He said no formal charges had been filed. The spokesman said investigators had searched the man’s apartment and found equipment used by undercover agents. He said the man was suspected of having spied for East Germany since at least 1982.
The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded to the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, a Boston-based organization founded five years ago by American and Soviet doctors. The group has an international membership of 135,000 people in 41 countries. One of its co-founders, Dr. Yevgeny I. Chazov, has been the personal physician of the top Soviet leadership and a member of the Communist Party Central Committee since 1982. He has also been a Deputy Minister of Health since 1968. After learning of the award today, Dr. Bernard Lown, the American co-founder of the group, immediately urged President Reagan to stop all nuclear testing.
President Reagan may boycott ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of the United Nations if Yasser Arafat, head of the Palestine Liberation Organization, takes part, a spokesman at the United States Mission said today. If the General Assembly votes to invite Mr. Arafat, the United States will “re-evaluate the level and extent of its participation,” said the spokesman, who asked not to be identified. “Anything is a possibility,” the spokesman added. “We’re hoping not to have to make this decision.”
Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader, spent a day meeting and dining with Mikhail S. Gorbachev and other top Soviet leaders today, but diplomats saw no signs that the two sides were prepared to sign a friendship treaty announced two years ago. Colonel Qaddafi arrived Thursday on his first state visit since April 1981, and received red-carpet treatment befitting one of Moscow’s best arms clients in the third world. But Middle Eastern diplomats said Soviet sources had told them the visit was largely a formality and was not likely to yield major accords. Nevertheless, the Libyan leader was given a greeting by President Andrei A. Gromyko and several other Politburo members and warm words from Mr. Gorbachev in his toast at a state banquet tonight.
Five Greenpeace ships in the South Pacific are prepared to continue their protest against French nuclear testing indefinitely, a Greenpeace official said today. Richard Grossman, executive director of the environmental group’s American branch, said at a news conference that there would most likely be “a lot of jockeying for position” with French naval ships. But he said the Greenpeace vessels were in international waters and on a peaceful mission. Mr. Grossman said the five Greenpeace ships, which have been sailing close to the 12-mile territorial limit around islands where the French conduct underground nuclear tests, would remain until the completion of a series of tests that is due to begin this month.
The Prime Minister of the Solomon Islands accused the French Government today of pursuing “imperialistic” policies in the South Pacific at the expense of the countries in that region. Citing France’s continuing claim to sovereignty over New Caledonia and its refusal to stop nuclear testing in the South Pacific, the Prime Minister, Sir Peter Kenilorea, told delegates in the General Assembly that the French Government should “think more about the peace and security of the people in the South Pacific region instead of its own imperialistic interests.” The island nations in the South Pacific rely heavily on marine resources, Sir Peter explained, and that is part of the reason they object strenously to nuclear testing in the region.
In one of its strongest threats so far against American military advisers here, the Salvadoran rebel high command said today that the chief goal of a punishing guerrilla raid Thursday on the Salvadoran Army’s basic training school was to kill or capture American soldiers serving there. The rebels said Thursday night that they intended to kill American military advisers around the country. The warning, which has had a chilling effect on Americans here, followed recent statements by the rebels that they consider the Reagan Administration and American military personnel their main enemies.
The United States has sent Nicaraguan rebels the first shipment of supplies from the $27 million in nonlethal aid approved by Congress last summer, the head of a special State Department office said today. Robert W. Duemling, director of the Nicaraguan Humanitarian Assistance Office, said the first supplies — boots, clothing and medicines — were flown from New Orleans on Thursday to a location in Central America that he would not disclose.
Ecuador severed diplomatic relations with Nicaragua today, accusing its President, Daniel Ortega Saavedra, of “gross, inadmissible attacks on the dignity, sovereignty and independence” of Ecuador. Foreign Minister Edgar Teran announced the break tonight, reading from a two-page declaration. He said the Nicaraguan Ambassador, Oscar Cortes, had been told that he and his staff must leave the country. President Ortega had said Wednesday that the United States was trying to use Ecuador to undercut the efforts of the so-called Contadora group of nations — Nexico, Venezuela, Panama and Colombia — to gain a regional peace accord in Central America. He also accused the Ecuadorean President, Leon Febres Cordero, of being “an instrument of the United States.” Mr. Ortega was responding to a statement Tuesday by Mr. Febres Cordero that there would be no peace in Central America “until there is a legitimate popular election where every Nicaraguan has a right to self-determination, a right to determine his own destiny.”
A special elections commission in Liberia threatened today to dismiss or execute any soldier caught behaving in an unruly manner or “engaging in acts of atrocity” during a general election scheduled Tuesday. The commission prohibited soldiers near polling stations from carrying weapons and decreed that soldiers in uniform would not be allowed to vote or to approach a polling booth. President Samuel K. Doe, who seized power in a coup in 1980, called the election as part of a process through which Liberia is to return to civilian rule by January 1986.
A delegation from South Africa’s official white opposition party has arrived in Lusaka for discussions with the outlawed African National Congress, diplomats in the Zambian capital said today. The meeting, expected to take place Saturday, comes after discussions in Zambia last month between leading white South African businessmen and a delegation led by Oliver Tambo, the Congress’s exiled leader. Unlike that encounter, however, the discussions with the Progressive Federal Party seem much more low-key. President Kenneth D. Kaunda of Zambia has not publicly supported the meeting and Mr. Tambo, who has previously condemned the Progressive Federal Party, is not expected to attend.
Members of Congress from both parties warmly praised the Reagan Administration today for moving against the hijackers of an Italian cruise ship, saying terrorists were now on notice that the United States was willing and able to retaliate against them. On a voice vote, the House adopted a resolution proposed by Representative Ron Marlenee, Republican of Montana, that commended the “bold and timely” decision by the President to intercept the Italian airliner that was carrying the freed terrorists out of Egypt. The resolution urged the President “to continue to pressure the Government of Italy” to extradite the prisoners to the United States for trial. The mission over the Mediterranean defused a sense of frustration on Capitol Hill and a growing feeling that the Reagan Administration talked a good fight about combating terrorism, but showed little follow through.
More skin cancer cells were removed from President Reagan’s nose in a “minor operation” performed by a White House physician Thursday. A similar operation took place July 30. In an unexpected announcement to reporters, Mr. Reagan said he had now been assured that “my nose is clean.” Mr. Reagan was wearing a patch on the right side of his nose when he appeared before reporters to discuss the Navy’s successful interception of an Egyptian plane carrying Palestinian hijackers on Thursday. He said he was announcing the skin removal because “I figured you might ask” about the patch.
President Reagan bans import of South African Krugerrands to the USA.
The House overwhelmingly endorsed the goals, but not the specifics, of a Senate-approved bill to balance the budget by 1991. The House vote added momentum to the rush, begun just over a week ago, for Congress to approve some form of balancing mechanism, but it does not mean that there will be a compromise with the Senate. There is still confusion about many aspects of the Senate proposal, including what programs are subject to its automatic spending reductions if targets for reducing the deficit are exceeded. The Senate approved the plan Wednesday as an amendment to a bill to increase the Government’s debt ceiling from $1.84 trillion to just over $2 trillion.
Former U.S. Government officials who negotiated the 1972 treaty that limits United States and Soviet defenses against ballistic missiles said today that the Reagan Administration seemed to be misinterpreting and repudiating the treaty. As evidence, they cited an Administration argument that testing and development of advanced antimissile technologies was permitted by the agreement. Gerard C. Smith, the chief negotiator of the treaty, said United States officials were “harpooning” the Antiballistic Missile Treaty only six weeks before President Reagan and the Soviet leader, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, hold a summit meeting in Geneva. John B. Rhinelander, the legal adviser to the American delegation that wrote the treaty, said recent remarks by a senior government official were “in effect, a repudiation and abrogation of the treaty,” which advocates of arms control regard as the cornerstone of efforts to control the nuclear arms race. Spurgeon M. Kenny Jr., a former arms control official and now president of the Arms Control Association, said he believed the government was “no longer going to respect the treaty.”
Infant mortality in the United States fell to its lowest rate in the nation’s history last year even as the number of births was rising to the highest point since 1970, new Government statistics show. The nation’s rising population level also helped bring a record number of marriages and deaths last year, while divorces declined to the lowest level in nearly a decade, the National Center for Health Statistics said Thursday in its preliminary report on vital statistics for 1984. The first provisional statistics covering 1984 show 39,200 deaths of babies under the age of a year, for an infant mortality rate of 10.6 deaths per 1,000 live births, “the lowest annual rate ever recorded in the United States,” the report said. In 1983, the rate was 10.9 deaths per 1,000 live births.
Thousands of protesters demonstrated at the White House and on college campuses around the country yesterday, demanding that universities, corporations and the Government break their ties with South Africa. The protests against South Africa’s policies of racial separation, marked National Anti-Apartheid Protest Day. The demonstrations included marches, picketing and sit-ins. “It was the largest coordinated protest ever against United States investment in South Africa,” said Joshua Nessen, national student coordinator of the American Committee on Africa, a lobbying group based in New York that helped organized the protests.
Despite an official warning that an armed confrontation with the radical group Move was inevitable, Mayor W. Wilson Goode told an inquiry today that the city was right to follow a hands-off policy that allowed the group to turn its house into a fortress. The Mayor told the special commission trying to determine if the policy contributed to the violent clash between the group and the police that he was warned by District Attorney Edward Rendell in a letter on June 22, 1984, “It is imperative to do something before the situation grows even worse.” Although the group started fortifying its house shortly after that, Mr. Goode said he directed officials not to enforce minor building code violations at the group’s house in a middle-class neighborhood. Mr. Goode said he thought until May this year that any action the city could take would only aggravate the situation. “It was the right decision,” Mayor Goode said in testifying at the fourth days of the hearings on the May 13 confrontation between the police and Move. After a day-long siege, the police bombed the Move house, killing 11 people inside. The resulting fire destroyed 61 row houses, leaving 250 people homeless.
Leaders of neo-Nazi and other white supremacist groups met in a gesture of solidarity against Jews last weekend and talked of an accommodation with Louis Farrakhan, leader of a Black Muslim group who has been accused of anti-Semitism. The meeting of 200 leaders and their supporters was held at the Michigan farm of Robert Miles, a former Ku Klux Klan leader. According to people who attended the meeting, several speakers talked favorably about Mr. Farrakhan. One, Art Jones, a white supremacist in Chicago, declared: “The enemy of my enemy he is my friend. I salute Louis Farrakhan and anyone else who stands up against the Jews.”
Working under a scorching sun, National Guardsmen and other rescue teams picked their way cautiously through a ruined Puerto Rican shantytown today in a search for bodies. One senior officer said the search might drag on for a month. Since the community of Mameyes was ravaged Monday by a landslide that swept scores of flimsy houses from their hillside perches, the rescue workers have found about 30 bodies. But National Guardsmen and city officials have said they still believe as many as 500 people may lie buried in the wreckage. “They may be buried very deep,” said Lieutenant Colonel Gilberto Moreno of the National Guard.
The NASA space shuttle orbited Atlantis returns to Kennedy Space Center via Kelly AFB after the STS-51-J mission.
San Diego Mayor Roger Hedgecock, convicted of conspiring to accept illegal campaign contributions and perjury, resigned today “in the best interests of the city.” The 40-year-old Mayor of the nation’s eighth-largest city looked downcast as he told a crowd of reporters at a City Hall news conference that his resignation would take effect in a week. After making a brief statement calling on San Diegans to “focus their attention on the issues and the real opportunities facing our city,” Mr. Hedgecock left without answering questions from reporters. The Mayor was convicted Wednesday on 13 counts of perjury and conspiracy stemming from a scheme to funnel illegal contributions into his 1983 campaign. He is to be sentenced November 6, a year to the day after he was overwhelmingly re-elected as Mayor despite being under indictment.
Employees at Cannon Mills, the nation’s largest towel manufacturer, have rejected representation by the Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union by a vote of 5,982 to 3,530, officials of the National Labor Relations Board say. David Murdock, a Los Angeles financier who bought Cannon Mills in 1982, announced the results of the vote late Thursday to a crowd of cheering supporters gathered outside the company headquarters here. “When anyone said you wanted the union, we just proved you wanted them out,” Mr. Murdock said. The union, however, said it had not yet given up the attempt to unionize the operation, where more than 10,000 people are employed at plants in Cabarrus and Rowan counties.
Governor William Sheffield of Alaska underwent a surgical procedure to clear a blocked coronary artery today at Providence Medical Center here. His spokesman said the procedure was successful. The 57-year-old governor, a first-term Democrat, complained of chest pains Tuesday in Juneau after jogging, according to Bob Miller, Mr. Sheffield’s communications director. He said X-rays taken Wednesday showed a 90 percent blockage of an artery that supplies blood to the right ventricle. On Thursday, Mr. Sheffield flew here with Mr. Miller and checked into the hospital.
American League Championship Series, Game Three:
In past years, a 2–0 hole would mean a must-win game, but the Royals entered Game 3 not having to win to keep playing but only to keep the series close. Game 3 saw the Royals send the 1985 Cy Young Award winner Bret Saberhagen to the mound against Doyle Alexander for the Blue Jays. And George Brett’s one-man show put the Royals back into the series. Entering the game, Dick Howser had an all-time postseason managerial record of 0–11.
With two outs in the first, Brett unloaded a home run to give the Royals a 1–0 lead. The Blue Jays threatened in the third when Garcia doubled and reached third on Lonnie Smith’s throwing error. Moseby grounded to Brett at third, who stunned everybody by gunning the ball home and getting Garcia to preserve the 1–0 Kansas City lead. In the fourth, Brett opened with a double, went to third on McRae’s fly out to right, and scored on White’s sacrifice fly to give the Royals a 2–0 lead.
But the Blue Jays fought back. In the fifth, Whitt singled and Barfield homered to tie the game at two. Garcia then doubled and scored when Moseby singled off of Saberhagen’s leg. Rance Mulliniks then drilled a two-run homer and the Blue Jays were suddenly ahead 5–2 and were 15 defensive outs from taking a 3–0 series lead. Bud Black succeeded Saberhagen and promptly loaded the bases on singles by Johnson and Bell and a walk to Whitt. With Barfield, who had already homered, at the plate, Howser sent for Steve Farr, who got the Royals out of the jam with a ground out.
The Royals fought back, getting a Jim Sundberg home run in the fifth to make it 5–3. In the sixth, Wilson singled and Brett hit his second homer of the night, tying the game at five. Dennis Lamp replaced Alexander and retired the Royals without any further damage. In the eighth, Brett singled, went to second on McRae’s bunt, went to third on White’s infield grounder, and scored on Balboni’s bloop single—Balboni’s first hit of the series—to give the Royals a 6–5 lead. Howser stuck with Farr who got through the ninth in order, with the last out coming on a foul pop by Lloyd Moseby, caught by Brett. With that, the Royals won, 6–5. Brett had arguably his best playoff performance ever, going 4 for 4 with a single, a double, two homers, three RBIs, four runs scored, and throwing out Garcia at the plate. The win narrowed the Blue Jays lead in the series to 2–1 entering Game 4 in Kansas City. It was Howser’s first post-season win in 12 tries.
Toronto Blue Jays 5, Kansas City Royals 6
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 1339.94 (+11.87)
Born:
Michelle Trachtenberg, American actress (“Harriet the Spy”; “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; “Gossip Girl”), in New York, New York (d. 2025, from complications of diabetes after a liver transplant).
Kellen Davis, NFL tight end (NFL Champions, Super Bowl 48-Seahawks, 2013; Chicago Bears, Seattle Seahawks, Detroit Lions, New York Jets), in Adrian, Michigan.
Demar Dotson, NFL tackle (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Denver Broncos), in Alexandria, Louisiana.
Peter Ölvecký, Slovak National Team and NHL centre (Olympics, 2014, 2018; Minnesota Wild, Nashville Predators), in Nové Zámky, Czechoslovakia.
Died:
Alex La Guma, 61, South African novelist (“A Walk in the Night”), and anti-apartheid activist (1956 Treason Trial), of a heart attack.
Tex Williams, 68, American country-western singer, of cancer.
History Diaries 