Word: amins
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...senior Mossad officer was dispatched to persuade Kenyan officials to allow Israeli planes to land at Nairobi Airport in an emergency. The Kenyans were receptive. In January, Ugandan dictator Idi Amin Dada had helped terrorists get into Kenya for an unsuccessful attempt to destroy an Israeli El Al plane during a takeoff from Nairobi; then the following month, after coming across some old British colonial maps, Amin claimed that huge chunks of Kenya actually belonged to Uganda. In return for Kenyan help, the Israelis promised to cripple Amin's Soviet-equipped air force. To spare Nairobi the wrath...
Using Uganda's mercurial President Idi ("Big Daddy") Amin Dada as an enthusiastic mouthpiece, the skyjackers warned that their hostages would be killed and the jet blown up unless 53 assorted "freedom fighters" were released from prisons. Israeli jails held 40 of them, including Melchite Catholic Archbishop Ilarion Capucci, who was convicted two years ago of gunrunning for Palestinian guerrillas, and Kozo Okamoto, the only survivor of the three Japanese Red Army members who massacred 27 bystanders in 1972 at Tel Aviv's Lod Airport. The 13 other extremists, claimed the skyjackers, were imprisoned in France, Switzerland, Kenya...
...discreet silence, while Kenya denied that it had any Palestinians in prison at all. Meanwhile, the hostages remained in the terminal, huddling together during the bitter-cold nights, trying to sleep on the hard benches and the stone floor as rats scampered around them. Claiming to be swayed by Amin's plea for humanitarianism, the terrorists released 47 elderly women, children and sick hostages at midweek...
...Neutral. Moreover, there was the increasingly alarming role played by Amin, who has been a vociferous champion of Arab causes since 1972, when he abruptly severed relations with Israel. (In return, Uganda has received generous financial aid from such Arab states as Libya, Kuwait and Algeria.) From the time the skyjackers landed at Entebbe, Amin had scarcely acted like a neutral participant in the drama. He described the skyjackers' demands as "very reasonable," and advised the Israeli hostages to "tell your government to solve the Palestinian problem...
...late Friday there were hints that Amin might be preparing demands of his own to make of the Israelis in addition to those made by the skyjackers. It was rumored in Jerusalem, for instance, that Amin sought to collect as much as $1 million per hostage from Israel. As Israeli Defense Minister Shimon Peres explained to TIME'S David Halevy, just after the rescue mission returned to Israel: "Amin not only took the terrorists' side and allowed local Palestinians into Entebbe to help the skyjackers, he also sent a special plane to Somalia to bring in more terrorists...