Word: panning
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...news was that Middle East terrorism was again on the increase. Neither Pakistani authorities investigating the attempted hijacking of a Pan American airliner in Karachi two weeks ago nor Turkish police probing the massacre of 21 worshipers at a synagogue in Istanbul had yet announced the identity of the perpetrators or their mentors. In Lebanon, meanwhile, gunmen kidnaped two more Americans in West Beirut, bringing to six the number of U.S. citizens who, along with a dozen foreigners of other nationalities, are believed to be held hostage in that country by various terrorist groups. And in southern Lebanon, after Palestinian...
...discourage hijackers from landing at Larnaca airport. As soon as the terrorists demanded they be flown to the eastern Mediterranean island, the Cypriot government announced that the jumbo jet would not be allowed to land there. Whether the Cypriots would have remained firm in their resolve if the Pan Am plane had arrived in their air space is uncertain. "But fortunately," sighed one relieved Cypriot official, "our will was not put to the test...
...Santa Barbara, the Reagan Administration condemned the hijacking and ordered a Sixth Fleet aircraft carrier, the Forrestal, to proceed from Naples to the vicinity of Cyprus in the event that the Pan Am jet was flown there. Vice Admiral John Poindexter, the National Security Adviser, telephoned news of the hijacking to President Reagan at his ranch in the Santa Ynez Mountains just as the Reagans were about to set out on their daily horseback ride. Later the White House released a statement declaring, "Nothing can justify such barbarism. We can think of no punishment too severe for the criminals responsible...
...trouble was that this version of events seemed to violate the generally accepted rules of dealing with hijackers by prolonging negotiations as long as possible to wear the terrorists down. In the words of Vice Chairman Martin R. Shugrue Jr. of Pan Am, which has been promoting its new, improved security system, every expert on the subject counseled, "Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Buy time, buy time, buy time." Indeed, a U.S. diplomat in Karachi who had been involved in bargaining with the hijackers said later, "The game plan was to keep them talking as long as possible...
...WORLD: A Pan Am jet is hijacked...