Word: ransoms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...known to Western diplomats in Beirut as "P-Flippers," has carried out some of the most spectacular terrorist attacks, including the simultaneous skyjacking of U.S., British and Swiss airliners to the Jordanian desert in 1970. It also skyjacked a Lufthansa 747 two years later and collected a $5 million ransom for plane and passengers. The P.F.L.P. is allied with the far-left "Japanese Red Army," three of whose members shot up Israel's Lod Airport in 1972 and slaughtered 27 people...
...especially wants his chief aide to clam up. But the aide insists on telling his honor about the most absurd caper ever to hit Manhattan Island. Four men with automatic weapons have hijacked a subway car. They are holding it, 17 passengers and a conductor for $1 million ransom. The city has exactly one hour to get up the cash. For every minute past their deadline, the hijackers promise to shoot one of the hostages...
...much for the mayor, whose popularity is even lower than he feels. With grouchy reluctance he agrees with his aide that the ransom should be paid with money borrowed from the Federal Reserve Bank. With the city running painfully short of time, the aide adds that it is inopportune for the mayor "to spend an hour trying to knock down the interest rate." The mayor is also urged to go to the scene of the crime and appeal for the safety of the hostages. "Why?" asks the wincing mayor, who points out that the crowd will probably...
...neatly typed three-page letter addressed to BPA but brazenly sent to the Portland office of the FBI, the dynamiters threatened to continue their bombings until the agency forked over $1 million in ransom money. "We have the men and equipment to keep as many towers down as is necessary to force compliance with our demands," the letter warned. "Our intent is to either collect $1 million or to make you people wish to hell we had." The message was signed "J. Hawker"-an apparent reference to the antislavery jayhawkers, who looted and marauded in Kansas, Missouri and other states...
With such stakes, the U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the BPA, offered $100,000 for information leading to the capture and conviction of the extortionists and announced that it had no intention of paying the $1 million ransom. There was good reason. Said BPA Administrator Don Hodel: "The real hostage in any attempt to cut off energy supplies is society itself. When you kidnap energy, you endanger every facet of human life. That's why we can't let it be shown for all the would-be criminals and mental cases to see that J. Hawker...