Word: sigonella
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...other was an investigation into the standoff between the U.S. and the Italian military at the Sigonella NATO base, where the EgyptAir Boeing first landed. Local police reported that tensions between the two allies turned ugly when the U.S. special Delta Force saw its prey being taken from it. Nevertheless, the clash never went beyond raised voices. Said Craxi Envoy Antonio Badini, who negotiated the surrender of the four terrorists to Italian authorities: "Abbas' role appeared to us of secondary significance." More important, he said, "was our respect for international law, our relations with Egypt...
...sure, a ripple of anti-American feeling did surface in Italy, but it has remained limited to an attempt by some 200 protesters to organize an anti- U.S. demonstration at Sigonella. Italian officials dismiss such protests. Said one defense official: "It's like a quarrel between husband and wife. Our ties are too deep, too historic to have been damaged by one incident." For all the appearance of Italian instability, some things never change. As the governing crisis proved once more, no postwar Italian government has ever fallen because of differences over foreign policy...
...been mostly Egypt that felt aggrieved, but the U.S. and Italy were soon at sharp odds when Reagan learned on Saturday, Oct. 12, that he had been denied part of his goal in the airintercept operation. By that time, the four P.L.F. hijackers aboard the Boeing 737 at the Sigonella air base in Sicily had been taken into Italian custody and charged with murder, kidnaping and hijacking. But the mysterious Abul Abbas had literally flown the coop, aboard a Yugoslav JAT jet bound from Rome to Dubrovnik and Belgrade. Back at Camp David, when President Reagan received word from Deputy...
When Italian controllers denied permission for the intercepted EgyptAir Boeing 737 to land at the Sigonella air base in Sicily, the American military escorts declared a "fuel emergency" and ordered the 737 down. The pilot aborted his first approach. But he swung around, came in again and soon found himself surrounded by Italian carabinieri and some 50 U.S. Delta Force commandos, who had piled out of U.S. C-141 transport planes that had landed within moments of the EgyptAir craft and were proceeding on orders from the White House to take custody of the terrorists...