The 50 Worst Terrorist Attacks

by Edward Mickolus

  On April 25, 1995, federal authorities charged Terry Lynn Nichols, 40, and his brother, James Douglas Nichols, 41, with conspiring with McVeigh to build explosives at their farm in Michigan. The charges were unrelated to the specific Oklahoma bombing, but permitted federal officials to keep them in prison while they investigated further leads. Terry Nichols was charged with involvement in the bombing on May 9, 1995.

  Michael Fortier, 26, of Kingman, Arizona, told federal investigators that he and McVeigh drove to the Murrah building a few days ahead of time, apparently on a reconnaissance mission. McVeigh told him that he was going to blow up the building. His wife, Lori, testified before a grand jury after being given immunity, as did Jennifer McVeigh, 21, Timothy McVeigh’s sister. Fortier had sold one gun apparently stolen in a November 5, 1994, robbery from a Royal, Arkansas, gun dealer, Roger E. Moore, that may have funded the Oklahoma bombing. The thief stole $60,000 worth of property, including 60 firearms, precious metals, and ammunition, some of which was recovered in the home of Terry Nichols.

  Jennifer McVeigh told the FBI that Timothy had said that he had robbed a bank and drove around the West in a vehicle loaded with explosives. She was initially considered as a principal suspect, but the federal authorities later decided to use her as a witness.

  On May 2, 1995, FBI agents arrested Gary Alan Land and Robert Jacks as material witnesses. Their movements in Kingman, Arizona, and Perry, Oklahoma, mirrored those of McVeigh.

  On May 12, 1995, Steven Garrett Colbern, 35, a California biochemist and acquaintance of McVeigh, was arrested after he pulled a loaded revolver and scuffled with U.S. marshals in an Arizona mining town. He knew McVeigh by the alias Tim Tuttle. Police raiding his residence seized four rifles, three handguns, and 16,000 rounds of ammunition, including 4,000 bullets used in assault rifles. Documents suggested that the residence was used to produce methamphetamine, known on the street as “crank.” Colbern has ties to the Arizona Patriots militia group.

  Michael E. Tigar, Terry Nichols’s court-appointed lawyer, said McVeigh rented the Herington, Kansas, storage shed in the name of Shawn Rivers. The Ryder truck was seen backed up to the shed on April 18, 1995. Fortier had claimed that Nichols had helped mix the explosives.

  By August 8, 1995, Fortier, McVeigh’s army buddy, had reached a tentative deal to turn state’s evidence in return for not being named a principal in the case and facing a death penalty. Under the agreement, he would plead guilty to illegal firearms trafficking, knowledge of the bombing, and lying to federal agents.

  On August 15, 1995, McVeigh and Terry Nichols were arraigned before U.S. magistrate Ronald L. Howland. They pleaded not guilty to an 11-count indictment that charged that they carried out a terrorist attack. A grand jury formally accused them on August 10, 1995. Fortier was charged in a separate indictment of knowing of the plan and concealing it from law enforcement authorities, lying to the FBI, and involvement in a robbery that financed the attack. Prosecutors said they would seek the death penalty against McVeigh and Nichols.

  The indictment said “McVeigh attempted to recruit others to assist in the act of violence” and noted that McVeigh and Terry Nichols “conspired with others unknown to the Grand Jury.” The indictment did not mention John Doe Number 2, nor did it discuss any motive or where the bombing was plotted. It said the duo planned and “caused” the robbery, but did not specify who committed it. The duo were charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction to kill people and destroy federal property, with using a truck bomb to kill people, and with malicious destruction of property resulting in death. The other eight counts cited the murders of federal law enforcement officers.

  On June 2, 1996, the jury found McVeigh guilty on all 11 counts of murder, conspiracy, and using a weapon of mass destruction. The jury recommended execution on June 13, 1996; Judge Richard P. Matsch sentenced him on August 14, 1996. On June 11, 2001, an unrepentant McVeigh was executed by chemical injection.

  On December 24, 1996, a jury acquitted Terry Nichols of first-degree murder, but convicted him on eight counts of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy to blow up the building. On June 4, 1998, Judge Matsch sentenced Nichols to life in prison with parole. On May 25, 2004, a jury found Nichols guilty of all 161 counts of murder; he was sentenced on August 9, 2004, to 161 consecutive life sentences without parole.

  On May 12, 1998, Fortier was sentenced to 12 years in prison and fined $200,000, a sentence echoed on October 8, 1999. He was released early on January 20, 2006, for good behavior.

  June 14, 1995

  Budennovsk, Russia, Hospital Hostage-Taking

  Overview: Chechen separatist terrorists tended to engage in high-profile, high-risk, high-casualty attacks. Waves of bombings against apartments and airliners routinely caused scores of casualties, while barricade-andhostage operations secured hundreds of hostages, many of whom later died in rescue operations or at the hands of nervous terrorists. Although never formally becoming an affiliate or franchise of al Qaeda, the group nonetheless developed ties to the more famous terrorist network and certainly matched al Qaeda for conducting large-scale operations with little regard for an exit strategy for the attack force.

  The leader of the attack team, Shamil Basayev, believed in leading from the front. He became a key rebel commander during the first Chechen war of 1994–1995, having returned to Russia after hijacking an Aeroflot flight to Turkey in 1991. Although he escaped at the end of the incident, authorities had not heard the last of him. On August 22, 1995, he threatened to carry out terrorist attacks using radioactive substances. On November 8, 1995, he told Independent Television Network where there was a buried container of cesium isotope and said that four containers were wrapped in TNT and could be detonated. He led the Islamic International Peacekeeping Brigade, which was established in 1998, and the Riyadus-Salikhin Reconnaissance and Sabotage Battalion of Chechen Martyrs (Requirements for Getting into Paradise). He claimed credit for the May 14, 2003, suicide bombing of an Islamic prayer meeting in Iliskhan-Yurt, a village outside Gudermes, killing 18 people and injuring between 45 and 150; and the September 1, 2004, attack on the school in Beslan in which hundreds were killed. He also directed two suicide bombers onto two Russian jets in 2004. The Federal Security Service on March 15, 2005, offered a $10 million bounty.

  Incident: On June 14, 1995, some 75 Chechen rebels invaded the town of Budennovsk, Russia, killed scores of people, and then took over the local hospital, seizing more than 1,300 hostages. The rebels announced that they had killed five hostages and demanded that Russia withdraw troops from the region. The next day, they executed on the street another six captives, including two Russian pilots and some police officers. During tense negotiations with Russian authorities and following two failed rescue attempts by the armed forces elite Alpha Group, the rebels released 400 hostages. The rescuers managed to free 200 hostages, but fire spread through the hospital and the troops withdrew. More than 20 troops were injured in the firefight, which included the use of heavy machineguns, rocket-propelled grenades, cannons, and assault rifles. At least 20 hostages died—some reports say 100—and dozens were wounded in the rescue attempt, which was bitterly protested by their families. Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin initiated publicly televised telephonic negotiations with Basayev, 30, a Chechen guerrilla leader, who demanded to give a news conference. On June 19, 1995, the rebels were permitted to go by bus to Zandak with 139 volunteer hostages, including 9 members of parliament and other politicians, 16 journalists, and local residents. The terrorists then fled to the Caucasus Mountains after freeing the final hostages. Another 764 hostages left the hospital; many did not wait to be tallied. Moscow agreed to a cease-fire in its six-month efforts to end the Chechen independence movement and to begin negotiations to settle the conflict.

  President Boris Yeltsin refused to return from the G-7 meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, saying he would not bow to terrorist threats. He called Chechnya the center of world terrorism.

  Many of
the hostages were criticized for identifying with the attackers and saying that they had been well-treated—classic Stockholm syndrome behavior. The freed hostages pointed out that the rebels donated their own blood for the wounded.

  Basayev’s wife and six children had been killed by Russian forces earlier in the month.

  On June 22, 1995, Russian and Chechen negotiators agreed that the rebels would begin to disarm and Russian troops would partially withdraw from the region. The accord called for an immediate cease-fire, an exchange of prisoners, and the establishment of a demilitarized zone. The Chechen delegates agreed to help the Russian authorities search for and arrest the Budennovsk hostage-takers. General Anatoly Kulikov, head of Russian forces in the region, said the accord would be jeopardized if Basayev and his men were not handed over. He was quoted by the news media as observing, “We reserve the right to resume military actions and adopt measures to detain or destroy the criminals.”

  The Russian Duma (parliament) urged Yeltsin to fire his aides, threatening a no-confidence motion. On June 29, 1995, the leading hawks in Yeltsin’s government offered to resign. They included Defense Minister Pavel Grachev; Sergei Stepashin, chief of the Federal Security Service; Internal Affairs Minister Viktor Yerin; Oleg Lobov, secretary of the Security Council; Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Yegorov; and Yevgeny Kuznetsov, governor of the Stavropol region. On June 30, 1995, Yeltsin accepted the resignations of Stepashin, Yerin, Kuznetsov, and Yegorov.

  By June 26, 1995, rebels and police were still searching for Basayev, who many believed had fled to Pakistan.

  On July 10, 2006, a dynamite-laden truck exploded around midnight near Ekazhevo in Inguishetia amidst the convoy of Chechen terrorists, killing Basayev, 41. It was unclear whether the government had placed the 220 pounds of dynamite on the truck or whether it was dynamite mishandled by the terrorists. Another dozen terrorists died in the explosion, which destroyed the truck and three cars in the convoy.

  November 23, 1996

  Ethiopian Airlines ET961 Hijacking

  Overview: Hijackers generally tried to use planes to get them to a destination originally unscheduled and to use the passengers as bargaining chips to obtain political, monetary, or other demands. In the 1960s, individuals or small groups of friends hijacked planes as an alternative form of transportation. The 1970s ushered in the era of terrorist hijackings. Increased security measures made this type of terrorist operation rare, although on occasion, terrorist hijackings occurred on flights with minimal screening. The hijackers of Ethiopian Airlines flight 961 appeared to not be as bright as more sophisticated members of terrorist organizations. They showed that it is never a good idea to let hijackers inside the cockpit, but locking the cockpit doors did not become standard practice until after 9/11.

  Incident: On November 23, 1996, Ethiopian Airlines flight ET961, a B-767 carrying 163 passengers and 12 crew, was hijacked at 11:20 A.M. after takeoff from Addis Ababa. It was scheduled to fly to Nairobi, Kenya; Brazzaville, Congo; Lagos, Nigeria; and Abidjan, Ivory Coast, but the hijackers demanded to go to Australia to obtain political asylum. They were armed with an ax, a fire extinguisher, and a device they claimed was a bomb. At one point, a drunken hijacker forced copilot Yonas Mekuria away from his seat and played with the joystick controls, putting the plane into steep turns and banks. The hijackers refused to believe that the plane was running out of fuel, claiming that the plane could fly for 11 hours without stopovers. Rekha Mirchandani, 29, an Indian passenger, said crew members told her that the hijackers had responded, “If we die, we want others to die with us. We want to make history.” The plane crashed at 3:20 P.M. into the Indian Ocean near the Grand Comore Mitsamiuti tourist beach in the Comoros Islands, killing 127 people, most of them Africans and Asians. The pilot, Capt. Leul Abate, tried to minimize casualties by landing in the sea near the shore, where rescuers could more quickly find survivors. However, the plane bounced and flipped before breaking apart. This was the third hijacking Abate had survived.

  Police initially arrested two men for the hijacking, but determined that they were innocent when the copilot said that he did not recognize them.

  The hijackers were Ethiopians who had lived in Djibouti for years before coming to Addis Ababa five weeks before the hijacking. Authorities were unable to determine the motives of Alamayhu Bekele, Mateias Solomon, and Sultan Hussein, who did not belong to any political party. Kenyan survivor Kanaidza Abwao, a young hotel executive whose hand was broken in the crash, said in a press interview that the hijackers used the plane’s public address system to read a statement in Amharic, French, and English: “There is a problem with the government. We were prisoners, and now we have changed the destination. If anyone tries to attack us we are going to blow the plane up. I have a grenade.”

  Among the dead was Mohamed Amin, 53, a Reuter Television cameraman whose 1984 photos alerted the world about the Ethiopian famine. He was returning home to Nairobi with Brian Tetley, who wrote the texts for Amin’s photo books. Also killed was Leslianne Shedd, 28, a commercial officer with the U.S. Embassy, who was headed for Kenya to meet friends for Thanksgiving. Also missing was Ron Farris, 46, a missionary doctor returning from India to Abidjan.

  No one was charged in the case.

  December 17, 1996

  Japan Embassy in Peru Takeover

  Overview: Most leftist Latin American terrorists had seen their heyday in the 1970s, but remained a security concern for many nations, notably Colombia and Peru, for decades. While the Shining Path had proven a more active terrorist threat for Peru, the most spectacular operation was conducted by the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (Movimiento Revolucionario Túpac Amaru, MRTA), which resurrected the barricade-and-hostage style attack. Patient negotiations gave the government time to prepare for a dangerous but ultimately successful raid on the terrorists, who had wearied in the months-long siege. The rescue broke the back of the MRTA.

  Incident: On December 17, 1996, two dozen MR TA gunmen blew a hole in a concrete wall at 8:20 P.M. and stormed a birthday party for Japanese emperor Akihito at the residence of the Japanese ambassador in Lima, Peru, seizing 700 diplomats, business leaders, and government officials. The gunmen told the hostages to lie on the ground and to keep silent. One hostage saw six or seven guerrillas dressed in green army fatigue pants. They covered their faces with red and white bandannas and carried small arms. Some barricaded the doors and windows with furniture. When Peruvian police fired tear gas into the residence, the terrorists pulled gas masks from small backpacks. The gunmen joined comrades who were disguised as waiters for the cocktail reception. Cartridges had been smuggled inside flowers and the Christmas cake. The rebels had rented an adjacent house three months earlier and tunneled into the grounds.

  The rebels included two young women and appeared to have automatic weapons and night-vision equipment. They told hostages the garden was mined and the back door booby-trapped.

  A rebel was injured in the initial firefight.

  The rebels said they were protesting the Japanese government’s support to the Peruvian regime. The hostages included at least 60 Japanese, including 17 Japanese Embassy staff members and representatives of 17 Japanese firms doing business in Peru, as well as guests from at least 28 countries.

  The terrorists threatened to kill the hostages one by one, starting with Peruvian foreign minister Francisco Tudela, unless the government freed 400 or 500 hundred jailed insurgents, including their leader Victor Polay and Lori Helene Berenson, a New Yorker serving a life sentence in Yanamayo prison. The Marxist rebels also called on the government to change its economic policies “to benefit the poor,” a monetary “war tax” ransom, and safe passage to the Amazon jungle, where their last hostage would be released. A deadline passed without bloodshed.

  Among the hostages were the president of the Peruvian Supreme Court; President Alberto Fujimori’s brother; the Speaker of Parliament; Agriculture Minister Rodolfo Munante Sanguineti; the current and past chiefs of the antiterrorism police; an
admiral; generals; senior intelligence officials; several congressmen; 19 foreign ambassadors, including those from Japan, Cuba, South Korea, Panama, Austria, and Spain; and other senior diplomats from Argentina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Egypt, Spain, the United Kingdom, Guatemala, Honduras, Poland, and Venezuela. During the event, the rebels released scores of women, including Peruvian president Fujimori’s mother and sister. Seven Americans were taken hostage, including four officials of the Agency for International Development. Also held were executives from Mitsui, Marubeni, Kanematsu, Fujita, Japan Water Works, Japan Airlines, Nissho Iwai, Ajinomoto, Matsushita Electric Industrial, NGS Consultants, Toyota, Nissan, NEC, Asahi Chemical Industry, and Tomen, plus employees of several Japanese trade associations and Japanese teachers. Representatives from Malaysia, the Dominican Republic, the European Union, and Uruguay were also held.

  The rebels’ Communique No. 1, from the Edgar Sanchez Special Forces commanded by Comrade Edigiro Huerta, issued the group’s demands to end the “military occupation.” The group contacted radio and television stations throughout the day. They asked to see Jorge Santistevan, Peru’s human rights ombudsman, and Reverend Hubert Lanssiers. The duo were turned back from the residence by Peruvian authorities.

  The rebels permitted all female hostages and four elderly Japanese guests to leave on December 17, 1996.

  The Peruvian government refused to negotiate, although the Japanese government announced that the hostages’ safety was its first priority.