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Toothpaste Terror

“Not at all,” said former Olympian Tom McMillen when asked in an interview with Hollywood on the Potomac about security fears in the 1972 Olympics and if there were concerns that the public was not aware of. “I believe 2 million was spent on security in Munich while 2 billion was spent in London. There were few security fears before Munich. Munich changed everything.” Indeed.

On This Day in History, “during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich in the early morning of September 5, a group of Palestinian terrorists storms the Olympic Village apartment of the Israeli athletes, killing two and taking nine others hostage. The terrorists were part of a group known as Black September, in return for the release of the hostages, they demanded that Israel release over 230 Arab prisoners being held in Israeli jails and two German terrorists. In an ensuing shootout at the Munich airport, the nine Israeli hostages were killed along with five terrorists and one West German policeman. Olympic competition was suspended for 24 hours to hold memorial services for the slain athletes.”

This article was first printed on February 8th, 2014.