On December 21, 1988, Pan American flight 103 flying from London Heathrow to JFK Airport in New York exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing a total of 270, including 11 people on the ground. Following a three-year investigation, murder warrants were issued in November 1991 for two Libyans. Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi eventually handed them over for trial in 1999… Read More "The Lockerbie Bombing and Its Aftermath"
The Fall of the Berlin Wall — November 9, 1989
At the end of World War II, Germany was partitioned into four separate areas, each controlled by the four allied powers: the United States, the United Kingdom, France, and the Soviet Union. As relations with the USSR deteriorated, the split hardened into just two separate regions: West Germany, supported by the United States and other… Read More "The Fall of the Berlin Wall — November 9, 1989"
444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage
More than thirty years later, the Iran Hostage crisis still ranks as one of the most traumatic diplomatic events in U.S. history. Dissatisfied with the corrupt and ineffective regime of Reza Shah Pahlavi, many Iranian citizens began protesting the Iranian government in 1977. In 1979 after nearly two years of protests and strikes, the Shah was… Read More "444 Days: Memoirs of an Iran Hostage"
Terror on the 9th Floor — The Kuala Lumpur Hostage Crisis
On August 4th, 1975, five members of the Japanese Red Army or JRA – a militant organization intent on overthrowing the Japanese government and starting a worldwide revolution – stormed the United States embassy on the 9th floor the AIA Insurance building in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. The tallest building in Malaysia at the time, it… Read More "Terror on the 9th Floor — The Kuala Lumpur Hostage Crisis"
The Attack on the U.S. Compound in Benghazi — September 11, 2012
The attack began the night of September 11, 2012, at a compound that is meant to protect the consulate building in Benghazi, Libya. A second assault early morning the next day targeted a nearby CIA annex in a different diplomatic compound. Four people were killed, including Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens. Ten others were injured. The attack was strongly condemned by… Read More "The Attack on the U.S. Compound in Benghazi — September 11, 2012"
Tom Clancy Bombs Korea
Remember when renegade South Korean soldiers set off a bomb in Seoul during a festival and make it look like it was done by North Korea? And how the head of the Operations Center and the former U.S. Ambassador to South Korea Gregory Donald had to prove that North Korea had nothing to do with it before the situation got… Read More "Tom Clancy Bombs Korea"
“The U.S. values amateurism over professionalism in diplomacy”
Chas W. Freeman, Jr. is one of those rare diplomats with brilliant language abilities who also was involved in an astonishing range of key events in the last 30 years of the 20th century. While his ancestors may have been a bit rakish, he grew up in the Bahamas in a household where it was…
A Soul Filled with Shame –The Rwandan Genocide, April 7- July 18,1994
A colony of Belgium until 1962, Rwanda became dominated politically by the minority Tutsis. During the independence movement, the majority Hutus seized control of the government, killing thousands of Tutsis and forcing even more into exile. Many fled to Burundi and Uganda as refugees. Tensions between the two ethnic groups continued to fester over the… Read More "A Soul Filled with Shame –The Rwandan Genocide, April 7- July 18,1994"
The Terrorist Attack on the Saudi Embassy — Khartoum, 1973
Less than a year after its members murdered 11 Israeli athletes and one German police guard during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, the infamous Palestinian terrorist group Black September Organization (BSO) on March 1, 1973 launched a brazen raid on the Saudi Arabian embassy in Khartoum, Sudan, kidnapping U.S. Ambassador Cleo Noel and Deputy Chief… Read More "The Terrorist Attack on the Saudi Embassy — Khartoum, 1973"
The Jonestown Massacre
Jonestown, Guyana was the scene of one of the most harrowing tragedies in American history. On November 18, 1978, at the direction of charismatic cult leader Jim Jones, 909 members of the People’s Temple died, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in a “revolutionary suicide.” They included over 200 murdered children. The poisonings in… Read More "The Jonestown Massacre"