Fatal Error

In agony and outrage over the murder of its athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the Israeli government organized a 15-man group of killers to liquidate the leadership of Black September. As Prime Minister Golda Meir bluntly announced: "We would do all we could to strike at the terrorist organizations and their bases wherever we could reach them." In a series of chillingly executed missions, the counter-terror squad has since gunned down at least 13 Arab conspirators in such cities as Paris, Rome, London, Stockholm and Beirut. The team has also aborted, by its estimate, 37 plots against Israel.

But last week the assassins made their first known mistake: they killed the wrong man. For weeks the team had been tracking down the chief of European operations for Black September. They thought they would be led to him when they began following a Black September agent from southern Europe to Stockholm, then to Oslo and finally to a small Norwegian resort city, Lillehammer. There, in a public bath, the Septembrist approached another Arab, Ahmed Bouchiki, 30, who looked like the Black September chief. Realizing his mistake, the agent stammered an apology and left. Bouchiki sensed that he had been checked out for some purpose and later told his in-laws that he was alarmed.

He had reason to be. The Israelis concluded that he was their quarry, though a brief investigation would have shown them that Bouchiki, who had come to Norway from Marseille six years before, was a waiter in a health sanatorium in Lillehammer. Two days after the encounter in the bath, the Israelis lay in wait for Bouchiki as he and his wife emerged from a movie theater. When the couple boarded a bus to go home, two agents in a rented car sent a message by walkie-talkie. As the Bouchikis got off the bus, a car approached. Out jumped a pair of men armed with silencer-equipped .22-cal. pistols. "No!" shouted Bouchiki. Without uttering a word, each gunman fired six shots. The Arab died before an ambulance arrived. His seven-month-pregnant wife collapsed in shock on the street.

The two killers escaped from Norway and arrived without mishap in Tel Aviv, though Norwegian police think they may have been responsible for the hit-and-run death of a 16-year-old boy. Two "trailers," who had provided security for the killers, also made their getaway. But others were caught. Acting on tips, police picked up four of the Israeli conspirators at the Oslo airport; they carried large sums of money as well as false passports. Two others were apprehended in the apartment of an Israeli embassy official in Oslo.

While officially denying any complicity in the Lillehammer assassination, the Israeli government was feverishly making plans behind the scenes. A legal adviser of the Israeli Foreign Ministry flew to Oslo as part of an attempt to gain release of the captured agents. Even though Norway has very friendly relations with Israel, it may be inclined to punish the agents severely in order to deter further terrorism. The murder was obviously an error, but that is small solace for Ahmed Bouchiki and other innocents who are bound to suffer in the worldwide underground warfare between the Israelis and the Arabs.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.