'Germany met with Munich terrorists after attack'

Fearing additional attack on German soil, Germany offered Black September political upgrade of PLO, 'Der Spiegel' reports.

By BENJAMIN WEINTHAL, JPOST CORRESPONDENT
The 11 Israeli athletes killed in 1972 Munich attack 370 (R) (photo credit: REUTERS / Handout)
The 11 Israeli athletes killed in 1972 Munich attack 370 (R)
(photo credit: REUTERS / Handout)
BERLIN – For years, Germany’s government had contact with the organizers of the Black September terror group that was responsible for the murder of 11 Israeli sportsmen and a German police office at the 1972 Olympic Games, German newspaper Der Spiegel reported Sunday.
Several months after the murders, the West German government proposed a secret meeting between one of the organizers of the Palestinian terrorist group and then-foreign minister Walter Scheel. The aim of the clandestine meeting was to create a “new basis of trust,” according to Der Spiegel.
Germany’s government demanded a quid pro quo.
The PLO would cease attacks on German soil in exchange for a political upgrade. In addition to granting political legitimacy to the PLO, the government would pull the plug on any criminal charges for the murders in Munich.
Paul Frank, the state secretary in the Foreign Ministry, sent a signal to the PLO that the “Munich chapter” is now “closed,” Der Spiegel wrote.
The newsweekly reported that when the French police arrested Abu Daoud (real name Muhammad Daoud Oude) – one of the main organizers of the killing spree in Munich – and inquired about extraditing him to the German authorities, Bavarian justice secretary Alfred Seidl recommended that Germany take no action. The French released Abu Daoud. Syria’s Assad regime protected Abu Daoud and the Fatah terrorist in a Damascus hospital in 2010.
Germany today maintains a quid pro quo policy toward the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah that is similar to its posture toward Black September, according to German journalists and intelligence officers. The Federal Republic allows Hezbollah’s 950 active members to work legally in Germany in exchange for not engaging in terrorism on German soil.
Philipp Missfelder, Bundestag foreign policy spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel’s party, wrote The Jerusalem Post last week, “It is long overdue to place Hezbollah on the EU’s list of terror organizations.”
The Berlin office of the American Jewish Committee issued a statement last week calling on Merkel’s administration to ban Hezbollah.