Long thought to be Americans, it was actually Canadians who jumped the fence with terrorists at the 1972 Munich Games before the infamous massacre of Israelis in the Olympic village.
Canadian water polo players, who have lived with this for 40 years, revealed their story to the Star.
“They had to have come over with us,” said Robert Thompson, one of the men at the fence and at the time a 24-year-old member of the Canadian water polo team. “We would have assumed they were just other athletes.”
Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were killed in the Munich massacre when members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization, jumped the fence that protected the Olympic village and launched their deadly attack.
In his only full interview about the massacre, the last surviving member of the Black September commando recalled how easily they penetrated the village in the early morning of Sept. 4.
“As we were climbing over the fence, we ran into a group of American athletes who were sneaking in after a night out,” Jamal Al-Gashey said in the 1999 documentary One Day in September. “The funny thing is we actually helped each other to climb over.”
In the years since, Al-Gashey’s sneering suggestion that Americans unknowingly helped provide cover that made the attack possible has been repeated in every history of the event and become one of its key ironies.
However, the young men beside him weren’t American. They were almost certainly Canadian.
more
Kelly: Munich massacre terrorists helped unwittingly by Canadians in 1972 Olympic atrocity - thestar.com
background:
One Day in September (1999) - YouTube
Canadian water polo players, who have lived with this for 40 years, revealed their story to the Star.
“They had to have come over with us,” said Robert Thompson, one of the men at the fence and at the time a 24-year-old member of the Canadian water polo team. “We would have assumed they were just other athletes.”
Eleven Israeli athletes and coaches were killed in the Munich massacre when members of Black September, a Palestinian terrorist organization, jumped the fence that protected the Olympic village and launched their deadly attack.
In his only full interview about the massacre, the last surviving member of the Black September commando recalled how easily they penetrated the village in the early morning of Sept. 4.
“As we were climbing over the fence, we ran into a group of American athletes who were sneaking in after a night out,” Jamal Al-Gashey said in the 1999 documentary One Day in September. “The funny thing is we actually helped each other to climb over.”
In the years since, Al-Gashey’s sneering suggestion that Americans unknowingly helped provide cover that made the attack possible has been repeated in every history of the event and become one of its key ironies.
However, the young men beside him weren’t American. They were almost certainly Canadian.
more
Kelly: Munich massacre terrorists helped unwittingly by Canadians in 1972 Olympic atrocity - thestar.com
background:
One Day in September (1999) - YouTube
