One Day in September
I just watched One Day in September on the CBC. The strike is at least resulting in some decent movies. It’s a documentary about the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes during the 1972 Olympics. I knew the basic facts about the Munich Massacre, but never had the full picture of the incredibly incompetent rescue attempt. From the Wikipedia entry:
The five German snipers did not have radio contact with each other and were unable to coordinate their fire. Later it was discovered that one of the snipers never fired a shot, and yet another sniper was positioned directly in the line of friendly fire, without any protective gear. None of the rifles were equipped with either scopes or night-vision devices. In the ensuing chaos, two kidnappers standing near the pilot were killed, and a third was mortally wounded as he fled the scene.
Watching the documentary in a post-9/11world, it’s fascinating to see how primitive the anti-terrorism tactics were. In an era before suicide bombers were commonplace, they permitted thousands of citizens and athletes within a block of the terrorists while they were holed out in the athlete’s village.
