Ali Hassan Salameh (1940 - January 22, 1979) was the chief of operations—
code nameA code name or cryptonym is a word or name used clandestinely to refer to another name or word. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage...
Abu Hassan— for
Black SeptemberThe Black September Organization was a Palestinian militant group, founded in 1970. The group's name derives from the Black September conflict begun on 16 September 1970, when King Hussein of Jordan declared military rule in response to a fedayeen coup d’état to seize his kingdom — resulting in...
, the organization responsible for the 1972
Munich massacreThe Munich massacre is an informal name for events occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.By the end of...
and other attacks. He was also the founder of
Force 17Force 17 is an elite commando and special operations unit of the Palestinian Fatah movement and later of the Office of the Chairman of the Palestinian Authority.Force 17 was formed in the early 1970s by senior Fatah militant Ali Hassan Salameh...
.
Biography
Salameh was born in the town of
QulaQula was a Palestinian village in the British Mandate District of Ramla 15 km northeast of Ramla, depopulated during the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.Hasan Salama and his son Ali Hassan Salameh were from Qula.-History:...
,
PalestinePalestine is a conventional name used, among others, to describe a geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands.As a geographical term, Palestine can also refer to 'ancient Palestine,' an area...
, to a wealthy family. He was the son of Shaykh
Hassan SalamehHasan Salama or Hassan Salameh was a commander of the Palestinian Holy War Army in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War along with Abd al-Qadir al-Husayni...
, who was killed in action during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, north of
JaffaJaffa is an ancient port city believed to be one of the oldest in the world. Jaffa is located south of Tel Aviv, Israel on the Mediterranean Sea...
. He was educated in
GermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered to the north by the North Sea, Denmark, and the Baltic Sea; to the east by Poland and the Czech Republic; to the south by Austria and Switzerland; and to the west by France, Luxembourg, Belgium,...
and is thought to have received his military training in
CairoCairo is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab World. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a center of the region's political and cultural life...
and
MoscowMoscow is the capital and the largest city of Russia. It is also the largest metropolitan area in Europe, and ranks among the largest urban areas in the world. Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, religious, financial, educational, and transportation centre of Russia and the world, a...
.
He had a very popular appeal among
PalestinianThe Palestinian people, also referred to as Palestinians or Palestinian Arabs , are an Arabic-speaking people with family origins in Palestine...
young men; his nickname underlined his popularity — the "Red Prince" flaunted his wealth, surrounded by beautiful women and driving sports cars, all while fighting
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
. In 1978, he married
Georgina RizkGeorgina Rizk , was Lebanon's first and so far only Miss Universe.Rizk was born in Beirut to a Christian household. She was crowned in the Miss Universe pageant in 1971 in Miami Beach, Florida, USA. She was the first woman from the Middle East and the fourth woman from Asia to win the title...
, a
LebaneseThe Lebanese people are an ethnic group or nation of Levantine people originating in what is today the country of Lebanon, including those who had inhabited Mount Lebanon prior to the creation of the modern Lebanese state...
celebrity who was
Miss UniverseMiss Universe is an annual international beauty contest run by the Miss Universe Organization.The contest was founded in 1952 by California clothing company Pacific Mills...
1971. He had children by a previous marriage; reportedly his first wife was a granddaughter of
Mohammad Amin al-HusayniMohammad Amin al-Husayni , a member of the al-Husayni clan of Jerusalem, was a Palestinian Arab nationalist and Muslim leader in the British Mandate of Palestine...
.
After it was alleged that he organized what is known as the
Munich MassacreThe Munich massacre is an informal name for events occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.By the end of...
during the 1972
Olympic GamesThe Olympic Games are a major international event of summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes compete in a wide variety of events. The Games are currently held every two years, with Summer and Winter Olympic Games alternating. Originally, the ancient Olympic Games were held in...
, he was hunted by the Israeli
MossadThe Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution....
during
Operation Wrath of GodOperation Wrath of God , also called Operation Bayonet, was a covert operation directed by Israel and the Mossad to assassinate individuals alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in the 1972 Munich massacre....
. In 1973, Mossad killed a
MoroccanMorocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country located in North Africa with a population of nearly 32 million and an area just under . Its capital is Rabat, and its largest city is Casablanca. Morocco has a coast on the Atlantic Ocean that reaches past the Strait of Gibraltar into the...
waiter,
Ahmed BouchikiAhmed Bouchiki , an Algerian-born Moroccan citizen working as a waiter in Lillehammer, Norway, was killed by Israeli agents of the Mossad intelligence agency on July 21, 1973, in what is known as the Lillehammer affair....
in what became known as the
Lillehammer affairThe Lillehammer affair refers to the murder by Mossad agents of a Moroccan waiter, Ahmed Bouchiki, in Lillehammer, Norway on July 21, 1973. The agents had been sent by Israel as part of Operation Wrath of God to assassinate Ali Hassan Salameh, the leader of the Black September Organization, a...
in Norway, mistaking Bouchiki for Salameh.
According to several sources, Salameh served as a secret contact between the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) and the
Central Intelligence AgencyThe Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government.It is an independent agency responsible for providing national security intelligence to senior United States policymakers....
(CIA) from 1970 until his death, guaranteeing not to assassinate US citizens in exchange for financial and political support. However, when asked by the Israelis, the relationship was denied by US officials. He helped protect US citizens in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
, and his role was to facilitate contacts between the Palestinians and the US, in hope of obtaining US support for the Palestinians.
Death
Salameh was killed on January 22, 1979 in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
by a car bomb planted by
IsraelIsrael officially the State of Israel , is a developed state in Western Asia located on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea. It borders Lebanon in the north, Syria in the northeast, Jordan in the east, and Egypt on the southwest, and contains geographically diverse features within its...
i
security forcesThe Mossad is the national intelligence agency of Israel. "Mossad" is the Hebrew word for institute or institution....
as part of the
Operation Wrath of GodOperation Wrath of God , also called Operation Bayonet, was a covert operation directed by Israel and the Mossad to assassinate individuals alleged to have been directly or indirectly involved in the 1972 Munich massacre....
campaign, in response to the
Munich massacreThe Munich massacre is an informal name for events occurred during the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, West Germany, when members of the Israeli Olympic team were taken hostage and eventually murdered by Black September, a militant group with ties to Yasser Arafat’s Fatah organization.By the end of...
in 1972. Eight other people were also killed in the explosion.
It is believed that Mossad recruited
Erika ChambersErika Chambers is the assumed pseudonym of the Mossad agent behind the action on January 22, 1979 which killed Ali Hassan Salameh, leader of Black September and lead plotter behind the Munich massacre.-Background:...
, a
BritishThe United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is a sovereign state located off the northwestern coast of continental Europe. It is an island country, spanning an archipelago including Great Britain, the northeastern part of Ireland, and many small islands...
citizen, to carry out Salameh's assassination. She traveled to the
Middle EastThe Middle East is a region that spans southwestern Asia, southeastern Europe, and northeastern Africa. It has no clear boundaries, often used as a synonym to Near East, in opposition to Far East...
with a charity supporting Palestinian refugees and arranged a meeting with Salameh in
BeirutBeirut is the capital and largest city of Lebanon with a population of over 2.1 million as of 2007. Located on a peninsula at the midpoint of Lebanon's coastline with the Mediterranean sea, it serves as the country's largest and main seaport and also forms the Beirut Metropolitan Area, which...
, where Salameh was being harbored by the Lebanese government. Chambers learned Salameh's daily routine and arranged for a car bomb to be planted on a street which Salameh used. As his convoy drove past, Chambers activated the explosive, killing him and four of his bodyguards. Four bystanders were also killed.
In popular culture
- Ali Hassan Salameh was featured in the plot of the Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, and film producer. In a career of over four decades, Spielberg's films have touched on many themes and genres. Spielberg's early sci-fi and adventure films, sometimes centering on children, were seen as an archetype of modern...
film MunichMunich is a 2005 historical fiction film about the Israeli government's secret retaliation after the 1972 Munich massacre of Israeli Olympic athletes by Black September terrorists. The film stars Eric Bana and was co-produced and directed by Steven Spielberg...
as one of the assassination targets. He is seen twice but was not assassinated until after the events of the film.
- He appears as the character named Jamal Ramlawi in the spy novel Agents of Innocence by David Ignatius
David R. Ignatius , is an American journalist and novelist. He is an associate editor and columnist for The Washington Post. He also co-hosts PostGlobal, an online discussion of international issues at Washingtonpost.com, with Newsweek 's Fareed Zakaria...
, a thinly disguised account of his recruitment by the CIA.
- He is briefly mentioned in the Robert Ludlum
Robert Ludlum was an American author of 25 thriller novels. There are more than 290 million copies of his books in print, and they have been translated into 32 languages...
novel The Janson DirectiveThe Janson Directive is a novel by Robert Ludlum. The posthumous novel was published in 2002, a year after Ludlum's death.-Plot:Paul Janson is an ex-Navy SEAL and former member of a U.S. government covert agency called Consular Operations. He is haunted by his memories of the Vietnam War and his...
, where his alleged links to the CIA are cited as an example of shady deals the United States makes.
- Daniel Silva
Daniel Silva is the best-selling American author of 12 thriller and espionage novels. His most recent novel, The Defector, was published in July 2009 and was a #1 New York Times bestseller. In January 2009 Silva was appointed to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum's United States Holocaust...
borrowed from the exploits of Ali Hassan Salameh and his relatives to create the background for his fictional spy novel Prince of FireThe Prince of Fire is a 2005 spy novel by Daniel Silva.- Plot Summary :After terrorists bomb the Israeli embassy in Rome, agents at Israel’s intelligence service—better known as the Office—struggle to determine a precise motive for the attack. The investigation uncovers a CD filled with highly...
, 2005.
Footnotes
- Massacre in Munich: The Manhunt for the Killers Behind the 1972 Olympics Massacre, Michael Bar Bar-Zohar, Eitan Haber ISBN 1592289452