The U.S. general policy explicitly forbids payment of protection money to terrorists. State Department spokesman Paul Hare said today in the wake of a report from Israel that several European airlines are compensating Arab terrorists not to molest their planes. Hare said, in response to journalists’ questions, that he would look into the possibility that American airlines are making such payments and whether they have been given governmental instructions not to enter into such measures.
A State Department source said later that he assumed American airlines were fully aware of the government’s “adamant” opposition to hijackers. Ambassador Lewis Hoffbacker, head of the working group of President Nixon’s Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism, was not referring to the report of the blackmail payments but to ransom money when he told journalists yesterday that the terrorists had new sources of funding. Hare said.
JTA has documented Jewish history in real-time for over a century. Keep our journalism strong by joining us in supporting independent, award-winning reporting.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
