Postal Ministry experts in Bonn are trying to trace the source of the telegram received by the hijackers of the Japanese jumbo jet in Dubai. The telegram, said to have come from West Germany, read:
“If you intend to kill the passengers on board the jumbo 444, then do it immediately. Otherwise be human enough to let them go. It sounds ridiculous when you permit those you apparently want to kill to receive refreshment and meals. Please give up your objectives. There are other, unbloody ways of attaining your political objectives.” The message was signed “Inhabitants of West Germany.”
The hijackers, who got the message from the Dubai control tower, are said to have been scrupulous in asking for the precise wording.
The Bonn Government spokesman, Armin Gruenwald, declined to comment on the telegram, and also on the hijack and the conduct of the hijackers. He said he could not confirm reports that the telegram had come from West Germany. An Interior Ministry spokesman said his first reaction had been that the message was a joke. However, security services do not rule out the telegram as being a coded message, and are taking it seriously. It would be serious if, as the Interior Ministry says, “the message were to set a chain of actions in motion.”
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.
