For a second time this week, I had a reminder about Berlin events…among some friends there was a reminiscing about the La Belle discotheque bombing, which happened on April 5, 1986. The club was very popular with American soldiers stationed in Berlin. The bomb was placed next to the dance-floor and filled with shrapnel.
Two Americans died from the attack, and a Turkish woman was also killed. More than 200 people were wounded. A lot of them still suffer from the terrorist attack today.
There was a lot of detail in the East German STASI files once they were opened for investigation in the 1990’s (quoting my colleagues post here):
“Prosecutors identified Musbah Eter who had worked at the embassy of Libya in East Berlin as an agent. He and four other suspects were arrested and put on trial in 1997. The trial lasted four years. Musbah Eter was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The two other men were Yasser Shraydi and Ali Chanaa the latter also working for the STASI. The other two suspects were Chanaa's German wife Ver ena and her sister Andrea Häusler. The sisters used to go out at clubs where American soldiers hung out well before they got in touch with any terrorist activities. They chose the La Belle disco as the target for the bombing.Verena Chanaa carried the bomb into the club accompanied by her sister. Verena was charged with murder and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Her sister was acquitted because there was no prove that she knew about the bomb.”
My connection with the events of that night is coincidental. I caught my ETS final flight out of Berlin’s Tegel airport that morning after the disco bombing, headed for my discharge at McGuire. The news of what had happened during the night wasn't completely out yet, but Tempelhof had gone into lock down and there were extra security measures at Tegel - nothing like we've seen in the last 10 years, but different from what we had seen up until then. You had to walk outside across the tarmac to your plane, putting your hand on your checked bag, which they then loaded on board.
Ironically, at dinner that night some friends and I discussed the buzz that was going on at the time about something happening soon - we were skeptical that anyone could pull something big off. At the NCO Club Silverwings after dinner, a couple of the Mari security police told me they were headed out to La Belle and invited me and the friends that were there with me, but I wanted to call it an early night and turned down the invite.
They and a few others went on without me. My friends all survived, and I later heard that although they were injured in the blast, they'd been able to help others.
The next week, I was back in Florida, on the beach in Daytona when the news broke about the attack on Libya...that was one time I immediately missed being able to read the reports I’d had access to as an Air Force linguist.
Two Americans died from the attack, and a Turkish woman was also killed. More than 200 people were wounded. A lot of them still suffer from the terrorist attack today.
There was a lot of detail in the East German STASI files once they were opened for investigation in the 1990’s (quoting my colleagues post here):
“Prosecutors identified Musbah Eter who had worked at the embassy of Libya in East Berlin as an agent. He and four other suspects were arrested and put on trial in 1997. The trial lasted four years. Musbah Eter was sentenced to 12 years in prison. The two other men were Yasser Shraydi and Ali Chanaa the latter also working for the STASI. The other two suspects were Chanaa's German wife Ver ena and her sister Andrea Häusler. The sisters used to go out at clubs where American soldiers hung out well before they got in touch with any terrorist activities. They chose the La Belle disco as the target for the bombing.Verena Chanaa carried the bomb into the club accompanied by her sister. Verena was charged with murder and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. Her sister was acquitted because there was no prove that she knew about the bomb.”
My connection with the events of that night is coincidental. I caught my ETS final flight out of Berlin’s Tegel airport that morning after the disco bombing, headed for my discharge at McGuire. The news of what had happened during the night wasn't completely out yet, but Tempelhof had gone into lock down and there were extra security measures at Tegel - nothing like we've seen in the last 10 years, but different from what we had seen up until then. You had to walk outside across the tarmac to your plane, putting your hand on your checked bag, which they then loaded on board.
Ironically, at dinner that night some friends and I discussed the buzz that was going on at the time about something happening soon - we were skeptical that anyone could pull something big off. At the NCO Club Silverwings after dinner, a couple of the Mari security police told me they were headed out to La Belle and invited me and the friends that were there with me, but I wanted to call it an early night and turned down the invite.
They and a few others went on without me. My friends all survived, and I later heard that although they were injured in the blast, they'd been able to help others.
The next week, I was back in Florida, on the beach in Daytona when the news broke about the attack on Libya...that was one time I immediately missed being able to read the reports I’d had access to as an Air Force linguist.
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