Revealed: Munich Olympic terror mastermind’s drunken life in Prague

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In addition to Abu Daoud, newly declassified documents detail time spent in Czechoslovakia by arch-terrorist ‘Carlos the Jackal’

Abu Daoud, Palestinian mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of 11 Israeli athletes. (Screen capture: YouTube)

Declassified Czechoslovakian surveillance reports have revealed details of a life of heavy drinking and instability by the Palestinian mastermind of the 1972 Munich Olympics massacre in Prague under the former communist regime, and the suspicion which his hosts viewed him.

In addition to providing details of Abu Daoud’s drunken escapades in Prague, the intelligence reports, portions of which were published Friday by The Guardian, detail arch-terrorist “Carlos the Jackal’s” time in the country and how the antics of the two in the 1970s and 1980s ultimately led the Czech authorities to boot them from the country.

Daoud (real name Mohammad Daoud Oudeh), who masterminded the 1972 terror attack at the Munich Olympics in which 11 Israeli athletes were murdered, is noted in the reports for his unruly behavior and his penchant for visiting prostitutes and getting drunk.

In one instance, the East Jerusalem-born Daoud, who is referred to in the intelligence reports as “RAK,” was surveyed stepping out of Prague’s Intercontinental Hotel in a “very drunken state” after meeting with an Iraqi intelligence agent.

“At 2:50am RAK stepped out of the Intercontinental. He was bareheaded, dressed in a light brown suit, and brown shoes, not carrying any items,” one of the surveillance reports said, according to the Guardian. “RAK, with an unsteady walk and hands in his pockets, went to a vehicle parked in front of the main entrance and leaned against it breathing heavily.”

A member of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September, which killed 11 members of the Israeli Olympic team, during the 1972 Munich Olympics. (AP/Kurt Strumpf)

“The manner in which he moved suggested that he was in a very drunken state,” the report added.

In light of Carlos and Daoud’s involvement in terror, their Czechoslovakian hosts were wary of their guests and sought to get them to leave the country.

After being ordered out by the secret police, Daoud was documented in one of the reports ranting over his alleged mistreatment by the Czechoslovakian authorities.

“I will never come back to Czechoslovakia,” he told a hotel employee. “And I will also tell all my friends and acquaintances to look for another state to operate in. I am a decent person and I have never experienced such treatment anywhere in the world.”

This combination of file pictures created on March 28, 2017 shows (L-R) a portrait of Venezuelan terrorist Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, also known as “Carlos the Jackal,” taken in the early 1970’s; Ramirez arriving to face trial at the Palais de Justice in Paris on March 7, 2001; and Ramirez arriving at the Criminal Court of the Palais de Justice in Paris on December 9, 2013. (AFP)

The Czechoslovakians were also later able to rid themselves of Carlos the Jackal, a Venezuela native whose real name is Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, who left the country after being falsely told by the secret police that the French intelligence services had sent a team to kill him, according to The Guardian.

In one of the reports, the Czechoslovakian secret police describe how Ramirez ran around a hotel with a revolver after being locked out of his room.

“Between 18:00 and 19:00 BAK had, most probably by accident, locked himself out of his room. As he was unable to get back into his room he went to see the director of the hotel,” the report said, referring to Ramirez as “BAK.”

“He was running around with a gun in his hand – first up and down the hallways and later on in his room,” it continued. “This was a larger revolver. BAK was furious. His room was unlocked with a special key.”

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MOSSAD TO RELEASE SECRET FILES ABOUT NAZI ‘ANGEL OF DEATH’ MENGELE

TAMARA ZIEVE

mengele. (photo credit:Courtesy)

Previously classified Mossad files about the spy agency’s unsuccessful attempts to capture notorious Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele will be available to the public later this week

The reports, photographs and maps from the code-named “Meltzer File” about the chase after the so-called “Angel of Death” are among three volumes put together by the Mossad’s history unit about operations to capture Nazi war criminals spanning from 1959 to 1991.

The documents were recently passed on by the Mossad to Yad Vashem; its publishing will mark the first time Israel’s intelligence agency is publicly releasing such files, in acknowledgment of the historic importance of their content.

The author of the study is Yosef Chen, 81, a Polish-born Holocaust survivor who came to Israel on the Exodus ship in 1947 and joined the Mossad in 1976. He spent the last seven to eight years working on this book.

One of the documents, viewed by The Jerusalem Post’s Hebrew-language sister publication Maariv, contains the conclusion of secret cabinet meeting called by then-prime minister Menachem Begin in 1977: “We decided to instruct the Mossad to renew the search for Nazi war criminals, especially Joseph Mengele, with a view to bring them to trial in Israel. If they cannot be brought to trial – kill them.”

The infamous German doctor is known for carrying out genetic experiments on Auschwitz prisoners, as well as being in charge of selecting who would be sent to the gas chambers, resulting in the “Angel of Death” nickname.

According to Yediot Aharonot, the file describes bold hacks, wiretapping and complicated schemes to try and track down Mengele. In one of these operations, Mossad agents believed they had come close to capturing him – an account that was already known but had never before been confirmed by the Mossad. In 1962 Mossad agent Zvi Aharoni and his team located a man in Brazil whom they believed to be Mengele; however, they never received authorization to act. Various reasons are given as to why then-Mossad director Isser Harel decided to suspend the operation at that time, including operational, political and budgetary concerns.

But Chen told the Post on Tuesday that the reason was that the suspected man was seemingly not Mengele.

“They saw someone who they thought was him. There was somebody who was more certain it was him and someone else who was less certain and it was not entirely clear if it was him. In any case, you can’t do anything upon first sighting. You have to gather all the information and to check all possibilities and then to decide what to do,” he said, asserting that this procedure was followed. “Somebody thought it was him and in the end of the day it was seemingly not him,” he said, emphasizing the word “seemingly.” “But we can’t say for sure whether or not it was him. It’s correct that he was suspected.”

“A lot of years and time and many attempts went into trying to trap Mengele and it’s a shame they didn’t reach the desired goal,” Chen added, though he stressed it was not for want of trying.

“All paths lead to Rome. There is no path they didn’t try… There was a certain hardship because they didn’t know exactly where he was,” he said, adding that in hindsight they know he was in Brazil, but most of the search efforts in that area were for Adolf Eichmann, whom the Mossad caught in 1960 in Argentina.

“For Eichmann they had more accurate information. One of the main reasons, I think, was that Mengele protected a rich family – his family in Germany who knew well where he was and helped him financially and helped him find cover and gave excellent financial [backing] to those who helped him hide, and that helped him a lot.

“But to our happiness we know he lived like a dog being hunted – he was hiding for dozens of years in fear that he would be found,” Chen said.

Other plots detailed in the book, as reported by Yediot Aharonot, involved attempts in 1983 to trace Mengele via his son Rolf, who was living in West Berlin. One plan was to listen to an anticipated phone call between the father and son of their shared birthday. Another involved a honey trap. But neither plan worked since Mengele had died four years earlier.

Chen spoke of the “great lengths” that were gone through to chase after Nazi war criminals, however, it seems as though the Mossad had comparatively few victories. Without wishing to use the term “failure” when questioned about this, Chen says “in every case where the objective is not accomplished, that is not a success – and the goal was not achieved, at least not with Mengele. With Eichmann it was… Of course there were more [Nazi war criminals] but Israel could not run after all of them.”

Though Chen was surprised on Tuesday morning to discover that excerpts of the documents were published in newspapers, he is glad about the move. “I definitely think the people of Israel needs to known and learn this story well in the most accurate way – and what I published is the most accurate publication about the hunt for Nazi war criminals.”

Yad Vashem officials also welcomed the decision to hand over the papers. “This important report, based on archival documents, will be made available over the coming days, to researchers and the general public both online and in our Library,” Dr. Haim Gertner, director of Yad Vashem’s Archives Division and holder of the Fred Hillman Chair for Holocaust Documentation, said in a statement. “The Yad Vashem Archives, consisting of over 200 million pages of documentation, has and continues to be a valuable source of information on Nazi criminals and serves as a basis for locating criminals and bringing them to justice even today.”

Much of Mengele’s life remains a mystery. After the fall of Hitler, Mengele reportedly fled to Buenos Aires where he is believed to have lived for a decade. After Mossad agents closed in on his location, he allegedly traveled to Paraguay and then Brazil.

He drowned off the coast of Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 1979, after spending years on the run from Mossad agents. He was reportedly buried in a Brazilian cemetery under a false name. But investigations soon connected Mengele to his tombstone and an exhumation was ordered to prove his identity.

Mengele’s bones are being used by students at Sao Paulo University to gather information on his life fleeing authorities. The bones lay unclaimed at Sao Paulo’s morgue – the Legal Medical Institute – for years, until forensic doctor Daniel Munoz thought they would be good to use in his university course.

Reuters contributed to this report.

Syrian Opposition Confirms Netanyahu’s Allegations on Iran Buildup with Russian S-400 Missile Protection

David Israel

Russian satellite batteries near an Iranian missile plant in north-western Syria

The Syrian opposition website Zaman Al Wasl earlier this week reported that Russia has built a base for its S-400 long-range air defense missile systems in Hama province, 10 miles from the newly discovered Iranian missile facilities in an area considered the most loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.

On Monday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres that Iran is building sites to produce precision-guided missiles in Syria and Lebanon, with the aim of using them against Israel.

Netanyahu said Iran is turning Syria into a “base of military entrenchment as part of its declared goal to eradicate Israel,” and is busy “building sites to produce precision-guided missiles towards that end, in both Syria and in Lebanon. This is something Israel cannot accept. This is something the UN should not accept.”

The Russians have denied a rumor that during Netanyahu’s Visit to the Kremlin last week, he and President Vladimir Putin had a serious disagreement over Israel’s intent to go after those Iranian facilities. The Russians later denied the tiff, even though Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov this week openly warned Israel—while not naming names—against such a move.
S-400 being fired

read more: Syrian Opposition Confirms Netanyahu’s Allegations on Iran Buildup with Russian S-400 Missile Protection

At Yad Vashem, UN Chief Vows to Fight Antisemitism ‘in All Its Expressions’

Barney Breen-Portnoy

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at Yad Vashem. Photo: Shlomi Amsalem.

Amid his first visit to Israel since taking office at the start of this year, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stopped on Monday at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where he pledged to “do everything possible to fight antisemitism in all its expressions.”

“Antisemitism — my own country also lived it and I would recall the most tragic moment of them all with the expulsion of the Jews in the beginning of the 16th century,” the Portuguese national said. “I believe that the horror of the Holocaust should be such that antisemitism should now be dead forever but, unfortunately, we see it alive and well.”

Later on Monday, Guterres met with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at his office in the Israeli capital.

“I understand the security concerns of Israel, and I repeat that the idea or the intention or the will to destroy the State of Israel is something totally unacceptable from my perspective,” Guterres stated.

Netanyahu told Guterres, “I think the time has come to restore moral clarity at the UN. I know that this is a tremendous task. I know that the secretary-general does not have power over the members. I know also that the members don’t always reflect their good relations with Israel that are expanding rapidly in the way that they vote in international bodies. Yet I believe that your leadership can make a difference. I believe that merely focusing on these changes that are so obvious, are so sensible, and are so necessary for the advancement of stability and security and peace, and ultimately prosperity, I believe that you can make an important difference.”

Watch a video of the Guterres-Netanyahu press conference below:

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