Europe's Cold Civil War

A SENSE of impending evil seemed to pervade the airports of Europe last week. Interpol had warned that another group of Japanese terrorists was somewhere at large, and that Arab terrorists probably would not let the fifth anniversary of the Six-Day War pass by unmarked. European airports lowered an unprecedented curtain of security around passengers and planes, while police in each country put out dragnets for national guerrilla gangs. In the random nature of terror, the week's worst violence came from an unexpected quarter; ten Czech skyjackers held up a Slov-Air twin-engine L-410 flying from Marienbad to Prague, killed the pilot when he refused to change course, and forced the copilot to fly them to West Germany, where they were promptly arrested.

A larger explosion of violence was probably still to come--either in Europe or in the Middle East. In the wake of the massacre at Tel Aviv airport two weeks ago, when three Japanese gunmen killed 24 people--among them 17 Puerto Rican pilgrims--Israel vowed revenge. The question was when and where the Israelis would strike back. Blaming Lebanon and Egypt for supporting the Arab terrorists who had sent the three Japanese on their deadly mission, Defense Minister Moshe Dayan last week warned that "there is nothing easier for Israel than to paralyze air communications if countries such as Lebanon or Egypt should try with the help of the terrorists to paralyze our lines of communication."

The Israelis at least had a handy and visible target to which to attach blame --however fairly or unfairly. But Europeans could not so easily deal with either exported Middle Eastern violence or the haphazard terrorism that has lately and bewilderingly become almost endemic in their own lands.

Tavern Stops. In Italy alone, 26 carabinieri have been killed in the past 18 months; three were blown to bits two weeks ago when they investigated an abandoned and booby-trapped automobile near the Yugoslav border. In Milan last week bombs were set off at the offices of four U.S. companies in protest against "American imperialism." A group called the Red Brigade was suspected. Three Italians, dressed unaccountably in World War II German uniforms, were arrested in northern Italy carrying eleven pounds of explosives; they had stopped frequently at taverns along the road they were traveling and had managed to get drunk.

Most terrorists are not so maladroit. The Red Army Faction in Munich planted bombs at the U.S. Army headquarters in Heidelberg, killing three Americans, and boasts of another bombing in Frankfurt, which killed an American colonel. West German Autobahnen have been strung with roadblocks, and police searched for the remaining members of the bomb-slinging Bonnie und Clyde gang (TIME, June 12). So far, six have been caught. One was Gudrun Ensslin, 31, a minister's daughter and former student of German literature, who was captured in a Hamburg boutique after a saleswoman noticed a pistol stuffed into her jacket.

Cutting Loose. According to Interpol, more than 100 bombs have exploded in buildings, cars and open areas on the Continent since the first of the year. No country seems immune. In Eindhoven, The Netherlands, last February, something called the "Greek Committee" demanded $300,000 from Philips Industries. Philips refused to pay, and since then five bombs have exploded in its offices and plants.

Why the sudden upsurge of violence into what Le Monde calls the "cold civil war"? Italian Writer Luigi Barzini (The Italians) attributes it to "fear of the future, resistance to changes produced by history." Cologne Sociologist Erwin Scheuch suggests that the violence in West Germany indicates that the terrorists have broken with the New Left student movement that began in 1968. He argues that as long as the students were united, the more violent among them had to take account of the opinions of less extreme sympathizers; now the extremists have cut themselves loose. Paris Political Scientist Pierre Hassner says that "we may simply have to accept the fact that terror and violence are relatively permanent characteristics of political societies."

The front line of the battle is the point at which technological society is most vulnerable: air transport. On the theory that enough security will make skyjackings, airline bombings--or mass assassinations--at least more difficult, most of Europe's airports have virtually become armed camps. Armored cars ring runways, and some arriving jets--notably those of Israel's El Al --are accompanied by armed outriders as they taxi to parking areas. Ambulances are drawn up in somber file, and police or soldiers armed with submachine guns stand guard.

One of the most difficult assignments fell to police in Stockholm, where 1 12 delegations arrived at Arlanda Airport for the United Nations Conference on Human Environment (see ENVIRONMENT). Debarking Yugoslavs had to be protected against Croat extremists who have already assassinated Belgrade's ambassador to Stockholm and blown up a Yugoslav airliner in midair, killing 27. Israeli Foreign Minister Abba Eban, of course, had to be shielded from potential Arab attack, while the U.S. delegation needed protection from possible demonstrators protesting the war in Viet Nam.

Security seemed to vary in spite of the danger. It was intense in some places, principally Frankfurt, slipshod in others and tightest in cases where the nationality of a plane, its destination or special political circumstances raised a hazard. Japanese passengers were shunned by fellow travelers everywhere. At The Hague, three Japanese, in spite of diplomatic passports, were forced to strip and be searched before they were allowed to board their plane.

Drastic Step. Police supplemented electronic passenger checks with frisks of both men and women. Luggage was opened or put through decompression chambers to detect any high-altitude bombs. There were occasional bonuses from the search: at Zaventem Airport in Brussels, police discovered a suitcase with a false bottom containing $45,000 worth of gems. Passengers by and large accepted--even welcomed--security, although delays in some cases ran as long as two hours.

No security, of course, can be terror tight, and last week the International Federation of Air Line Pilots Associations, meeting in London, proposed a more drastic step: a boycott of any airport whose government refuses to surrender an airline skyjacker. Unless the United Nations Security Council moves "effectively" against air piracy, the pilots threatened a one-day international shutdown of air service on June 19. In the U.S., Civil Aeronautics Board Chairman Secor Browne sympathized with the pilots, but opposed a private boycott on the grounds that "the elimination of skyjacking is the responsibility of governments." He proposed formation of a single national anti-skyjacking authority.

"It would be easy to say that the latest wave of terrorism will worsen until it results in a political revolution somewhere," says Political Scientist Hassner. "That has often been the historical case. But, then, who could have predicted that suddenly there would be no more black riots in the U.S.? Political terror is an obscure phenomenon, whose eruption and recession are without immediate explanation." The new terrorism may fade in time, but European security chiefs have no choice but to take a more pessimistic view. Stockholm is building a new passenger terminal at Arlanda Airport, for instance, that will have permanent facilities where passengers and their luggage can be routinely scanned, searched, stripped, prodded and X-rayed more swiftly than now.

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