50 years ago, the Munich Olympics massacre changed how we think about terrorism
It was just after 4 a.m. when an attack that would shock the world began — quietly.
Eight men in tracksuits hopped the fence at Munich's Olympic Village, carrying with them Kalashnikov rifles and grenades in duffel bags.
They were members of the group Black September — an affiliate of the Palestine Liberation Organization. Their mission was to hold Israeli athletes hostage and demand the release of 236 prisoners: 234 in Israel and the two leaders of the West German Baader-Meinhof terrorist group.
Their mission failed. About 20 hours after it began, five of the hostage-takers would be dead, along with 11 members of Israel's Olympic team and a West German policeman.
But the Munich massacre of Sept. 5 to 6, 1972, would have lasting repercussions on an international scale, waking up Western governments to the threat of terrorism, showing the power of live broadcast and setting the stage for future violence.
"The cheerful Games"
Munich 1972 was supposed to be the opposite of Berlin 1936. Nearly three decades after the Holocaust, West German authorities went to pains to try to erase symbolism of the country's Nazi past. The light blue Olympic emblem, "Radiant Munich," as the International Olympic Committee notes, symbolized "light, freshness, generosity." The event's motto was "the cheerful Games."
"They wanted to come across as
