On Christmas Eve, 1994 an Air France plane was hijacked ona runway in Algeria by Islamist terrrorists - who killed three of the passengers and planned to fly the airplane into the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Luckily - French cunning and ruthlessness bought the attack to an end.
Peter Taylor is a BBC documentary maker who specialises in the history of terrorism. He is one of my heroes - his work is just brilliant.
You can watch the documentary describing the hijacking here:
The terrorist group who carried out this plot were the GIA (Armed Islamic Group). The interesting thing is that the Islamist fundamentalists resorted to terrorism after the Algerian government refused them the chance to win a democratically free and fair election.
In 1991 - the military regime in Algeria allowed free elections for the first time in order to alleviate the tensions and violence in the country. They were confident they would win - but they miscalculated.
The first round of voting was won in a landslide by the Islamic Salvation Front. And it seemed clear they would go on to win the election after the second round of voting took place.
The Islamic Salvation Front ran for election on the promise of one man - one vote - once. If the ISF won the elction they promised to get rid of democracy, turn Algeria into a one party Islamic state ruled on Sharia law.
But before they had a chance to win - the government cancelled the elctions. Sparking a civil war which lasted from 1991 to 2002 which cost up to an estimated 150,000 lives. In a population of 31 million people.
It was one of the most bloody civil wasr in history. To compare the numbers it would be like America (population of 313 million) having a civil war in which 1.5 million people died.
The history of Algeria in the 1990s is pretty fascinating. People assume that radical Islamists have to resort to the tools of terrorism since they reject the tools of democracy. But the Islamist terrorism in Algeria shows that is not always the case.
The events of Algeria had a big impact on Osama Bin Laden in two big ways. Firstly the plot to crash a plane into the Eiffel Tower is an obvious inspiration for the events of 9/11. It is here that we first see the use of an ordinary passenger plane as the weapon which would apparently be unthinkable seven years later on 9/11. Also - it interesting to note that the planned attack on Paris failed because too much fuel was lost whilst the plane sat on the runway. The only way such an audacious attack would be successful in future would be hijacking a plane whilst it was in the air.
And secondly - the cancelled elections of Algeria were a clear sign to Osama Bin Laden that the tools of democracy would not be made available to radical Islamists such as himself. And I think that creates a paradox in the minds of any fair liberal person.
You may hate radical Islam. But if a party preaching radical Islam is on course to win a free election is it not your duty to support that? If you truly are the supporter of democracy that you claim to be?
Peter Taylor is a BBC documentary maker who specialises in the history of terrorism. He is one of my heroes - his work is just brilliant.
You can watch the documentary describing the hijacking here:
The terrorist group who carried out this plot were the GIA (Armed Islamic Group). The interesting thing is that the Islamist fundamentalists resorted to terrorism after the Algerian government refused them the chance to win a democratically free and fair election.
In 1991 - the military regime in Algeria allowed free elections for the first time in order to alleviate the tensions and violence in the country. They were confident they would win - but they miscalculated.
The first round of voting was won in a landslide by the Islamic Salvation Front. And it seemed clear they would go on to win the election after the second round of voting took place.
The Islamic Salvation Front ran for election on the promise of one man - one vote - once. If the ISF won the elction they promised to get rid of democracy, turn Algeria into a one party Islamic state ruled on Sharia law.
But before they had a chance to win - the government cancelled the elctions. Sparking a civil war which lasted from 1991 to 2002 which cost up to an estimated 150,000 lives. In a population of 31 million people.
It was one of the most bloody civil wasr in history. To compare the numbers it would be like America (population of 313 million) having a civil war in which 1.5 million people died.
The history of Algeria in the 1990s is pretty fascinating. People assume that radical Islamists have to resort to the tools of terrorism since they reject the tools of democracy. But the Islamist terrorism in Algeria shows that is not always the case.
The events of Algeria had a big impact on Osama Bin Laden in two big ways. Firstly the plot to crash a plane into the Eiffel Tower is an obvious inspiration for the events of 9/11. It is here that we first see the use of an ordinary passenger plane as the weapon which would apparently be unthinkable seven years later on 9/11. Also - it interesting to note that the planned attack on Paris failed because too much fuel was lost whilst the plane sat on the runway. The only way such an audacious attack would be successful in future would be hijacking a plane whilst it was in the air.
And secondly - the cancelled elections of Algeria were a clear sign to Osama Bin Laden that the tools of democracy would not be made available to radical Islamists such as himself. And I think that creates a paradox in the minds of any fair liberal person.
You may hate radical Islam. But if a party preaching radical Islam is on course to win a free election is it not your duty to support that? If you truly are the supporter of democracy that you claim to be?
