Mogadishu's Aftermath (Contd.)

Lufthansa flies--with saturation security and zigzag landings

"For each murdered comrade we will blow up one Lufthansa plane in flight ... All should know that, beginning Nov. 15, death flies with them on a German plane."

That grim message was delivered to Bonn news agencies after three convicted members of the infamous Baader-Meinhof gang committed suicide last month in their prison cells following West Germany's antiterrorist raid at Mogadishu. As the deadline arrived last week, West Germany's national airline responded with a policy of saturation security for its 411 daily scheduled flights worldwide. Fortunately, as the first tense days came and went, there were no incidents more serious than flight delays of up to 20 minutes caused by Lufthansa's preboarding passenger inspections. Later, a second letter, delivered to news agencies in Paris, announced that "we will not hijack any more aircraft," but repeated the threat to "blow up" airplanes when "capitalist profiteers and lackeys" are aboard. "We will also hit them," the letter said, "in their homes, cafes, clubs, movies, at gala occasions and in their financial fortresses."

Security measures at West German airports included frequent patrols by police carrying submachine guns and the planeside identification by passengers of heavy luggage before it was put aboard. West German police meticulously inspected each item, Israeli-style, in every passenger's luggage. Major airports located near international waters, including New York's Kennedy and Boston's Logan, were asked to patrol for any suspicious-looking craft capable of firing rockets. In addition, Lufthansa jetcraft followed new flight patterns. In West Germany the planes were often given runway changes at the last minute.

Lufthansa's passenger business itself took a dip early in the week, falling about 10% below normal in London, for example. But some passengers were determined to fly Lufthansa. Said an indignant Hamburg matron: "I won't give those terrorist dirt the satisfaction of having scared me away."

On another front, France last week agreed to Bonn's request for the extradition of Radical Lawyer Klaus Croissant, 47. The West Germans had previously charged him with aiding the illegal activities of his terrorist clients, including Andreas Baader and Gudrun Ensslin. Croissant fled to France last July, seeking political asylum; there his cause was championed by French leftists. But after lengthy hearings, a Paris appeals court ruled there was enough evidence against Croissant to warrant extradition.

Although the French demonstrators called members of the appeals court "Nazis," the judges actually issued a softening verdict. They ruled that Croissant could be extradited for trial on the charge of transmitting criminal correspondence between his clients and terrorist compatriots on the outside, but not on other charges that he propagandized for his clients and helped them hide from police. Under a 1953 treaty with France, West German prosecutors are bound to honor the judges' limitations.

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