Jordanian MP Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad: I Carried out an Attack on an El Al/Mossad Compound in Athens in 1969; The Attack Was in Broad Daylight, in Keeping with International Law

Jordanian MP Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad recounted in a December 9, 2019 interview on A One TV (Jordan) that he had carried out a high-profile terrorist attack that claimed the lives of several Mossad agents in Athens, Greece on December 27, 1969. He said that the Mossad compound he attacked had been disguised as a newspaper booth adjacent to an El Al office, adding that the Israeli agents "dropped like leaves in the middle of fall." Explaining that the attack was carried out in broad daylight because that was when it was least expected, Mourad said that he had adhered to international law by issuing a warning to the Greek government that the compound would be targeted. He also explained that he had been inspired by Gamal Abdel Nasser's mantra that what is taken by force can be regained only by force and that he had made the decision to avenge the blood of Muslims and Arabs that had been shed by the "occupying and invading murderers." It is unclear what terrorist attack Mourad was referring to. There was an attack on El Al flight 253 in Athens a year earlier, on December 26, 1968, but Mourad's name is not listed among the perpetrators.

Interviewer: "On December 27, 1969 [Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad] made a decision and carried out a high-profile attack in the heart of Athens, the capital of Greece, against an El Al office and an adjacent security compound belonging to the Mossad. The attack rocked Athens, Europe, and the world."

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Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad: "I am a terrorist in the eyes of the Zionist entity and all the imperialist forces, headed by America. All of the enemies of the peoples and of the world's liberation movements call resistance fighters 'terrorists.'

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"Since I was a child, I had heard that this enemy wants to eliminate the Palestinian people and the region in its entirety. The truth is that I admired and applauded a saying we used to hear in the days of Abdel Nasser, may he rest in peace: 'What was taken by force will be regained only by force.' This got stuck in my head, so at the first opportunity I got, I decided to avenge the blood of the Muslims and the Arabs that was shed by those occupying and invading murderers, who serve as tools for the imperialist forces in the world."

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Interviewer: "You said that you decided to carry out the attack in broad daylight."

Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad: "Yes."

Interviewer: "Pardon my language, but only a crazy person would carry out such a bold and wide-scale attack in the middle of the day, in broad daylight. Why?"

Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad: "Sir, there is an international law that governs situations in which a certain group wishes to carry out security and military strikes in another country. International law set terms for such attacks. When one party wishes to attack another party on neutral territory, it must warn the [neutral] country, and it must carry out the attack in broad daylight. It must not attack security personnel and it must avoid harming that country's security. We wanted to attack a Zionist target in Greece, so we had to let the Greek government know, in general terms, of course... In the form of a threat... [We said:] 'The Zionist entity is using your country to harm us by transporting military equipment and volunteers [through your territory], and by conducting propaganda [operations] against the Palestinians, against pan-Arabism, and against Islam. Stop this activity, or we will carry out an attack.' The condition was that we must not endanger the Greek people during the attack. We were not fighting the Greek security personnel. In its stupidity, the Zionist enemy thought that any attack in Europe would most likely be at night..."

Interviewer: "Yes, of course."

Mansour Saif Al-Din Mourad: "An explosive device... A bomb... They did not expect an attack in broad daylight, so their defenses were weak and they were less careful. There was a booth that was not an office in front of the Zionist compound. It was the entrance to the Mossad compound. Their agents would go through there in secret to avoid suspicion. It was a Mossad booth where newspapers were sold, and there were three or four of them standing at the door of the building we attacked. This is why it was in the morning. It was easier for us.

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"We struck them with a painful strike, and their soldiers dropped like leaves in the middle of fall."