The hijacking of an opulent cruise ship was only the beginning of the Achille Lauro story, says Professor Jason Blazakis in a new Italian documentary, Sigonella La sfida.
“The Achille Lauro hijacking was one of the big events in the history of terrorism,” said Blazakis, professor of the practice of terrorism studies and executive director of the Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism (CTEC) research center at Middlebury Institute.
“There are a lot of perspectives you can glean from this that are at the heart of what terrorism is,” Blazakis said.
On October 7, 1985, off the coast of Egypt, four members of the Palestine Liberation Front boarded the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro, taking about 100 people hostage—including many American tourists. The hijackers’ goal was to prompt the release of 50 Palestinians from Israeli prisons, but tensions escalated once various demands were not met. The result was the murder of American tourist Leon Klinghoffer, 69.
There are a lot of perspectives you can glean from this that are at the heart of what terrorism is.
After Klinghoffer’s murder, President Ronald Reagan and American military forces got involved, eventually diverting the terrorists’ retreat to the Naval Air Station Sigonella, located on the island of Sicily. This military base serves as both an Italian Air Force base and a U.S. Navy installation.
The documentary, Sigonella La sfida, loosely translated as “The Crisis of Sigonella,” focuses on the tense standoff between Italian and American military forces over the terrorists’ fate, Blazakis said.
“The U.S. and Italians were close to coming to blows until the U.S. stood down. There could have been bloodshed at Sigonella,” Blazakis said. “It’s a story of sovereignty for the Italian people.”
In the documentary, Blazakis provides his perspective on who the “bad actors” were and explains what the Reagan administration was thinking. The Sigonella crisis provides important context to several headline-grabbing global news stories today, Blazakis said.
“People have a lot of perspectives on what terrorism is and is not. It is not a new phenomenon,” he said. “If we’re going to think about why terrorism occurs, it’s important to understand the history of terrorism.”
Sigonella La sfida premiered in 2024 but is not yet available for wide distribution.
Center on Terrorism, Extremism, and Counterterrorism
Master of Arts in Nonproliferation and Terrorism Studies
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