Ex-WTOP anchor remembers 1977 terrorist siege in DC

[EC]

WASHINGTON — Forty years ago this week, armed terrorists stormed three D.C. buildings and took nearly 150 people hostage.

To commemorate the anniversary of the three-day Hanafi siege, a photo exhibit is currently on display at the Wilson Building.

Many of those photos are from the Washington Star archive, and some were never published. WTOP put together a video (above) that includes these photos.

Although the siege has largely been forgotten, a former WTOP newsman remembers it well.

Jim Bohannon, now a syndicated radio talk show host, was anchoring on WTOP on March 9, 1977, when word came in of trouble at three buildings, including what is now the Wilson Building.

“It quickly became apparent that these were three interconnected incidents, three hostage-takings, by a group known as Hanafi Muslims,” Bohannon told WTOP.

The group’s leader, Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, had left the Nation of Islam to found the Hanafi Movement.

A few years prior to the siege, seven members of Khaalis’ family were murdered at his D.C. home, and one of his demands during the siege was to have the convicted killers handed over to him.

Read more: http://wtop.com/dc/2017/03/one-first-acts-serious-domestic-terrorism-1977/

I'd forgotten all about this.

[mountaineer]

I'd forgotten about this incident. Here are two more terrorist attacks on the Capitol:

Puerto Rican nationalists wound five representatives - March 1, 1954
 

In the U.S. Capitol, four members of an extremist Puerto Rican nationalist group fire more than 30 shots at the floor of the House of Representatives from a visitors’ gallery, injuring five U.S. representatives. Alvin Bentley of Michigan, George Fallon of Maryland, Ben Jensen of Iowa, Clifford Davis of Tennessee, and Kenneth Roberts of Alabama all eventually recovered from their gunshot wounds and returned to their seats in Congress. Three of the Puerto Rican terrorists were detained immediately after the shooting, and the fourth was captured later. The group was protesting the new constitution of Puerto Rico, which granted the U.S. Congress ultimate authority over the commonwealth’s affairs.

Exactly 17 years later, on March 1, 1971, a bomb exploded in a restroom in the Senate wing of the Capitol, causing some $300,000 in damages but no injuries. The Weather Underground, a U.S. leftist radical group that opposed the war in Vietnam, claimed responsibility for the bombing.

History.com

[TomSea]

That's really something, I had no idea this happened.

[TomSea]

Hanafi Siege: Gunmen raid D.C. buildings in 1977, killing one and wounding at least 12
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Rescue workers remove injured person from the Muslim Center.

(Originally published by the Daily News on March 10, 1977. This story was written by Frank Jackman, Frank Van Riper, James Wieghart and Bruce Dark.)

WASHINGTON (News Bureau) — Bands of terrorists, armed with machetes and shotguns, continued to hold scores of hostages early today after storming into City Hall, B’nai B’rith headquarters and an Islamic cultural center here yesterday, killing one man and wounding at least 12 persons.

Khalifa Hamaas Abdul Khaalis, 54, the self-styled commander of the raiders, said he was the leader of the Hanafi Muslims, a small sect that has a blood feud with the Black Muslims, and that his men were responsible for all three assaults.

Continued: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/hanafi-siege-gunmen-raid-buildings-1977-article-1.2994339

Slayers of Malcolm X

Khaalis demanded the three men imprisoned for the murder, on Feb. 21, 1965, of Malcolm X, who had been a leader of the Black Muslims, be brought to the B’nai B’rith Building. Malcolm X was assassinated in New York City.

So, this is more what this was about, American Black Muslims it sounds like and not some imported variety of terrorism.

Sounds like it could be made into a movie. Actually, intriguing.

[EC]

It is.

I find it amazing that something this big that happened only 40 years since has been so completely forgotten.