Der Spiegel is reporting that Germany met with perpetrators of the 1972 Olympics massacre after the attack and made a deal with them to "rebuild trust," reports Ynet News. Fearing further strikes, German officials initiated the meetings with members of the Palestinian terrorist group Black September and insisted they lay off further attacks in Germany. For its part, Black September wanted Berlin to support the PLO.
During the talks, Germany postponed its investigation into the attack and announced weeks later that the probe was over. When the French arrested Oudeh Abu Daoud, one of the attack's top organizers, and offered to extradite him to Germany, German officials said nothing. Daoud was released and lived in Damascus until his death in 2010, the Jerusalem Post reports. "I am not surprised, this isn't new," says the wife of an Israeli athlete killed in Munich. "It's sad that what we've been saying for years has only now been put forward." (More Palestine stories.)