How Terrorists Stole an Italian Cruise Ship 

Go to ground.news/imperial to stay fully informed on breaking news, compare coverage and avoid media bias. Try it out or subscribe through my link for 30% off unlimited access before July 7 and get it for as little as $5 a month to support my channel.

A ship just got hijacked! US: i sleep There's Americans on board! US: real shit?

Can we just appreciate this guy's editing? He makes it so clear and its so good.

Well that was pretty pointless. They hijack a ship, kill a hostage, and then negotiate to get themselves released? It's like robbing a bank, killing a hostage, and negotiating to leave without any money but not getting arrested.

Italy: lets talk America: if there in american on that boat, just rember what happended to Japan

The Achille Lauro hijacking has to be one of the most interesting events in Italian Cold War history, a period which isn’t well known in the anglosphere. As such, I want to bring some attention to other , fascinating events that happened during that time: -The Aldo Moro kidnapping, the height of the red brigade’s power; -The Borghese coup, an attempted fascist coup that failed for unclear reasons; -The war against the mafia; -Tangentopoli, and the rise of Silvio Berlusconi.

Both your germany plane hijacking and cruise ship hijacking are hands down my FAVORITE videos. They have so much analysis. And even tho it's such a heavy topic I couldn't stop laughing at all the ironic parts like the negotiation leader being the leader of the hijacking

you're telling me of all the stations the distress call could have gone to, it goes through europe and hits a random station in sweden

The Sigonella base actually has two parts, one for the US, one italian. The plane landed by us mistake in the italian side, where it was taken in custody by the italian troops, the us arrived asking for the terrorist, but the standoff went something like this "If you try to step on the plane, we will shoot you". There is a also missing part on the story. After the Sigonella standoff, the 737 was sent to Rome with the terrorist. The US tried to intercept it, but it was sent away by the italian air force, then, an American fighter faked an emergency and landed in front of the parked 737, to avoid escapes. The atc called him: "you either move within 5 minutes or we'll send a bulldozer to move you out".

I'm Italian and I just watched this with my mom who was around 20 when this happened, and she said it's crazy to see the discrepancy between the facts as they're told now and what she remembers seeing on the news back then. Really great work, the editing was absolutely incredible.

The standoff was actually more complicate, when the plane landed, was surrounded by 50 italian troops that were already at the base, then americans arrived and surrounded those, and finally the italians reinforcements arrived and surrounded the american troops

Just a correction, the inner ring around the plane (the one "guarding" it) was the one made by the Carabinieri, the others around where the American troops. The Carabinieri that came from barracks outside of the airport later surrounded the americans

The US went from “shit happens 🤷‍♂️” to “RAHHHHHHH🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸” real quick😂

This ship was originally the dutch owned ship Willem Ruys, which i migrated on to Australia in 1961. My family and i travelled from Switzerland to Rotterdam, Holland and got on the ship there. I never realised that the Achille Lauro was the same ship until i found a story on the internet about the Achille Lauro. This ship had quite a history.

As a full time wheelchair who has cruised a lot (and next going next month near where this happened) I’m very glad that security is a lot more strict nowadays to then!

You did a great job illustrating this. I was getting tired of YT documentaries that plug in stock footage and discovered your channel. Well done!

I read the title as "How TOURISTS Stole an Italian Cruise Ship" and needless to say; I was very confused.

It is fun to watch your channel grow a lot more recently. You used to be stuck on like 30k, but are finally getting closer to the attention you deserve. Greetings from Germany, another great video by you!

As an aircraft nerd, I have just one thing about this video: at 18:40 you say two KA-6D air tankers take off from the carrier, but the silhouettes are the ones of soviet/russian Su-30 fighters. These are definitely not in the inventory of the US, and at the time of the Hijacking they werent even a research project in the soviet union. Other than that, great video!

The visuals are truly amazing in this video, I'm in awe. Keep up the amazing work man, you'll be skyrocketing in subscribers within no time!

I really love the level of detail and research in your videos. I hope you make more, may your channel grow in size and respect.

Keep pumping out quality content like this and I'm convinced your channel can grow huge, you definitely deserve it

Italy probably knew about abbas involvement, but in the scheme of cold war Italian secret service they left him as to have some leverage if future terrorist attack happened (they did). Keep in mind that, it is said, Italy had a secret deal with PLO, Italy would allow the PLO to keep some arms storage in various Gladio holdouts in exchange of the promise that no terrorist attack would be conducted on Italian soil or against italians

Beautiful video essay, the wheelchair man’s death is heartbreaking

these grapics are amazing not only for a channel your size but for any documantary channel on youtube, keep it up

These videos always give me a strong lemmino vibe from them, with the music, the theme, the animations and visuals overall its just amazing. I'm so glad I found this channel

Italy: Let's think and negotiate, maybe a peaceful diplomatic solution could be achieved. America: TOUCH MY PEOPLE AND YOU'RE GOING TO HELL.

this was so freaking amazing at first I thought I wouldn’t care but damn the editing and story telling kept me hooked

Sad that you only have about 70k subs you easily deserve a million with these high quality videos and good research! I wish the best of luck for this channel.

I just found this guy in my recommended feed. Really nice, the work he's put in. You’ve just earned yourself a new subscriber!

Amazing quality and detail! I love this channel, I hope you keep it up.

It’s refreshing to watch a channel that does it’s due diligence in research. I hope you continue growing.

Love how this channel is finally getting the attention it deserves! Super underrated

The visuals on this video are impeccable, I enjoyed every single detail (Especially the neon lines). Looking forward to more videos sir.

Stunning visuals, excellent content, I subscribed to your channel after first three minutes of this video. This channel is a hidden gem and deserves a lot more views!

amazing video! extremely entertaining the entire time with the level of detail in both writing and animation. nice work!!

Beautifully explained and great visuals helping the understand of the story! Great job!

Keep up the fantastic work, Imperial!

Italian part of the story: Stressed, delicate, and with many factors brought into the mix. Peak politics where you can tell politicians are trying to balance things for the best outcome. 5:51 : fuck that shit

just found ur channel from my recommendations and i have to say that the animation style is orgasmic. love it

beautifully produced.....loved the editing & voiceover...absolute masterpiece tbh u will grow keep these BANGERS coming!

Great video, very well produced, I initially expected you to have a lot more subscribers! Keep up the quality work and the numbers will flow in.

everything from the graphics and editing to the thorough research done make me believe many, many hours were spent making such a high quality video. It surprises me you only have 69k subs.

Amazing production value man! Great work.

that's the first time I've seen one of your videos. I actually wanted to watch it in the background while playing games but I watched every second of it with ful attention (which is rare) since the story was so captivating. Great Job of telling the Story. I'll look into your channel

Outstanding quality content from a small channel. Hope to see you thrive mate

Really well put together. I’ve never heard of this diplomatic-focused hijacking story before!

These edits are insane man. Thanks for making

Very informative video, well done! This incident happened while I was in high school I followed it with great interest, I thoroughly enjoyed this behind-the-scenes look at that incident. Well done!

Great content and quality, it's almost impossible to find such level of accuracy on RU-vid video documentaries nowadays

This is my first video from this channel and it's bloody fantastic, seriously top tier stuff, I thank you 🙏👍👊

I absolutely love the animation style and the neon red and grey, amazing job

Just wanted to say I came across your channel today, this being the first video, and have been binging your other videos to much amazement. I absolutely love the production and the storytelling is impeccable. Def earned a sub. Also, do you do all the graphics yourself? If so is Blender part of your workflow?

Gaws damn you are good at this. This story could be a movie. Your production quality is excellent.

The quality of those videos is incredible. i really enjoy them. keep it up :D

The production quality is beyond everything you can find on RU-vid, nice job!

The worst type of people are those that are weak towards evil and ruthless against allies

I've been waiting for a documentary on her for ages! Great work!

Geeez, this is a really high quality production. Nice work!

Thank you very much for this very in-depth and detailed guide. This will save me and my friends tons of time!

For a video of this quality, you seem like someone who'd have millions of subscribers. Man, you're terribly underrated

The production quality is just awesome!

such a insane production on this one, loved the graphics

Excellent vid, well made and very interesting so far…. I can’t believe your subscription isn’t much higher, I feel like this level of quality will change that in the near future

Love this channel. Keep up the great videos

Your content is first-rate, sir! With superlative breadth in research and topic coverage. Not to mention your outstanding pronunciations, exceptional vocabulary and superb grasp of the English language. And with regard to those latter two points, you make this American boy gush with envy.😁

My first time seeing your content, it was extremely well done thank you. Subscribed and i wish that you gain many more subscribers in the future.

The quality of your channel is next level, keep it up

As an Italian i knew surprisingly little about the Achille Lauro, and this was a great and in-depth way to learn more about it!

Your a beast bro keep it up . Love all these stories

These visuals are top-notch! Love these kind of topics. Cheers!

Right. I'll say it. Best docs on youtube. great voices, great graphics and awersome reasearch!

One video in and I'm hooked. This is GREAT content. Subbed.

To be fair to Italy, they managed to facilitate the release and safety of 429 people with only 1 casualty, in terms of numbers that's an overwhelming success. I'd rather see that than the ship being stormed and more innocent people dying in the attempt

What a great channel you have, just subbed. Good, quality, well-sourced video essayists like you are hard to find. One request: Could you make a video on Antonio de Oliveria Salazar and his Estado Novo? There's barely anything about it on RU-vid leaving most surface-level research to wikipedia alone.

3:39 The PLO had no legal presence in the West Bank and Gaza in those days. They only attained degree of self‐rule following the 1993 Oslo Accords.

A film of the hijacking was filmed onboard the actual Achille Lauro in 1990. Four years later, in 1994, the ship caught fire and sank 100km off the coast of Somalia with the loss of four lives. To this day, her wreck has never been found...

You sir, just earned another subscriber! Excellent work, well orchestrated 👏🏼

I love the framing and the story telling. Also the graphics, I'm definitely subscribed :D

The animation and story telling is unparalleled. So freaking good

Such a well made video! You deserve more than 65.5K subs! Keep it up! :)

amazing editing. can’t wait to see you hit 100k

Love the way he swaps music depending on the location of the map. It's almost like a well edited movie or game.

Abbas was eventually captured by the US during the Iraq invasion, he died in custody about a year later while they were deciding where/if he could be tried

Insane production quality wow

Really well made and underrated! Well edited aswell

you got yourself a new subscriber for my first video and i am already liked you channel keep this animation up thank you

This channel is incredibly under-rated

I wasn't aware of the aftermaths of the Achille Lauro hijacking until now. P.S. 18:30 the moment you know you totally screwed up your life - an aircraft carrier comes after you.

This was great, love the editing style.

bro 80k subs will change really fast if u keep up this good quality work of content. awsome work!

"Sir, the Italians outnumber us 3:1." "Then it is an even fight. "

The pure quality of these videos is insane. How is it that this channel hasn't blown up yet???

holy heck, this is some great content! cheers for the subtitles, too!

My german mom was part of the service/waitress staff on this ship when it made a week long test tour after its renovation, but decided to leave the ship and her position because of the poor conditions for the crew on board. She said that their uniforms were quite messy when they got them, the crew rooms were dirty and infested with cockroaches and most importantly she said that the male crew was very aggressive towards the female crew. So much so that she only ever walked the ship with another woman to be safer... So in the end she decided to leave ship at a port near Rome were the first passengers arrived and went back to Germany via train. She still remebers that her quite expensive beautycase was stolen at the train station lol Some time later she heard in the news about this incident. She still has photographs from the ship at that time. Iv'e sent her the video xD

For those wondering what happened to the Achilles lauro, she caught fire burned off the coast of Somalia

Im really digging this style of editing, very much lemmino vibes and i have been trying to find a high quality channel like his

I remember this quite well, nicely done and well explained. Thanks

It's like the plot of a Hollywood film, the negotiator is the mastermind behind the criminals he is negotiating with lol.

First of all, really nice video, the vibrant editing makes the video attention-grabbing and interesting. Second of all, my sincere compliments for delving into the intricacies of international politics and Italian foreign policy. These elements are sometimes overlooked by presenters, especially when it comes to the Italian role, as it historically pales in comparison to that of the US or Israel. Nonetheless, our Mediterranean policy in the 80s in particular was incredibly intriguing, we were definitely trying to come out as the leading nation in the region, often casting some shadows behind ourselves. As I see some friction in the comments between Americans and Italians and stuff about "acting tough", I would like to remind that Italy was acting in accordance to national and international law, the hijacked ship was Italian, and the plane landed in Italy. While letting the hijackers go the first time was a major blunder, the Americans had no right to prosecute them. Moreover, as someone has already pointed out, the Mediterranean region was and is our neighborhood, we are the ones living the consequences of the reckless actions of foreign powers that contribute(d) to destabilising this area. Historically it was the Americans, now with major contributions by Russia, Turkey, and Egypt. Interestingly, there is another infamous incident, a hundred times more captivating than this (albeit less action-packed) again involving the USS Saratoga of the Sixth Fleet. Go have a look at the Ustica massacre (81 dead), when an Italian civilian airliner was accidentally shot down by either a US or French fighter jet likely aiming at a Lybian MiG hiding beneath it. Other accidents, such as the alleged assassination of Enrico Mattei, or the massacre of the Cermis (20 dead), should show the kind of hubris with which the US acted, and the environment of impunity in which they did so. To conclude, this is not to try and cast hate on the Americans, not in the least. I do believe things have changed, at least in part, with time. And naturally, American civilians of my age bear no responsibility for these events. But we do have a responsibility to learn our history, especially the shadiest aspects of it, and ever more strongly when those affected by our (government's) actions are foreigners.