The New York Times · 13 July 1976

CP-1976-051

Israelis Say Raider Impersonated Amin

By TERENCE SMITH

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Transcribed from the clipping

JERUSALEM, July 12—The Israeli units that rescued hijacking hostages from the Entebbe airport a week ago took with them a Mercedes limousine carrying an Israeli officer with blackened face impersonating President Idi Amin of Uganda and two Land-Rovers full of men dressed as Palestinian bodyguards, according to Israeli sources.

The impersonation confused the Uganda soldiers at the airport and gave the Israeli raiding party a few extra seconds to reach the passenger terminal where the hostages and the crew of the hijacked Air France airliner were being held, the sources said.

The First Few Minutes More details of this deception and of the extraordinary rescue are emerging only now, more than a week after the commandos succeeded in freeing the 103 hostages and flying them back to Israel.

Some of the details are being reported abroad and some have been repeated in the newspapers here, attributed to foreign sources because of the restrictions of Israeli military censorship. Perhaps the most dramatic tale concerns the first few minutes of the operation, when two or three Israeli Hercules C-130’s landed quietly at the airport shortly before midnight on July 3.

Before launching the raid the Israelis learned that President Amin had used a large black Mercedes-Benz protected by two Land-Rovers full of bodyguards, most of them hired Palestinians, during his repeated visits to the hostages.

To confuse the Uganda soldiers the Israeli raiders did everything possible to make the arrival of their first units look like another visit by General Amin. According to reports from Nairobi, the first American-built plane glided toward a quiet landing with its engines throttled back and braked to a stop rather than employing the noisy reverse thrust of the engines.

The plane came to a halt at a distant, darkened spot at the end of an old runway, well out of sight of the Ugandan guards near the terminal. As the big rear door dropped open, a black sedan bearing the same number plate as President Amin’s official vehicle rolled out.

Seated in the rear was a bulky, broad-shouldered Israeli commando dressed in the uniform of a Uganda field marshal and with his face blackened. Behind came the two Land-Rovers painted in the buff camouflage color favored by Palestinian units. Ten Israeli commandos in the uniforms of Palestinian bodyguards were aboard, their Soviet-built Kalashnikov assault rifles at the ready.

President Amin apparently uses hired Palestinian bodyguards when he moves about Kampala because of doubts about the loyalty of his presidential guard. As the motorcade moved into the floodlit area around the terminal, the Uganda guards posted along the runway snapped to attention. Some reportedly even saluted.

Exploiting the confusion, the Israelis were able to get within a few yards of the terminal before the first shots were fired. The Ugandans apparently discerned the ruse only when they realized that the men pouring out of the Land-Rovers were not Palestinians.

How this transcription was made

ASSEMBLED FROM 2 SCANS. Scan 1 is the page-one column, ending “Continued on Page 7, Column 1”; a separate and unrelated story, “U.S. SENDS FRIGATE TO KENYA IN SHOW” by John W. Finney, occupies the right half of that scan and is NOT transcribed. Scan 2 is page 7, the jump, which runs across seven columns and ends with a short separately-headed Reuters item, “P.L.O. Denies Allegation”, recorded under `companion_item`. The excerpt joins page one and the jump in reading order. — The masthead is printed across the top of the jump page (scan 2): “THE NEW YORK TIMES, TUESDAY, JULY 13, 1976”. 13 July 1976 was a Tuesday. The dateline is “JERUSALEM, July 12”. Matches Maria’s label. — Two clippings of one article, joined into a single image for the record (s056_1.png, s056_2.png).

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