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descent, and his wife, German Verena Channa, to carry
LA BELLE DISCOTHEQUE BOMBING out the bombing. The Channas were paid about $7,000
for their roles in the attack, according to prosecutors.
On April 5, 1986, a bomb packed with nails Mrs. Channa actually planted the bomb, carrying
exploded at the La Belle discotheque in the West the explosives into the nightclub in her knapsack.
Berlin, killing two U.S. soldiers and a Turkish woman Mrs. Channa’s sister went with her to the nightclub
and injuring 229 people. The four-pound bomb and left with her five minutes before the blast,
exploded at 1:40 A.M. on the crowded dance floor; the but claimed to have known nothing of the plot.
flying nails caused such grave injuries that dozens of Mrs. Channa was imprisoned for 14 years on the
the victims lost their limbs. charge of murder, while the others were sentenced to
U.S. president Ronald Reagan quickly accused between 12 and 14 years of jail for attempted murder.
Libya of the bombing of La Belle, a popular nightspot The German court also ruled that Libya was
for U.S. soldiers stationed in West Berlin. Citing inter- involved in the La Belle bombing but that no evidence
cepted communications between the Libyan embassy proved the direct involvement of Qaddafi. Prosecutors
in East Berlin and Tripoli, Libya, Reagan ordered U.S. had charged that Qaddafi called for a terrorist attack
air raids on Libya. One of the U.S. bombs dropped against the United States in retaliation for the March
10 days after the La Belle attack hit Libyan leader 1986 sinking of two Libyan ships in the Gulf of Sidra,
Muammar el-Qaddafi’s home and killed one of his presenting radio messages between Tripoli, Libya, and
children. the East Berlin Libyan embassy. “Expect the result
The case went unsolved for years, until the col- tomorrow morning. It is God’s will,” read a message
lapse of the Berlin Wall allowed German investigators sent on the night of the attack. Hours after the bomb-
to discover a wealth of evidence in former East ing, another cable reported, “at 1:30 A.M., one of the
Germany. Files seized from the headquarters of the acts was carried out with success, without leaving a
Stasi, the East German secret police, led to the arrest trace.” These messages were originally intercepted
of five suspects in 1996. More than 15 years after the by the U.S. National Security Agency, which ran an
bombing, a German court convicted a former Libyan eavesdropping station in West Berlin to monitor East
diplomat and three accomplices on murder charges in Berlin diplomatic communication.
the La Belle bombing. See also BOMBINGS AND BOMB SCARES; MUAMMAR
During the four-year trial, prosecutors showed that EL-QADDAFI; TRIPOLI AND BENGHAZI BOMBING
the diplomat Musbah Abdulghasem Eter worked with
Palestinian Yassir Chraidi, an employee of the Libyan Further Reading
embassy in East Berlin, to carry out the attack. The
Arnold, Guy. The Maverick State: Gaddafi and the New
men recruited Ali Channa, a German man of Lebanese World Order. New York: Cassell, 1997.

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