Age of Terror.[2008].BBC Radio documentary.mp3.radioCat

In his epic new series, the Age of Terror, journalist Peter Taylor traces the modern history and development of terrorism through four major acts of terror over more than 30 years.
He talks to those responsible for the violence, the victims of it and the members of the security and intelligence services charged with countering it.

In each episode Peter Taylor investigates a notorious terror attack that was emblematic of a particular phase in the modern history of political violence

Age of Terror - Part One
The first programme in the series tells the extraordinary story of the 1976 hijacking of a plane by Palestinians in alliance with German Marxist revolutionaries.

The hijackers issued a surprising order.

They told the pilot to fly to Uganda... the fiefdom of one of Africa's most controversial leaders, Idi Amin.

The hijackers demanded the release of 40 Palestinian prisoners in Israel and six prisoners in Germany within three days.

In a chilling twist to the ordeal, the hijackers called out the names of all the Israeli hostages and put them in a separate room.

They then set all the other hostages free.

Once back in Paris the released hostages told the authorities about the separation.

Within hours Israel's Defence Force had formulated a plan and an elite strike force called Sayeret Matkal - specially trained troops to combat terrorism - and 200 infantry were on their way to Uganda.

Age of Terror - Part Two

In 1987, over 10 days, two dramatic events took place that altered the course of the IRA's activities in Northern Ireland.

One was an eye-opening revelation of how rogue states sponsor terrorist acts, discovered when a vast arsenal of weaponry was found aboard a Swedish-named ship, the Eksund: weapons that had been supplied by Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The other was a brutal massacre of civilians at the Remembrance Day parade at Enniskillen, which created a universal wave of anger and condemnation.

Even Colonel Gaddafi's Libya disapproved of the attack.

It was a major PR disaster for the IRA.

These two extraordinary events would lead to a transformation of the political landscape in Northern Ireland.

Age of Terror - Part Three

On Christmas Eve, 1994, four Islamist extremists are preparing to hijack an Air France plane.

But this was a hijacking with a terrible difference. No political demands. No negotiations over hostages.

The plan was to divert the plane and use it as a missile, a weapon of mass destruction landing in the heart of Paris.

On the ground in Algiers, the authorities refused all offers of military help from France.

Then after the death of a third hostage, the Algerian authorities agreed to allow the plane to leave for Paris.

With fuel reserves running low, the plane could only get as far as Marseille, where the French special forces, the GIGN were ready.

Thierry Leveque, a member of the GIGN described the scene: "We know they are heavily armed, that they are likely to use explosives, so we are thinking: as soon as we walk in there, it's going to be fireworks, a real fight."

Age of Terror - Part Four

On Friday 7 August 1998, two men in a delivery truck set off from a suburb of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.

It carried more than 700 kilograms of explosives.

Forty-five minutes later, the truck pulled up at the rear entrance of the United States Embassy - and detonated.

Over 200 people were killed, thousands more were injured.

This was Osama Bin Laden's first major strike in his promised jihad.