Gerhard Loitzenbauer
 Gerhard Loitzenbauer  (diplomat, spook, Iran-Contra/Premature death?) | |
|---|---|
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| Born | 1939 |
| Died | 23. June, 1984 (Age 45) |
Cause of death | "shot during robbery" |
| Nationality | Austrian |
Austrian diplomat killed in Lebanon | |
Gerhard Loitzenbauer was an Austrian diplomat and spook. As security attache at the Austrian embassy in Beirut, was murdered in a "car robbery" on 23. June, 1984. The motive is still in the dark today. Blamed on "terrorist groups" or the PLO, it may well have been a hit connected to arms dealing (the broader Iran-Contra, where Israel was heavily involved.)
Contents
Career
Loitzenbauer was an important man at the embassy in Beirut, then Austria's most important outpost in the Middle East. From 1979 he was officially involved in checking visa applications and the authenticity of the passports presented - but in reality he was entrusted with special tasks that went far beyond the diplomatic. He had built up an excellent information network for all political groups in the region. Loitzenbauer procured intelligence information from the civil war region of Beirut, which was urgently wanted in Vienna - the threat of terrorism was considered very high, at least since the 1981 attacks on City Councilor Heinz Nittel and the Vienna synagogue by the Abu Nidal Organization[1] (which later was exposed as an Israeli front group for false flag operations).
Foiled PLO plot
In 1981, Loitzenbauer made a significant contribution to the failure of a plot by the PLO secret service to assassinate Egyptian President Sadat in Austria. The Palestinian side saw Sadat's peace agreement with Israel at Camp David (1978) as a betrayal and planned to shoot him during his 1981 visit to Salzburg. With a specific tip from Loitzenbauer, the airport police in Vienna-Schwechat Airport were able to arrest the couriers with the weapons provided for this purpose. The interior minister at the time, Erwin Lanc, confirmed that the decisive tip came from Loitzenbauer. The diplomatic and political excitement was considerable. Chancellor Bruno Kreisky called the PLO headquarters and said to Yasser Arafat: "I feel deeply betrayed."[1]
On the other hand, the alleged PLO plot might have been a set-up by Mossad in order to incriminate the Palestinians. [Citation Needed]
The murder
At the time, things looked like a "normal" - albeit unusually brutal - attempt at a car robbery. When the 45-year-old "security attaché" at the Austrian embassy, on June 23, 1984 parked his car in front of his apartment building in the Manara district, two men suddenly jumped up. They threatened him with weapons, Loitzenbauer refused to get out. The men then opened fire. Loitzenbauer was hit in the chest with a .9 mm caliber bullet and pierced his heart. Although he was immediately taken to the American hospital in Beirut, the Austrian succumbed to his serious injuries and the perpetrators fled in his car.[1]
A little later, the local police reported to the Austrian authorities about a "car robbery" without a political background - which they also officially accepted and thus passed on to the media.
Interior Minister Lanc, who had investigations into Loitzenbauer's death carried out in Lebanon, didn't get very far in Lebanon, but he was convinced that "Loitzenbauer was too well connected. That was very dangerous for terrorist groups. So they had to liquidate him." Blecha did not want to specify who did it, but said his sources indicated Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah.[1]
Iran Contra?
Several media linked his death to "mysterious arms deals" and named his name in a row with Karl Lütgendorf, Herbert Amry, Heribert Apfalter and the Austrian Honorary Consul Bernhard Maier, who died in 1988 falling from a bridge 40 meters to his death near Geneva. Others also mentioned the alleged suicide of the German politician Uwe Barschel in this series.[1]
A former police colonel, Leo Frank, who was a friend of Loitzenbauer's, later wrote a novel about the case -and supported the thesis that the gun smugglers killed his friend.
PLO?
The historian Thomas Riegler suspects a highly political motive for the murder: "Loitzenbauer's murder was probably a tragic consequence of the fight against international terrorism". The thesis that Riegler also puts forward is that Loitzenbauer had become the victim of a targeted act of revenge. Whether it was from the PLO secret service Jihaz al-Rasd or from another side is still unclear.[1]
Drug dealers?
In an interview, the then head of the criminal police at Vienna-Schwechat Airport remembers his own connections in Lebanon: "It was a hub for the hashish trade at the time, I had good contacts there and I always had crucial tips for drug deliveries." Once a source said to him, alluding to Loitzenbauer, whom he knew well: "Your friend over there is playing wrong." He then warned Loitzenbauer: "Don't go there anymore, the ground is hot". But Loitzenbauer wanted to stay in Beirut for a while. The policeman commented: "He was dead three weeks later. The car robbery thing isn't true."[1]
