Hesham Mohamed Hadayet

Hesham Mohamed Hadayet ( _ar. هشام محمد هداية died July 4, 2002) was an Egyptian-American terrorist who on July 4, 2002, murdered 2 people and wounded 4 others at Los Angeles International Airport. The two people murdered were Israelis at the El Al ticket counter at the airport, one of whom was identified as a ticket agent (Victoria Hen). Hadayet was killed during the attack by security personnel. The other Israeli national killed was Yakov Smirnov.

Official designation as a terrorist act

In September 2002, federal investigators concluded that Hadayet hoped to influence U.S. government policy in favor of the Palestinians, and that the incident was a terrorist act. [ [http://archives.cnn.com/2002/US/09/04/lax.shooting/index.html CNN.com - Federal investigators: L.A. airport shooting a terrorist act - September 5, 2002 ] ] [http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/04/12/airport.shooting/ CNN report on the shooting] ]

In April 2003, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice confirmed the earlier conclusion that the incident fit the definition of terrorism.

References

* [http://search.cnn.com/pages/search.jsp?currentPage=1&query=Hadayet&sortby=Date CNN reports about Hadayet]