Silco incident: what Wikipedia removed
A Belgian-French family kidnapped from their yacht in the Mediterranean in 1985, held by Palestinian terrorists and the Libyan government. Through 2015 the opening said the family was taken “by Palestinian terrorists and the Libyan government.” Today the opening names only “the Libyan government,” though terror survives four times in the body. A reader arriving now learns the Libyan government carried out the kidnapping and not that Palestinian terrorists did too.
The word “terror” appeared 2 times in this article’s opening at its peak, in 2010. Today the opening carries none; the body carries 4. Checked against the full current article on 2026-08-01.
The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot
Section titled “The tracked words, snapshot by snapshot”| word | 2010 | 2015 | 2020 | 6 October 2023 | 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| terror | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Counts are of the opening paragraph only, the part most readers, search engines and AI training sets ever quote.
What was taken out
Section titled “What was taken out”- The account of the exchange of a convicted Abu Nidal terrorist, Said Al Nasr, for the kidnapped family, dropped along with the fact of his 1980s conviction for a grenade attack on Jewish children in Antwerp.
How it opened then, and now
Section titled “How it opened then, and now”2010 (revision 333678338):
The Silco incident involves the kidnapping of the Belgian - French family Houtekins-Kets by Palestinian terrorists and the Libyan government from their yacht Silco in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea on August 1, 1985. The Belgian part of the family had to endure almost five years of captivity in Libya , but got freed after the liberation of Abu Nidal terrorist Said Al Nasr (who was convicted in the early 1980s for throwing a hand grenade into a group of Jewish children in Antwerp ) for the family, in Cairo , Egypt , on January 12, 1991. The French part of the family were released somewhat earlier, when the French government negotiated their freedom with the Libyan government.
2025 (revision 1273399170):
1985 kidnapping of a Belgian-French family by the Libyan government The Silco Incident involves the kidnapping of the Belgian - French family Houtekins-Kets by the Libyan government from their yacht Silco in the waters of the Mediterranean Sea on August 1, 1985.
Related
Section titled “Related”- The drift report: what changed across all 61,944 watched articles
- The case file for this article, with every snapshot and every marked removal
- Who made the cuts: removals grouped by the account that made them
- The live article on Wikipedia
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