Posted on 11/14/2015 4:15:37 PM PST by BBell
Lets see how Russia (KGB) deals with Islamic terrorist hostage takers
Are you among those frustrated Americans who have wondered how the Soviet Union's only hostage crisis in Lebanon was resolved in just a month, while the plight of the six U.S. hostages held there continues to drag on without any
break in sight?
Well, according to the Jerusalem Post, the Soviets turned the trick by forgoing diplomacy in favor of a brutally more direct approach to the problem.
Simply put, they presented the kidnappers with chilling proof that terror can cut both ways. Literally!
The crisis began last Sept. 30, you might recall, when four attaches from the Soviet Embassy were kidnapped in Beirut by Muslim extremists. Western news agencies received individual photos of the four men that same night, each with an automatic pistol pressed against his head.
The photos were accompanied by a note from a hitherto unknown group calling itself the Islamic Liberation Organization. The message warned that the four Soviet captives would be executed, one by one, unless Moscow pressured pro- Syrian militiamen to cease shelling positions held by the pro-Iranian fundamentalist militia in Lebanon's northern port city of Tripoli.
Although the Soviets attempted to open some channel for negotiations with the kidnappers, there was no immediate let-up in the shelling at Tripoli.
Only two days after the kidnappings, the body of one of the four kidnapped men, a 30-year-old consular secretary named Arkady Katov, was found, shot through the head, on a Beirut trash dump.
Apparently, that's when the Soviets dropped the idea of sweet talk and turned the matter over to the KGB.
Less than four weeks later, the three remaining hostages were freed on foot only 150 yards from the Soviet Embassy.
The pro-Syrian daily Al Sharq credited their release to the clandestine efforts of Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kanaan, the chief of intelligence for Syrian forces in Lebanon.
Western journalists reported that the kidnappers were forced to free the hostages because a block-to-block search by pro-Syrian militiamen was closing in on them.
But it wasn't until last week that Jerusalem Post diplomatic correspondent Benny Morris uncovered the most compelling reason why the three Soviets were released, emaciated and tired, but otherwise unharmed.
According to Morris, the KBG determined the kidnapping to be the work of the Shiite Muslim group known as Hezbollah, or Party of God. This was the same radical pro-Iranian faction that figured so belligerently in the mass hostage-taking from the TWA airliner at Beirut Airport last June.
Unlike the approach the United States used to resolve the TWA crisis, however, the Soviets did not bother negotiating with Hezbollah through Nabih Berri, Lebanon's justice minister and leader of the Shiite Amal militia.
Instead, the KGB kidnapped a man they knew to be a close relative of a prominent Hezbollah leader. They then castrated him and sent the severed organs to the Hezbollah official, before dispatching the unfortunate kinsman with a bullet in the brain.
In addition to presenting him with this grisly proof of their seriousness, the KGB operatives also advised the Hezbollah leader that they knew the identities of other close relatives of his, and that he could expect more such packages if the three Soviet diplomats were not freed immediately.
The message was a lot more extreme than Ronald Reagan's vague allusions to using "Rambo next time," but the swift release of the three remaining hostages indicated that the Hezbollah big shot couldn't handle having terror shoved back in his face.
Post reporter Morris quoted unidentified observers in Jerusalem as noting:
"This is the way the Soviets operate. They do things - they don't talk.
"And this is the language the Hezbollah understand."
Jigalojey: So what have we learned from this ladies and gentleman?? Stop ####### around with islamic terrorists and treating them like humans, the Russians know whats up but then again they lack the political correct ******** culture that we unfortunately have.
Please correct me or steer me in the right direction.
Americans have always been pussies. In Vietnam, the largest force present fighting the Communists besides the U.S. was South Korea (ROK). In the early days, when the ROK was attacked by the Viet Cong, they would go back to the Viet Cong village and kill everyone in the village. After 3 or 4 such incidents, the North Vietnamese/VietCong stopped attacking the ROK troops and would only target Americans. The Koreans got their point across. I guess after the bloody days fighting the Communists in the Korea War, the ROK didn’t give a crap about what the rest of the world thought.
BBell should have edited in the year, but it's a minor oversight that I could easily clarify.
One of the addition details of the KGB operation is to let the kin know they are being targeted for torture and death because of their relative.
It is the old adage spoken here a few times, “Go ahead and come to our house, we won’t be home. We’ll be at YOUR house.”
“”I got to the part about TWA.””
Should have picked up on it at KGB>>>>>>
Thanks...for a minute I thought I had truly lost my mind! Hopefully, it’s mine to keep for a few more years.
And your proof that it's false is...?
Timid, clueless Community organizer versus seasoned KGB agents. No even a toss up.
Thank you!!
We were not always pussies. Germans caught wearing US Army uniforms during the Battle of the Bulge were executed,
Sorry. My fault for getting in the way of your fantasies . . . .
I see. No proof. Only idiocy. Carry on.
I’m so sorry . . . what was I thinking? I must believe everything that is posted on the internet. Everything.
The french should have taken a page from Ivan’s book on dealing with a theater full of kidnappers and hostages, if one remembers back a bit. Not the most elegant solution, but it did save on ammo... ;)
All that under the table campaign financing plus other goodies buys a lot of political good will.
Certainly not the most “elegant,” seeing that everyone died.
Wondering what the Russians plan to do about their downed airliner?
They didn’t give the antidote to the terrorists, obviously, supposedly 170 out of 900+ died—40 terrorists and 130 civilians, though the number of civilian casualties is also said to be closer to 200.
When some Somali pirates took a South Korean freighter the crew retreated to a safe room. The ROK Marines stormed the ship and killed every one of the pirates. That’s what it takes folks. The Indian Navy blew one of the pirate’s mother ships out of the water, with the pirates on board.
This is not meant to be an insult so please don't take it that way.
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