[SAMWolf]

I believe he sent a rescue mission to free an American woman who was being held hostage. My memory is vague on the details.

[WaterDragon]

I thought it was concerning the ships he sent against them that he said "Walk softly but carry a big stick." If it was TR who said that.

[WaterDragon]

In May 1904, Ion Perdicaris, a wealthy American expatriate living in Tangier, was abducted from his sumptuous villa by (At http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues98/jul98/tangier.html) Ahmed er Raisuli, "the last of the Barbary pirates." His kidnapping, writes Jonathan Broder, "set in motion an extraordinary international drama that would pit the might of the U.S. Navy against the wily Riffian bandit, secure Theodore Roosevelt's nomination for the Presidency and ultimately help him retain the White House." But above all, says Broder, "the Perdicaris affair would serve as a reminder of Tangier's power to taunt and tantalize the American imagination." The kidnapped businessman was changed to a woman in a movie made about this.