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| Iraq |
| how to deal with hostage takers: soviet lessons |
| 2014-09-09 |
| h/t Jerry Pournelle The recent videotaped beheadings of American journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff by the bloodthirsty savages of ISIS bring to mind a story which took place in Lebanon almost 30 years ago. On September 30, 1985, a group of gunmen seized four Soviet diplomats and embassy workers (Arkady Katkov, Valery Myrikov, Oleg Spirin, and Nikolai Svirsky) in Beirut. During the kidnapping right outside the embassy, Katkov was wounded in the leg. |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #7 re: #6: Which is why it took a Nixon to go to China. |
| Posted by: borgboy 2014-09-09 16:02 |
| #6 Some folks can make more credible threats than others. If Reagan or W made such threats they would be believed, not because those two are especially viscious but because the media painted them as unhinged. Obama and Clinton and Carter on the other hand would just be laughed off or perhaps bribed to go away. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2014-09-09 14:29 |
| #5 Does it suggest a solution to dealing with Vlad's recent hostage-taking in Estonia? |
| Posted by: Thing From Snowy Mountain 2014-09-09 13:03 |
| #4 Solution in a shoebox. |
| Posted by: Boss Johnson9472 2014-09-09 12:19 |
| #3 I had previously read the story about the castration of the Hezbollah relative but had not heard about the threat to Qom. That would certainly get the attention of the Mad Mullahsâ„¢. The Russians understand how to work that part of the world. I'm betting that our CIA operatives on the ground know as well, but they're not allowed to do their jobs. |
| Posted by: Steve White 2014-09-09 12:19 |
| #2 You know... the same treatment applied to the NYT might work wonders. |
| Posted by: DarthVader 2014-09-09 12:13 |
| #1 of course, they don't have the equivalent of the NYT to deal with, |
| Posted by: Spomoger Bucket4906 2014-09-09 12:08 |