Word: colonel
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This absurdity was most in evidence during and after the April 1986 U.S. bombing of the military barracks in Tripoli, Libya. That was when Colonel Muammar Gaddafi was the villain of the month. Although Gaddafi and his family were known to be living in the barracks and although the attack killed many soldiers and some civilians -- including, Gaddafi claimed, his 18-month-old adopted daughter -- American officials were at pains to insist that they did not intend to kill Gaddafi himself. President Reagan said, "We weren't . . . dropping these tons of bombs hoping to blow that man up" -- although...
...botched coup emerge, it seems clear that the rebel force had potential that Washington underestimated. Noriega's subsequent roundup of plotters showed that the effort reached deep into the dictator's circle. Among the 37 arrested were three of the general's closest and most trusted associates: Colonel Guillermo Wong, head of military intelligence, Colonel Julio Ow Young, who oversees personnel for the dreaded Doberman militias that have repeatedly been turned on opposition rallies, and Lieut. Colonel Armando Palacios Gondola, head of an organization that supervised joint military operations with U.S. troops...
When Americans see the case of Colonel Higgins, who was hanged, Americans who know nothing about Lebanon are suddenly filled with hatred. Isn't it time now to call on the people responsible to stop...
...hanging man was almost certainly U.S. Marine Lieut. Colonel William Higgins, 44, who was kidnaped last year while serving as head of an observer team attached to the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon. His captors claimed they killed him in retaliation for Israel's seizure of Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid, a presumed leader of Shi'ite Hizballah terrorists, during a raid into southern Lebanon. U.S. officials now believe, however, that Higgins had been dead for some time, then used for his kidnapers' macabre display. No matter which terrible theory turns out to be true, the image of Higgins' body...
Although the kidnaping was a success, two days later the larger plan appeared to be backfiring. Recognizing that the U.S. could be more easily pressured than Israel by threats against its hostages, a Hizballah front group calling itself the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth vowed to kill Colonel Higgins unless Obeid was released. Israeli Cabinet officials convened an emergency meeting to formulate a counteroffer. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin proposed an exchange of Obeid and the estimated 150 Lebanese Shi'ites held in Israeli prisons for the release of the three Israeli soldiers and all the Western hostages...