Word: east
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1980-1989
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...hostage scenario has become numbingly familiar. The sadistic videotapes of frightened captives, followed by threats of execution. The White House dispatching naval fleets or listening for some faint reply down a clogged diplomatic channel to the Middle East. Last week it was George Bush's turn to try urgent appeals and gunboat maneuvers while an angry public fulminated at American impotence. Just six months in office, Bush had become the third U.S. President in a row caught in the same wretched predicament. The latest hostage crisis, however, yielded a gruesome new image of horror: a man, bound and gagged, dangling...
...plans to seize Obeid, though advance consultation would have made the U.S. an accomplice to Israeli actions, further alienating Arab nations from the U.S. Some in both houses of Congress came to Israel's defense, stressing that to drive a wedge between the U.S. and its closest Middle East ally would merely serve the interests of the kidnapers. For its part, the White House called pointedly throughout the week for the release of all hostages -- presumably including Obeid...
...round-the-clock hostage task force, while the White House launched a diplomatic rescue effort that one U.S. envoy called "a full-court press on everybody we know." Characteristically, the President worked the phone with the heads of state of most European allies and nations in the Middle East -- with the notable exception of Syria's Hafez Assad, whom Bush does not trust...
...another, the figure in the videotape showed no physical signs of hanging, such as bulging eyes and extruding tongue. He was dressed in a parka or sweater, which seems unlikely in the middle of a Middle East summer...
...hostages would require pinpointing where they are held, but the ability of U.S. intelligence to discover the whereabouts of the hostages is still limited. Terrorist cells are small, often based on family ties, and very hard to crack. The killing of two of the CIA's top Middle East operatives, former hostage William Buckley and Robert Ames, severely crippled what little was left of any U.S. intelligence network in the region...