Word: factionalization
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Beirut time, 10:45 a.m. in Washington, the freedom ride finally began along the mountainous 75-mile road to Damascus. Accompanying the hostages were armed escorts from Amal and from another Lebanese faction, the Druze. Also in the caravan were representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross and Syrian army officers and security agents, which helped emphasize the pivotal role Syria had played in arranging the release of the long-waylaid passengers and crew of TWA Flight...
...less successful resolution of the hijacking (tending to be forgotten was murdered Navy Diver Robert Stethem) seems unlikely to discourage those who would use hostages as pawns in a political power game and terrorism as a form of propaganda theater. On the contrary, the astonishing adroitness that a militant faction in an anarchic country displayed in monopolizing world attention, in effect holding Washington and much of the American public hostage, is an ominous sign...
...also called for the release of the 776 Shi'ite detainees in Israel "who undoubtedly have as equal and as strong a desire to go home as we do." When asked if he felt that he and the other hostages were being held by the same Shi'ite faction as the one the original hijackers belonged to, Conwell replied, "There is an abrupt change of attitude and very sincere difference in the way the people who are holding us now behave, relate to us and treat us, and I am told that they are indeed a different group of people...
Some believe that the current hijacking was plotted by a faction in Amal calling itself the Sadr Brigade, purportedly composed of friends and relatives of the Shi'ite detainees in Israel. There are many such informal alliances within Lebanon's Shi'ite community, most of them extremist and many of them revolving around a single electrifying personality. "We're not talking about neat organizations," says Helms. "These are people who are inclined to pick a title that suits them after they act." Indeed, the most famous such group, Islamic Jihad (Holy War), apparently exists solely as a disembodied and anonymous...
Acting as a kind of terrorist talk-show host was Ali Hamdan, a well-groomed representative of the Lebanese Amal, the mainstream Shi'ite faction that had in effect hijacked the hostages from their original hijackers, the two brutal gunmen who had seized TWA's Flight 847 and murdered Navy Diver Robert Stethem. The only glitch in this presentation occurred when reporters and cameramen got into a shoving match as they jockeyed for position. Quickly, the Shi'ite guards hustled their prizes from the crowded room in the Beirut airport, waving pistols and cuffing a few reporters for good measure...