Word: lieut
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When Marine Lieut. Colonel William Higgins became the top-ranking American officer in the United Nations' observer group in Lebanon in June 1987, he had just completed a two-year stint as one of two military assistants to Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger. He had been able to see almost every classified document that crossed Weinberger's desk. U.S. officials think Higgins was kidnaped simply because he was an American and not because of his background. But the fact that he had so recently served in a sensitive Pentagon job clearly increased the danger to Higgins once he fell into unfriendly...
...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...
...only limited success when it tried using more conventional forces to hit back at terrorists. When Jimmy Carter dispatched Marine helicopters to rescue the embassy hostages in 1980, the result was wreckage in the desert. Bombing runs over Lebanon in 1983 resulted in the capture of a naval aviator, Lieut. Robert Goodman, who was later retrieved by Jesse Jackson. Only the snatching of the Achille Lauro hijackers and perhaps the 1986 bombing of Libya could be considered effective in reducing terrorist activity...
...Navy attack planes are shot down over Lebanon. One pilot is killed; Lieut. Robert Goodman is captured by Syrian forces (a month later, he is released). Later that day, nine Marines are fatally wounded during a heavy-artillery attack on their observation post near Beirut airport...
...actually have wanted to acquire bait for a hostage swap. Two affiliate groups of Hizballah are believed to be holding three Israeli prisoners of war captured in 1986, two of them soldiers taken in the security zone and the third an air force navigator. Americans wonder if U.S. Lieut. Colonel William Higgins, head of the United Nations peacekeeping force in Lebanon, who was seized by Hizballah last year, might be part of a swap...