Word: picco
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...Picco passed the word to Perez de Cuellar, who was eager to wrap up the hostage ordeal before his retirement at the end of this year. The U.N. team decided to work on two levels. Perez de Cuellar mounted a high-profile diplomatic campaign, repeatedly visiting Iran, Syria and Israel to obtain official backing for Picco's veiled bargaining. The U.N. chief also sought advice from Brent Scowcroft, George Bush's National Security Adviser, who traveled to New York City to meet secretly with Perez de Cuellar, sometimes without the knowledge of Thomas Pickering, the U.S. ambassador...
Meanwhile Picco embarked on his secret mission. On several occasions he traveled with Syrian secret police to the border with Lebanon, where he was met by intermediaries waiting in a black Mercedes. Then he was driven -- alone, with his head covered by a cloth bag -- into the Bekaa Valley, in the eastern portion of Lebanon. Some of his meetings with Shi'ite operatives were held in the village of Nabisheet, where he may have spoken to some of the hostages. When asked about that possibility, Picco crisply responds, "Next question...
These forays were filled with danger. "In order to meet with ((the captors)), their security was absolutely guaranteed," says Picco. "I always met with them alone, and always at night. We met many, many times." Picco needed no reminder that Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite was seized in 1987 under similar circumstances. Says Picco: "Either you are afraid or you are a fool." While in Lebanon, Picco began to move to a different house every night after U.N. sources learned that there was a contract on his life...
...journalist John McCarthy was released. He was carrying a message from Islamic Jihad: if Israel would release more than 300 Arab detainees, including Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid, a Shi'ite Muslim cleric kidnapped by Israeli commandos in 1989, the group would be willing to free its remaining captives. Using Picco as a go-between, the two sides began exchanging information about the condition of their prisoners...
...month later, Perez de Cuellar went to Tehran to receive Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani's assurances that he would pressure the radicals to free their captives. At about the same time, Picco arrived in Lebanon to tell the kidnappers that Israel was willing to release Arab prisoners. In return, the Israelis demanded information on seven of their servicemen missing in Lebanon, one of whom is known to be alive...