HOSTAGE-TAKING TERRORISM

HOSTAGE-TAKING TERRORISM

Hostage-Taking Terroristn Incident-Response Strategy Alastair C. Mac Willson M MACMILLAN

Alastair C. MacWillson 1992 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 33-4 Alfred Place, London WCIE 7DP. Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. First published 1992 by MACMILLAN ACADEMIC AND PROFESSIONAL LTD Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 2XS and London Companies and representatives throughout the world ISBN 978-1-349-12479-4 DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-12477-0 ISBN 978-1-349-12477-0 (ebook) A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Dedicated to my wife and children, the prime motivators

Contents Preface page xi 1 Development of Terrorism Worldwide 1 Characteristics of Terrorism 2 What is Terrorism? 3 Who are the Terrorists? 3 The Causes of Terrorism 5 Terrorist Aims 5 Terrorist Methods 7 Incidence of Hostage Taking 7 State Support for Terrorism 8 Summary 9 2 Development of Terrorist Incident Handling 10 History of Incident-Handling Development 10 Terrorist Incident-Handling Philosophy in Britain 13 Lessons from Early Exercises and Incidents 14 Summary 20 3 Negotiating Objectives 21 Government Objectives 21 Terrorist Objectives 28 The Ideal Negotiator 31 Summary 38 4 Negotiation Strategy 40 Negotiation Philosophy 40 Negotiation Cell Organisation 45 Negotiations Objectives 48 Terrorist Objectives 53 Hostage Objectives 55 Attitudes of Participants to Hostage Taking 58 The Hostage as an Aid to Negotiations 65 Preserving the Hostages 67 vii

Vlll Hostage-Taking Terrorism The Hostage as a Negotiating Medium 69 The Hostage as an Accomplice 70 The Hostage as a Factor for Good Incident Resolution 72 Time 73 Summary 80 5 Effective Government Crisis Management 81 Factors Affecting Strategic and Tactical Decision Making 81 Incident Management and Response Planning 89 Containment and Armed Response 103 Summary 112 6 Operational and Support Requirements for Crisis Management and Negotiation 113 Intelligence about the Terrorists 113 Tactical Information on the Hostages 118 Transference 120 Tactical Information About the Stronghold 123 Summary 130 7 Technical Support Requirements 131 Tactical Intelligence-Gathering Methods 131 Methods and Tactics 134 Technical Aspects 140 TST Control 143 Tactical Intelligence 144 Countermeasures 145 8 Incident Resolution 146 Factors and Considerations 146 Armed Assault 149 Intelligence and Preparation 149 9 Psychological Aspects of Hostage Taking 153 Profile of Terrorism 154 Political and Criminal Issues 155

Contents lx Transference 159 Summary 162 10 Kidnap and Ransom 163 Kidnappers' Methods and Organisatim 163 Siege or Kidnap? 172 Management of Kidnap Negotiations 173 Negotiations Policy Issues 177 11 International Counter-Terrorism 184 Treaties and Conventions 184 International Action 188 12 Future Trends 191 Developments 191 Future Tactics 194 Future Countermeasures 198 Summary 199 13 Case Studies 200 The South Moluccan Train Siege 200 Hostage-Taking Incidents in Honduras 212 The Iranian Embassy Siege 224 Bibliography 255 Index 258

An insult unpunished is the parent of others. Thomas Jefferson Nothing is more dangerous than to be reluctant to take precautions lest they turn out to be unneccessary. Admiral Chester Nimitz

Preface The last third of the twentieth century has seen terrorism take many forms and cause problems to many countries. By the early 1990s most governments recognised terrorism as a significant political phenomenon in both domestic and foreign affairs. The danger it represents to society as a whole cannot be underestimated: it operates irrespective of the political attitudes of the state itself, its basic philosophy transcends traditional dividing lines between political doctrines. Indeed, as Margaret Thatcher declared in her address to the American Bar Association in 1985, 'Nor is terrorism confined to countries where lawlessness and anarchy prevail. Its followers abuse the very freedom of open societies to do their evil work. The more open our society the more we must be on our guard'. Many governments have taken steps to counter the threat of terrorist action in their country: some are unfortunate in already having direct experience of terrorism while others have in place some form of contingency plan to counter such an occurrence. Even governments with little or no direct contact with terrorism may have considerable experience of investigating and interrogating suspects in the course of handling security cases and may feel that they have sufficient understanding of the terrorist and his motivation to effectively counter the threat. This experience cannot compare with the unique knowledge gained during live counter-terrorist operations, however, especially those aimed specifically at hostage-taking incidents, the growth industry of terrorism. It is generally accepted that a government able to deploy a trained and experienced crisis management team against terrorists holding hostages stands a far better chance of successfully resolving the situation than a government that is caught entirely by surprise, having no prepared plan or personnel. This book examines the problems governments face or are likely to face in handling a hostage situation. It seeks to address the specialised subject of crisis management when applied to terrorist hostage-taking incidents. Xl

Xll Hostage-Taking Terrorism The information and expertise contained here is the result of wide reading and long experience. It is the distillation of a career in counter-terrorism, security and intelligence. It is to be hoped that the content of the book educates those in need and achieves the broad aim of improving the quality of life by helping to bring the individuals involved in terrorist activities to account. The layout of the text is intended to enable the reader to quickly find information on the essential issues of incident handling. For ease of reference I have assigned each important subject area its own chapter. I hope, however, that the reader will find the contents of this book sufficiently interesting to begin at page one. The pronoun 'he' has been used throughout the book but there is no sexist bias intended. In fact, despite their relative rarity at terrorist incidents, female negotiators, crisis managers and even assault team members are as accomplished as their male counterparts. The same can be said of female terrorists also. Government policy and technical information remains current only for a limited period, but I am confident that in this particular subject it will be a long time before the essentials, as set out here, become out of date. In order to illustrate aspects of hostage-taking terrorism it has been necessary to refer to previous incidents which, in some cases, have been adequately documented by others. I make no apologies for this approach as the lessons learned from previous incidents provide valuable experience in formulating a crisis-management strategy. Finally, I wish to express my profound gratitude to RM, AT and HM who so generously contributed to the concept, research and development of this book, and to my father who, as proof-reader, helped to make sense out of a muddle.