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| HOSTAGE RESCUE What Should A Government Do About A Hostage Crisis? May 13, 1997 |
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NewsHour Links
May 13, 1997:
A panel with Bob Taubert discusses the tactics used to re-take the Japanese Ambassador's residence in Lima, Peru.
February 3, 1997:
A newsmaker interview with Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori.
January 27, 1997:
Charlayne Hunter-Gault gets an update on the hostage situation from NPR reporter Jonathan Miller.
January 2, 1997:
Jim Lehrer speaks with journalist Jonathan Miller, reporting live from Peru.
December 23, 1996:
Marxist rebels released 225 hostages from the Japanese ambassador's residence in a "good will" Christmas gesture.
December 19, 1996:
In a stunning attack, a band of Peruvian rebels stormed the Japanese embassy in Lima holding 490 hostage.
Browse NewsHour coverage of Latin America.
David Isaacs of Brooklyn, NY asks: Commandos
Do you believe that American law enforcement agents, Federal or local, might execute terrorists as the Peruvian commandos were reported to have done?
William Schulz responds:
Execution of those who are attempting to surrender or the torture of anyone under any circumstances constitute a violation of human rights standards. This is true of American law enforcement officials or any other.
Bob Taubert responds:
David, as a former FBI agent who was involved in many violent confrontations, including WACO, I can unequivocally state that no federal agents or local police under proper command and control would "execute" terrorists, or anyone taken into custody even if they were hypothetically ordered to do so. U.S. law enforcement personnel are taught to preserve and value life. Anyone, regardless of authority, who intentionally kills when an adversary ceases to resist, committs murder and must be brought to justice.
Also, please understand that most of these reports regarding execution are coming from the opposition and should be expected. If, however, an eye witness testifies to this, or forensics indicate that such actions occurred, then an otherwise outstanding operation would be severely tarnished.
Please permit me a personal postscript:
The deaths of two young women "revolutionaries" are particularly tragic. Their recruitment reminds me of the desperation that the Nazis displayed when they conscripted teenagers to defend Berlin from relentlessly aproaching Soviet armor. These women may have been able to redirect their ideological fervor and accomplishe much more through peaceful means, but we will never know. The responsibility for the useless sacrifice of their lives for a corrupt political ideology must be assumed by those who recruited and trained them. This was another act of desperation equally as heinous as the one committed near the end of Nazi resistance.
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