Prime-Time Terrorism

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With each passing day, the risk grew that the terrorists would escalate their demands. As their carefully staged press conference demonstrated, the radical Shi'ites revel in the glare of television lights. The day after that conference, several hundred Shi'ites marched at Beirut airport in support of the hijackers, producing the kind of terrorist theater -- bursts from Kalashnikovs, women clad in long black gowns and veils, flags burning and epithets against "the great Satan" -- that is made to order for the nightly news. Indeed, the ultimate aim of the terrorists may be less the safe return of their comrades than the continued humiliation of America in prime time (see PRESS). Shultz warned the Shi'ite leaders that they would become international "outcasts" if the hostages were not quickly released. Nor did the Shi'ites hear any words of encouragement from their natural allies; Arab gulf nations, several of which have been the victims of Shi'ite terrorism, remained conspicuously silent. So did Iran and Syria, normally strong supporters of the Shi'ites. King Hussein of Jordan, usually circumspect in his judgments, bitterly denounced the hijackers as "the scum of the earth."

Any chance that the Administration would rescue the hostages by force evaporated almost before the White House realized it was dealing with a major terrorist act rather than a run-of-the-mill hijacking. A commando team could have shot out the tires of the jetliner as it stood on the runway in Algeria and then tried to storm the plane, but at the time the elite Delta Force unit trained to mount such lightning raids was still packing its gear at Fort Bragg, N.C. When the plane returned to Algiers a second time, the Algerians forbade the U.S. to attempt a rescue while they bargained with the skittish and suspicious hijackers. After 23 hours, the talks collapsed, and the plane was allowed to take off again.

By the time Flight 847 returned to Beirut on the second day of the hijacking, a military rescue had been ruled out. For one thing, it would have been too risky at the heavily guarded airport. For another, it would have been a death warrant for a half dozen passengers, initially reported to have "Jewish- sounding last names," who were secretly removed from the plane in the middle of the night.