Word: compounding
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...embassy staff that numbered 25 in 1975 now stands at 215 Americans, plus 315 local employees. But at a time when the fortress-like U.S. embassy compound in Tehran remains in the hands of Iranian militants, and the American missions in Islamabad and Tripoli are still scarred from last year's assaults, many staffers in Cairo question the wisdom of constructing an opulent symbol that could easily turn into a lightning rod for anti-American protests. Top aides to Ambassador Alfred Atherton argue that the building would represent a "blatant political statement," and some have already dubbed the proposed...
Oppressive heat. Scalding sunlight. Not a whisper of a breeze. The place is a vacation resort near Marrakesh in Morocco, but the guests' garden patio might almost be a military compound under siege. Its protective wall is topped with shards of implanted glass and barbed wire. Palm fronds are silhouettes against an implacably blue sky, and in the distance one hears the eerie, insinuative call of the muezzin, summoning the faithful of Islam to prayer...
...afternoon of April 24, the sun poured down on an Egyptian airfield where six C-130 transports squatted. The men who would fly the planes to Iran and those who would storm the U.S. embassy compound milled around the craft. The rescue force commander stood in the open beside the elaborate communications gear that linked the tense unit with the White House, the Pentagon and a collection of technical groups spread halfway around the world...
Surprise and speed were essential. The attackers, confident that they knew where the hostages were within the compound, planned to scale the embassy walls and shoot or capture the guards. The assault team was armed with automatic weapons but, contrary to some published reports, did not carry disabling gas, which would have knocked out the captives and required them to be carried to safety...
Much of the confusion can be traced to the Cuban Premier, who has regularly changed the rules and played to his own interests throughout the world's latest refugee flight. When nearly 11,000 Cubans crammed into the Peruvian embassy compound in Havana last month seeking political asylum, Castro promised salidas (exit visas) to all those who could gain permission from other countries to emigrate there. But after an airlift organized by Costa Rica had evacuated 678 of the 6,250 would-be exiles accepted by eight nations, including the U.S., Castro suddenly canceled the flights. Havana instead proclaimed...