Word: terrorists
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...answer to an explosive and delicate situation. Among those questioned, 45% said the U.S. should retaliate in this instance with military action and 39% said it should not. But when presented with an array of options, 58% of the respondents said the U.S. should negotiate with terrorist groups for the hostages' release, and between 45% and two-thirds rejected various specified U.S. military options...
...Iran was notified that as the paymaster of the Hizballah, it would be held responsible if any American hostages were harmed. Through a variety of conflicting leaks, the Administration let it be known that if Cicippio was killed, the President was prepared to order an air strike against suspected terrorist bases...
...message about the hostages sent via a third country. "Since the content had nothing to do with Iran," the news agency quoted the official as saying, "the message was not accepted." Tehran's denials were contradicted by an Israeli intelligence report claiming that Obeid had confessed that Hizballah's terrorist activities were directed by the Iranian embassies in Beirut and Damascus...
...also resorted to kidnaping of a sort, most famously during the 1985 midair interception of the Achille Lauro hijackers by fighter planes. In September 1987 FBI agents lured suspected terrorist Fawaz Younis into international waters off Cyprus, arrested him aboard a U.S. vessel and flew him to Andrews Air Force Base for eventual trial and imprisonment. For the most part, however, the U.S. has adopted a waiting posture, which critics charge has degenerated into a prescription for inaction...
...force was set up to combine intelligence from other groups such as the National Security Agency and the armed forces. Any raid to rescue the hostages would require pinpointing where they are held, but the ability of U.S. intelligence to discover the whereabouts of the hostages is still limited. Terrorist cells are small, often based on family ties, and very hard to crack. The killing of two of the CIA's top Middle East operatives, former hostage William Buckley and Robert Ames, severely crippled what little was left of any U.S. intelligence network in the region...