CIA-RDP96-00789R000400020001-5

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000400020001-5
Then There
Were Nine
T
the white United Nations station
wagon headed south on the coastal
highway from the Lebanese town of
Tyre. Suddenly, near the village of Ras
el-Ein, a brown Volvo blocked the
road. Gunmen leaped from the car and
dragged out the station wagon's lone
passenger: U.S. Marine Lieut. Colonel
William Higgins, 43, the leader of a
76-man observer group attached to the
U.N. Interim Force. The attackers
forced him into the Volvo and sped off.
That abduction last week brought to
nine the number of American hostages
in Lebanon.
Two days later the so-called Orga-
nization of the Oppressed on Earth de-
livered to a Western news agency a
statement typed in Arabic declaring its
responsibility for the abduction. En-
TIME. FEBRUARY 29, 1988
closed were snapshots of two of Hig-
gins' identity cards. The statement
read: "We have caught the throat of
the American serpent, criminal agent
of the satanic CIA and one of the big-
gest spies, sowing daily terror in our
land." Mindful that an earlier hostage,
CIA Station Chief William Buckley,
had been tortured to death by his
abductors, the State Department de-
nied any links between the kidnaped
colonel and the U.S. intelligence
services.
At the time of his capture Higgins,
a native of Kentucky and a former
aide to ex-U.S. Secretary of Defense
Caspar Weinberger, was returning
from a meeting with a local leader of
the Shi'ite Amal militia. The incident
was a major embarrassment for Amal
Leader Nabih Berri, Lebanon's Justice
Minister. Amal, along with U.N.
peacekeeping forces, immediately
launched a manhunt for Higgins and
his abductors.
DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
1
-
--
1
Higgins on U.N. duty last November
i
1
TIME, FEBRUARY ?4, 1988
TIME 25 FEB 88
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000400020001-5