While researching for paper 5, I came across some interesting information that I thought I'd share with you guys. It's about Russia's elite counter-terrorism group known as the Alpha Group.
Not much is known about their history, but one notable operation was in 1985 when 4 Russian diplomats were held hostage in Beirut. The KGB identified the terrorists and the Alpha group kidnapped their families. Since Russia does not negotiate with hostages, they just sent the terrorists some severed body parts from their family members with the warning that more would be sent if the diplomats were not released. Needless to say, the terrorists released their hostages, and no Russian diplomats has been kidnapped in the Middle East for the last 20 years.
I know that we could never do that today, but you have to hand it to the Soviets, they got the job done.
Read more about the Alpha group here
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8 comments:
It's interesting that a method of deterrence works so effectively in matters like this. I just know I often have heard the deterrent factor of punishment doesn't work very well in the case of criminals, at least here in the U.S. I know China is very extreme in their punishment of criminals, such as armed robbery is punishable by death so they have very few armed robberies in China. I guess that may be the real deciding factor, is by being so extreme that it creates a deterrent factor. By convincing someone you're willing to do far more to them than they could possibly do to you is what makes the difference. It seems like that's what the strategy of terrorists is often times as well. They seek to push the limits.
Often in our readings it seems that terrorism cannot be deterred except by convincing terrorists that certain actions would undermine their own goals. Otherwise, they have no fear of death and no restraints beyond the need to attain their goals. However, we've also learned that terrorists can be 'altruistic' in that they are willing to sacrifice themselves for a better future for their loved ones and posterity. I guess the Russian method defeats the purpose of such altruism. It would take one highly committed individual to not give in as did the terrorists. This reminds me of Bruce Hoffman's description of counter terror as 'as nasty business.'
This deterence method used by the Alpha group is very interesting and effective. I think this method would be quite effective in dealing with terrorists.I have seen the deadly results of terrorist attacks and its cruelty; no matter thier grieviance, thier should be some respect for human life.If they lack this, the same mindset should be used to hunt them down in order to deter thier fellow terrorists from embarking on such excapades.
Did the Alpha group kidnap the families or the KGB?
As I was reading this piece, I remembered hearing that the US incorporated several Nazi tactics in its war against the insurgency in Vietnam. I also heard that after the fall of Berlin, several ex-Nazi's were incorporated into the US' Counterintelligence Corps for several reasons: to help the US infiltrate Eastern Block countries, to supply us with their knowledge of interrogation and counterinsurgency, to help us in the overall fight against Soviet expansion, etc. In any case, I was wondering if anyone else had heard these rumors and if so, if they could substantiate them with some empirical evidence (the web is surprisingly filled with evidences and examples of Soviet methods of Counter-terror and Counterinsurgency, i.e. adoption of secret police, torture, blanket reprisals, etc., but not of Nazi techniques. I was just curious as to what the Nazi's did so that I could make a comparison between their techniques and ours during the Vietnam war.
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