STEVE PIECZENIK TALKS

White House Creates “Hostage Czar”?

When all else fails due to WH incompetency and ignorance,  Create “American Version Of Russian Czar!” Russians and Putin should be laughing by now. They got rid of their Czar in the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917! Yet we resurrected the Czar because no one knows how to negotiate a minor hostage situation here or abroad.

Unbelievable!
As someone who had dealt with hundreds of hostages  all over the world including: the USA [Hanafi Muslims Washington D.C]; Uganda [Idi Amin]; Colombia [FARC]; and in the Middle East [PLO; Habash; Abu Nidal]—it was very easy for me to coordinate all my activities with the FBI, CIA, MI, SOF, Air Force, Navy, State Department, DOD, Metropolitan Police Dept [Wash DC- Police Chief Cullinane] and even the White House [Dr Peter Bourne and others]. I do not claim anything more than the ability to take calculated risks when presented with information from all sources of intelligence ranging from sophisticated NSA sweeping ELINT/SIGINT and HUMINT from the CIA, MI, local police forces, etc. 

Once I had information, I would talk to the families of the hostage when it was necessary. Very often, I assigned competent Foreign Service Officers, CIA operatives and even military or police officials to deal effectively with the respective families that were involved in the hostage negotiations.

Now the WH is spewing nonsensical palaver concerning payments to so-called self-designated terrorist groups. Since I was one of the originators of the presently completely misunderstood state policy of ‘no payment for hostages’, I can assure you that I had a successful rate of recovery because I did whatever it took to get those hostages out of harm’s way. Whether it was money or media attention, I was in the business of negotiating with terrorists along the lines of whatever currency they or I insisted upon. That point is crucial. The key to a successful hostage rescue is rarely to go in with kinetic action and play Jack Ryan on steroids [sorry Tom Clancy].

A terrorist situations as in Washington DC in the late 1970’s involved an intricate analysis by the Washington DC police and the successful use of three very brave Muslim Ambassadors –Gen Yaqub Kahn [Pakistan]; Adeshir Zahedi [Iran]; Amb Ghorbal [Egypt] and a very brave police chief named Cullinane. Eventually President Carter’s orders to ‘stand down’ were refused and the 150 plus hostages in three different buildings were safely released thanks to the brave efforts of everyone. There was no czar or czarina in any position. There was Earl Silbert, intrepid lawyer, who gave me legal guidance before, during and after the event. There were the brave bureaucrats of the Washington DC government and the senior administration officials who provided me and my team cover from the prying media which I eventually terminated [there was no First Amendment Right to incite a hostage siege—I argued correctly].

The media, especially one correspondent from the ABC, was upset that he and the other media personnel were not allowed to cover the hostage siege. I told him and the media subsequently that they would not be allowed to ‘intercede’ as long as I was running a crisis nor would they interview anyone related to the crisis. Not during; nor after.

I was fortunate that the Washington DC judge at the time had ordered at my request a ‘gag ruling’ which meant that no one was allowed to talk about it after the episode.

The past is the past but nothing has changed. Terrorism as I have noted before has become a major business on both sides of the financial aisle. Terrorists around the world have commoditized hostages in terms of dollars and cents. These so-called Security Experts have made a fortune servicing the desperate families with all types of false promises; as well as providing Hollywood with spurious hostage situations and outcomes. Let’s not forget the new Czar position with a salary at the taxpayers expense.