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Abstract
This study examines 40 years of kidnapping incidents by terrorist groups and finds several interesting trends, including terrorist groups are engaged in more kidnapping than in years past, but the proportion of kidnapping among all terrorist events annually has remained fairly constant; the geographic concentration of kidnapping incidents has shifted from Latin America (1970s–1990s) to South Asia (2000s–present); left-wing Marxist revolutionary groups have kidnapped more than groups in other ideological categories, but there has been a significant increase over the past decade in kidnappings by Muslim extremist groups; terrorist groups overall appear far less interested in kidnapping for financial gain than for political or policy concessions; and terrorist groups are selective about the type of people they target for kidnapping, which is striking given that many other kinds of terrorist attacks (e.g. bombings) are indiscriminate with regard to victims. The article concludes with some implications and recommendations for future research.
Notes
1 Established in 1964 as the military wing of the Colombian Communist Party, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarios de Colombia or FARC) is Latin America's oldest, largest, most capable, and best-equipped insurgency of Marxist origin – although it only nominally fights in support of Marxist goals today. Source: The US National Counterterrorism Center, http://www.nctc.gov/site/groups/farc.html.
2 Al Jazeera, ‘Hamas hails Palestinian prisoners deal’, October 12, 2011, http://aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2011/10/20111011175925656823.html. As of July 2011, before this exchange was negotiated, there were 5335 Palestinians in Israeli prisons, including 211 children. Some have been convicted of murder, but others are detained and tried for political activities. See BBC News, ‘Heated Debate over Palestinian prisoners in Israel’, July 6, 2011, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-13989989.
3 Shaul Shay, Islamic Terror Abductions in the Middle East (Brighton, UK: Sussex Academic Press, 2007); Carol Edler Baumann, The Diplomatic Kidnappings: A Revolutionary Tactic of Urban Terrorism (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1973); Adam Dolnik and Keith Fitzgerald, Negotiating Hostage Crises with the New Terrorists (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007).
4 For example, IKV Pax Christ, a NGO based in the Netherlands, recently suggested that up to 75% of abductions go unreported. Most of these, however, are for profit and not terrorist-related. See Mark Galeotti, ‘Spirited Away: The Rise of Global Kidnapping Trends’, Jane's Intelligence Review, April 27, 2010.
5 Castle Rock International, ‘Top 10 Kidnap Rated Countries with Ransom Stats’, April 3, 2008.
6 See Gary LaFree, Laura Dugan, Heather Fogg and Jeffrey Scott, ‘Building a Global Terrorism Database’, National Criminal Justice Reference Service (May 2006; Document No. 214260), 21.
7 Global Terrorism Database Codebook, 5
8 This analysis is limited by the nature of the data available. No source of data is perfect, and the Global Terrorism Database is no exception. For each incident in the database, only one entry is provided for group, year, ransom, and the location of the incident, while there can be more than one victim, and more than one outcome, for each event. Further, there are many incidents for which group, victim, or outcome are coded as ‘unknown’, limiting the conclusiveness of research findings.
9 LaFree et al., ‘Building a Global Terrorism Database’, 24, citing Richard Falkenrath, ‘Analytic Models and Policy Prescription: Understanding Recent Innovation in U.S. Counterterrorism’, Journal of Conflict and Terrorism 24 (2001): 159–81.
10 Phil Williams, Criminals, Militias and Insurgents: Organized Crime in Iraq (Carlisle, PA: US Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute, 2009), 106.
11 For example, see the 2011 edition of the Failed State Index, published jointly by Foreign Policy magazine and the Fund for Peace, http://www.foreignpolicy.com/failedstates.
12 See ‘Terrorist Organization Profiles’ database online at the START website: http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops/.
13 ‘Basque Ceasefire Statement’, The Guardian, October 20, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/20/basque-ceasefire-statement-full-text.
14 David C. Rapoport, ‘The Four Waves of Terrorism’, in Attacking Terrorism: Elements of a Grand Strategy, ed. Audrey Kurth Cronin and James M. Ludes (Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2004); and David C. Rapoport, ‘Before the Bombs There Were the Mobs: American Experiences with Terror’, Terrorism and Political Violence 20, no. 2 (2008): 167–94.
15 Kristopher K. Robison, Edward M. Crenshaw, and J. Craig Jenkins, ‘Ideologies of Violence: The Social Origins of Islamist and Leftist Transnational Terrorism’, Social Forces 84, no. 4 (June 2006) pp. 2009–2026.
16 Bruce Hoffman, Inside Terrorism (New York: Columbia University Press, 2006), 78, 88–9, 129–30.
17 Galeotti, ‘Spirited Away: The Rise of Global Kidnapping Trends’.
18 Shay, Islamic Terror Abductions in the Middle East, 110.
19 Galeotti, ‘Spirited Away: The Rise of Global Kidnapping Trends’.
20 Williams, Criminals, Militias and Insurgents, 107.
21 Ibid., 143. Also, according to another report, between April and June 2011, an average of 6–7 Iraqis were kidnapped in Iraq each month, with an average ransom of $50,000 paid to the kidnappers. Clearly, these sums add up significantly. See AFP, ‘Blind Date to Blindfold: The Kidnap Business in Iraq’, Middle East Online, August 5, 2011, http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=47500.
22 Galeotti, ‘Spirited Away: The Rise of Global Kidnapping Trends’.
23 Interestingly, however, this kind of activity is often seen as counterproductive, as noted poignantly in a 2006 letter sent to Zarqawi by Ayman al-Zawahiri, a senior leader of al-Qaida, in which he urges the Iraqis to stop the practice of videotaped beheadings because ‘We are in a battle, and more than half of this battle is taking place in the battlefield of the media. We are in a race for hearts and minds of our umma’. See John Hughes, ‘Winning the War of Words in the Campaign against Terrorism’, The Christian Science Monitor, May 17, 2006.
24 Williams, Criminals, Militias and Insurgents, 111.
25 For more information on the LRA, see the Terrorist Organization Profile at the START database website: http://www.start.umd.edu/start/data_collections/tops/terrorist_organization_profile.asp?id=3513.
26 Jake Tapper and Luis Martinez, ‘Obama Sends 100 US Troops to Uganda to Help Combat Lord's Resistance Army’, ABC News, October 14, 2011, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/obama-sends-100-us-troops-to-uganda-to-combat-lords-resistance-army/.
27 Kirk Semple, ‘Kidnapped in Iraq: Victim's Tale of Clockwork Death and Ransom’, New York Times, May 7, 2006, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/07/world/middleeast/07kidnap.html.
28 Esme McAvoy and David Randall, ‘The £1 Billion Hostage Trade’, Independent, October 17, 2010.
29 ‘Somalia Releases 6 Foreigners Convicted of Smuggling Pirates’ Ransoms', Global Post, June 27, 2011.
30 Guillaume de Syon, ‘Aviation Security’, in Homeland Security: Protecting America's Targets, vol. 3, ed. James J.F. Forest (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2006), 270. An online description of this event is also available at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japan_Airlines_Flight_472.
31 Michael Newton, The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings (New York: Facts on File, Inc., 2002), 11.
32 GTD incident summary, http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=197304020001.
33 Newton, The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings, 261. Also see Edward F. Mickolus, ‘Chronology of Transnational Terrorist Attacks upon American Business People, 1968–1976’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 1, no. 2 (1978): 217–35.
34 Newton, The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings, 95. For more on the history of terrorism and insurgency in Argentina during this period, see Charles A. Russell, James F. Schenkel and James A. Miller, ‘Urban Guerillas in Argentina’, Latin American Research Review 9, no. 3 (Autumn 1974): 53–89.
35 Newton, The Encyclopedia of Kidnappings, 32. Also, see Mickolus, ‘Chronology of Transnational Terrorist Attacks upon American Business People, 1968–1976’.
36 See ‘ETA: The “Mother” of Separatist Terrorism’, Executive Intelligence Review, November 17, 1995, http://www.larouchepub.com/other/1995/2246_eta.html; and ‘Las Victimas, Terrorismo en Espana’, http://terrorismo.zoomblog.com/archivo/2006/03/31/-Las-Victimas.html.
37 See the GTD incident summary, at http://www.start.umd.edu/gtd/search/IncidentSummary.aspx?gtdid=197705200001.
38 Daniel McGrory, ‘How $45m Secretly Bought Freedom of Foreign Hostages’, The Times (London), May 22, 2006, http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/iraq/article723364.
39 Andrew Hansen and Lauren Vriens, ‘Backgrounder: Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb’, Council on Foreign Relations, July 21, 2009, http://www.cfr.org/north-africa/al-qaeda-islamic-maghreb-aqim/p12717.
40 Galeotti, ‘Spirited Away: The Rise of Global Kidnapping Trends’.
41 Andrew McGregor, ‘Will al-Qaeda Survive the Loss of its Leadership?’, Terrorism Monitor 8, no. 24 (June 2010), http://www.jamestown.org/programs/gta/single/?tx_ttnews[tt_news]=36514&tx_ttnews[backPid]=457&no_cache=1 (accessed September 20, 2011).
42 Associated Press, ‘Abu Sayyaf's New Generation Threatens Philippines’, The Philippine Star, February 23, 2009.
43 A separate analysis of the GTD, addressing this question, will be published in a forthcoming issue of Crime and Delinquency (James Forest, guest editor).
44 Brian Jenkins, ‘Terrorism and Kidnapping: A Talk Given to Members of the Research Security Administrators Quarterly Seminar’, Palo Alto, CA, June 14, 1974.
45 Williams, Criminals, Militias and Insurgents, 111.
46 For details of this event, see Simon Reeve, One Day in September: The Story of the 1972 Munich Olympics Massacre (London: Faber and Faber, 2000); and Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, 66–71.
47 Abu Iyad with Eric Rouleau, My Home, My Land: A Narrative of the Palestinian Struggle, trans. Linda Butler Koseoglu (New York: Times Books, 1981), 111–12; cited in Hoffman, Inside Terrorism, 69.
48 Phoebe Greenwood, ‘Israel Divided Over Price of Freedom for Captive Soldier Gilad Shalit’, The Guardian, October 15, 2011, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/16/israel-hamas.
49 Source: ‘The Beirut Hostages: Background to the Crisis’ (Washington, DC: Foreign Affairs and National Defense Division, Congressional Research Service, The Library of Congress, June 21, 1985).
50 Richard M. Wrona, Jr., ‘Beginning of a War: The United States and the Hijacking of TWA Flight 847’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century: International Perspectives, vol. 3, ed. James J.F. Forest (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2007), 38.
51 Edmund L. Andrews and John Kifner, ‘George Habash, Palestinian Terrorism Tactician, Dies at 82’, New York Times, January 27, 2008, http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/27/world/middleeast/27habash.html.
52 Richard M. Wrona, Jr., ‘“Beginning of a War”: The United States and the Hijacking of TWA Flight 847’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (see note 50), 35–51.
53 Sean Anderson and Peter Spagnolo, ‘The Achille Lauro Hijacking’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (see note 50), 52–69.
54 Joanne Wright, ‘Countering West Germany's Red Army Faction: What Can We Learn?’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (see note 50), 275–91.
55 The Grenzschutzgruppe 9 (GSG9) had been created largely in responses to the events in Munich in 1972, described earlier in this article. However, they no longer handle terrorist situations outside of Germany, and are more akin to the US FBI's Hostage Rescue Team (HRT) in that they are trained and equipped to respond to situations within Germany's borders.
56 Wright, ‘Countering West Germany's Red Army Faction: What Can We Learn?’
57 Erika Chenoweth, ‘Italy and the Red Brigades: The Success of Repentance Policy in Counterterrorism’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (see note 50), 352–65.
58 James S. Robbins, ‘Insurgent Seizure of an Urban Area: Grozny, 1996’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (see note 50), 88–102.
59 For more on this, please see Pete Lentini and Muhammad Bakashmar, ‘Jihadist Beheading: A Convergence of Technology, Theology and Teleology?’, Studies in Conflict and Terrorism 30, no. 4 (April 2007), 303–25.
60 John B. Dunlop, The 2002 Dubrovka and 2004 Beslan Hostage Crises (Amsterdam: Ibidem-Verlag, 2006), 131–54. Also see ‘Chechen Rebels’ Hostage History', BBC News, September 1, 2004, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2357109.stm.
61 Adam Dolnik, ‘The Siege of Beslan's School No. 1’, in Countering Terrorism and Insurgency in the 21st Century (see note 50); and Timothy Phillips, Beslan: The Tragedy of School No. 1 (London: Granta, 2008), 210–56.
63 Jack Kimball, ‘Colombian Rebels Call for Peace Talks’, Reuters, January 10, 2012, http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE8091C820120110.
64 For example, see James J.F. Forest, Teaching Terror: Strategic and Tactical Learning in the Terrorist World (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006).