Kristin Thiel - True Stories of Teen Terrorist Hostages

1. Introduction:
   Looming Terror

Published in 2018 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC 243 5th Avenue, Suite 136, New York, NY 10016

Copyright 2018 by Cavendish Square Publishing, LLC

First Edition

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Thiel, Kristin, 1977- author.

Title: True stories of teen terrorist hostages / Kristin Thiel.

Description: New York : Cavendish Square Publishing, 2018.

| Series: True teen stories | Includes index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2017020488 (print) | LCCN 2017025937 (ebook) | ISBN 9781502631664 (library bound) | ISBN 9781502634054 (paperback) | ISBN 9781502631671 (E-book) Subjects: LCSH: Terrorism. | Hostages. | Kidnapping. | Abduction. Classification: LCC HV6431 (ebook) | LCC HV6431 .T5667 2018 (print) | DDC 363.325092/535--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017020488

Editorial Director: David McNamara Editor: Caitlyn Miller Copy Editor: Alex Tessman Associate Art Director: Amy Greenan Designer: Seth Hughes Production Coordinator: Karol Szymczuk Photo Research: J8 Media

The photographs in this book are used by permission and through the courtesy of: Cover NEstudio/Shutterstock.com; p. 4 AFP/Getty Images; p. 8 Asif Hassan/AFP/Getty Images; p. 10 (left to right) US Government/Wikimedia Commons/File:Flag of the United States Office of Homeland Security.png/Public Domain, US Government/Wikimedia Commons/File:Seal of the United States National Counterterrorism Center.svg/Public Domain, US Government/Wikimedia Commons/File:FBI.png/Public Domain; p. 15 Historical Image Collection by Bildagenturonline/ Alamy Stock Photo; p. 19, 22 Bettmann/Getty Images; p. 26, 32 AP Images; p. 29 Pavalen/ Shutterstock.com; p. 34 Leoks/Shutterstock.com; p. 36 Robert Mcgillivray/Shutterstock.com; p. 41 Cezary Zarebski Photography/Moment/Getty Images; p. 44 Norm Shafer/The Washington Post/Getty Images; p. 48 Nedal Eshtayah/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images; p. 51 Vic DeLucia/ New York Post Archives/NYP Holdings, Inc. via Getty Images; p. 57, 70 Xinhua/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 60 Cliff Hide News/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 62 Zuma Press/Alamy Stock Photo; p.

64 Wole Emmanuel/AFP/Getty Images; p. 68 Reuters/Getty Images; p. 74 Azeez Akunleyan/ AP Images; p. 76 Bayo Omoboriowo/Nigeria State House via AP Images; p. 80 Oscar Gonzalez/ NurPhoto/Getty Images; p. 82 Lewis J. Merrim/Science Source/Getty Images; p. 84 Skip Shuman/ Sacramento Bee/Getty Images; p. 87 Tony Korody/Sygma/Sygma/Getty Images; p. 90 Jochen Tack/Alamy Stock Photo; p. 95 Glenna Gordon/The New York Times/Redux Pictures.

Contents

Introduction:
Looming Terror

Opposite: Abu Sayyaf fighters pose with journalists in May 2000 in their camp in the Philippines.

T o be forcibly removed from all you hold dearfriends, family, and the familiarity of homeis a terrifying thing. When a person becomes a hostage, their life no longer feels like their own; it lies in the hands of their captors. For those captured by terrorists, they face captors whose will may be strong and well-funded. Terrorists mission is to incite fear, not only within the hostage but within the hostages community, which is left reeling from the shock of the abduction. Terrorists are nearly always politically motivated. They wont stop until theyve made the bigger point they want to make: forcing a government to meet their demands, changing laws, or gaining more territory for their group. A hostage is someone who is both separated from his or her support system and used as a pawn in a larger game.

Unfortunately, terrorists operate all over the world, and theyre willing to target even visitors to their countries, including tourists, students, and aid workers. Males and females are taken; religious affiliation does not matter. Age is also not a considerationeven babies can be held hostage. Money cannot save the wealthiest, because a ransom is often sought, and a lack of resources cannot save the most impoverished, because often the most socially and economically unstable regions are the ones where terrorists can find a foothold. These terrorists take advantage of a citizenrys vulnerable position to force their agenda.

This book shares stories of teenagers who have been kidnapped and held hostage by terrorists. Some, like fourteen-year-old Kevin Lunsmann, were enjoying vacation abroad when they were captured. He was an American living a peaceful life in Virginia, but while he was on vacation in the Philippines, armed rebels abducted him and his mother. Others live in conflict zones and were taken by fellow citizens. Almost three hundred sixteen-to-eighteen-year-olds in Nigeria were just trying to get through their exams when men who might once have been their neighbors and now were radicalized terrorists stormed their school and took them.

The teens discussed in this book were held captive for a various lengths of time. In 1970, when he was seventeen years old, David Raab was a hostage of airplane hijackers in the Middle East for three weeks. In the same conflict, but more than forty years later, sixteen-year-olds Gilad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel along with nineteen-year-old Eyal Yifrach were hostages for under an hour. Some of this books teen terrorist hostages succeeded in making daring escapes, some were released after lengthy negotiations, and some met such tragic ends that their stories ignited chains of events stretching much farther than them.

And just as anyone could be a hostage (though it is unlikely), the line between who is a terrorist and who is not can be blurred. If a group is fighting for a cause you believe in, you may not find their actions, even if theyre terrible and extreme, acts of terror. You may believe theyre fighting for the change you need. All the sides in a conflict may engage in acts an outside observer might think wrong, but they each do it for reasons that make sense to them. For example, for a long time now, Israel and Palestine have been engaged in fighting for land they both see as rightfully theirs. In this book, there are two stories about Palestinians taking people hostage, because those examples are two that affected the world as well and involved teenagers. But its important to note that a conflict involves at least two parties. We see this a little in a response by some Israeli citizens in one of those hostage stories.