Six armed men on April 30, 1980 stormed the Iranian embassy in London. The men took hostages, and issued demands. After six days, the terrorists killed a hostage and threw his body outside. Enter the British Special Air Service (SAS) and Operation Nimrod. British crisis expert Robert McAlister analyzes what unfolded from there. ANALYSIS by Robert McAlister Backdrop …
by Susan Katz Keating It wasn’t the bombs that kept bringing me back. It was the warnings. “It’s an old story,” I said. “It’s not.” He wasn’t arguing. He was correcting. “The Boston office is working it,” he said, leaning forward. “I’m telling you.” We had been talking for 20 minutes by then. He never …
by Susan Katz Keating The war did not end when Saigon fell. It moved home, where those who fought in the jungles, skies, and waters of Southeast Asia reshaped American law, medicine, and culture. Fifty-one years ago today, the last American helicopters lifted off a rooftop in Saigon. The war was over. For those who …
A close read of the suspect’s document – and what it is designed to do. ANALYSIS by Susan Katz Keating “Hello everybody!” is not how shooters begin their manifestos. But that’s how Cole Allen began his. Allen was subdued on Saturday after he exchanged gunfire with the Secret Service at a Washington, D.C. black-tie gala …
The ANZAC landing on April 25, 1915, marked the opening of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I. by Jose Campos Bullets snapped off the shale walls of Shrapnel Gully. Private John Simpson Kirkpatrick, stretcher bearer with the 3rd Australian Field Ambulance, led his donkey along the narrow track. A wounded man hung across the …
When a B-24 went down in subzero weather, one airman was stranded alone. by Jose Campos Lieutenant Leon Crane stood hip-deep in snow on a frozen Alaskan mountainside, watching what remained of his B-24 Liberator burn itself out on the slope above him. He shouted for the other men. The temperature was 40 below zero. …
Prosecutors say a former DEA financial operations chief used his expertise in a rogue effort for personal gain, agreeing in a federal sting to assist what he believed was a cartel. This installment of Crossings in Wartime examines what happens when the people who know how the machine works decide to run it in reverse. by Susan …
A classified outpost near Khe Sanh was overrun in the fog. Special Forces Staff Sergeant Jon Cavaiani stayed behind to direct the evacuation and defend Hickory Hill. by Jose Campos He lay beneath a dead man, covered in blood. Around him, enemy soldiers worked their way through the wreckage of Hickory Hill, looking for Americans …
by Susan Katz Keating “There’s a certain sound…” The song stuck with him for years afterwards. He was being marched to his execution in the jungles of Vietnam, and had been ordered to carry a radio to pick up “Radio Hanoi,” but he secretly dialed in to a station that picked up American music. It …
COMMENTARY by Susan Katz Keating The case of Tamerlan Tsarnaev is a grim lesson in what happens when the security safety net has holes. Long before the smoke cleared on Boylston Street in April 2013, long before the manhunt in Watertown gripped the nation, warnings had come in. They arrived not from shadowy informants nor vague …
