BOOKS

Terrorism Book Offers
Insights, Revelations

ARNOLD AGES

Special to The Jewish News

[- The Services At B'riai Moshe

Are For Sale...

At the B'nai Moshe
Service Auction
Come to bid and buy the best
services you'll pay for all year:

for instance:
• A cruise from the
Great Lakes Yacht Club

• A string quartet for your

exclusive enjoyment

• Tickets to the DSO,
Red Wings, Pistons

• Up to one month at a
W. Palm Beach condo

• Consulting and professional
services; computer, retail
design, taxes

• Watching the "shoot" of
a TV commercial

• Gourmet shabbat dinners

Plus many other original and exciting
services and items donated by our members

Saturday January 10, 1987
7:30 PM

Congregation B'nai Moshe

14390 W. Ten Mile Road, Oak Park, MI 48237

Admission $3.00 Refreshments

34

Friday, December 12, 1986 THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

.1•• ■ ••••••••• ■•••■•■ •MINMINIMINIY

a
Rivers,
ayle
counter-terrorist spe-
cialist originally from
New Zealand, says in a newly
published book that the
United States not only
exacted vengeance for the
death of more than 200 U.S.
Marines in 1983 but that he
was involved in the dispatch-
ing- of three Syrian field offi-
cers and the Druze militia
soldiers who were with them.
The Syrians who were exe-
cuted in the raid were re-
sponsible for the bombing of
the Marine base which re-
sulted in the death of so
many Americans.
This revelation is but one
of many in Rivers' The War
Against The Terrorists: How
To Win It a book unique in
its stylistic directness, un-
ideological thrust and in-
sights into the terrorist men-
tality.
Rivers argues in his book
that the Israeli strategy in
fighting terrorism, meritori-
ous in some ways, is wrong-
headed in others. The mas-
sive retaliation engaged in by
Israel, says Rivers, is com-
pletely- off-target since the
terrorists are rarely damaged
and care not at all about the
fate of civilians injured in re-
prisal raids. In fact, says Riv-
ers, the terrorists gain in the
long run because of public
opinion generated against Is-
rael.
Instead of the massive as-
sault, Rivers endorses specific
ad hoc attacks against the
terrorists themselves (When
they have been properly iden-
tified) against their "safe
houses" and against their
training camps. There are no
innocent people, argues the
author, who work in terrorist
enclaves whether as cooks or
other personnel.
Israel's hit team, which
systematically eliminated
every individual involved in
the Munich Olympic mas-
sacres, was exactly the cor-
rect response to terrorism,
according to Rivers. Israel's
only mistake was in stopping
the program after an acciden-
tal killing in Lillehammer,
Norway. Israel's counter-
terrorist unit should have
taken the mistake in stride
and continued its relentless
pursuit of the Arab terrorists.
In his extremely well writ-
ten and graphic study of
modern terrorism, Rivers,
who has had wide experience
in Vietnam, the Middle East
and Europe as a consultant
and operative in counter-
terrorism actions, calls for a
merciless war against the in-
ternational terrorist network
which has brought much of
the civilized world to its
knees.
Rivers believes that mod-
ern democratic approaches in
which due process is involved

is absolutely ludicrous when
applied to the terrorist syn-
drome. In Rivers' lexicon, the
modern terrorists "are like
roaches and rats; if we let
them proliferate, we will lose
the war in which we have
been pitted against them by
their volition."
No terrorist has the right,
says Rivers, • to proclaim that
they are following orders un-
willingly. "They are volun-
teers. And what they have
volunteered to do is not to
fight conventionally by
adhering to Geneva conven-
tions or whatever, they have
volunteered to kill innocent
bystanders and hostages in
order to destabilize civilized
societies.
In view of this, Rivers
urges that all terrorists be
killed immediately. There
can be no prisoners or de-

Rivers is not a bit
skittish about
revealing
information which
terrorists
themselves might
find interesting

tainees, he urges, because the
presence of the latter merely
provides pretexts for further
terrorist outrages. Rivers
backs up this doctrine with
examples in his own career in
which he personally killed
terrorists who had tried to
surrender. The only excep-
tion, he says, is for interroga-
tion purposes.
• In his survey of current
techniques and procedures
available in the fight against
terrorism, Rivers presents a
report card which shows that
outside of two or three
specific units, the world's
police forces are totally un-
prepared to confront the
zealotry, fanaticism and
murder instincts of the ter-
rorist. In his critique Rivers
indicts agencies such as the
United States Secret Service
and the FBI as being espe-
cially incompetent. In a sec-
tion on the attempted assas-
sination of president Reagan
(by John Hinckley) Rivers
points out that secret service
agents, in their rush to pro-
tect the President, disre-
garded one of the President's
aides that had been shot. The
gentleman in question NIT'6S
carrying the United States
nuclear codes.
In Rivers' perspective only
the British SAS, a German
equivalent and Israel's
counter-terrorist unit are
capable of carrying out the
necessary war against ter-
rorism. The SAS's assault on
the Iranian Embassy in Lon-
don in 1980 is cited as a
model of what counter-
terrorist forces can do when
given free reign.
In what is the most in-

_/

:7/

