Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0400020001-5
             Then There
             Were Nine
                  he white United Nations station
             T
                  wagon headed south on the coastal
             highway frorn the Lebanese town of
             Tyre. Suddenly, near the village of Ras
             el-Ein, a brown Volvo blocked the
             road. Gunmen leaped from the car and
             dragged out the station wagon's ]one
             passenger: U.S. Marine Lieut. Colonel
             William Higgins, 43, the leader of a
             76-man observer group attached to the
             U.N. Interim Force. The attackers
             forced him into the Volvo and sped off.
             That abduction last week brought to
             nine the number of American hostages
             in Lebanon.
                  Two days later the so-called Orga-
             nization of the Oppressed on Earth de-
             livered to a Western news agency a
             staternenttyped in Arabic declaring its
             responsibility for the abduction. En-
             TIMU. FFBRIJARY 29,1998
             closed were snapshots of two of T-lig-
             gins' identity cards. The statement
             read: "We have caught the throat of
             the American serpent, criminal agent
             of the satanic CIA and one of the big-
             gest spies, sowing daily terror in our
             land." Mindful that an earlier hostage,
             CIA Station Chief William Buckley,
             bad been tortured to death by his
             abductors, the State Department de-
             nied any links between the kidnaped
             colonel and the U.S. intelligence
             services.
                  At the time of his capture I-Tiggins,
             a native of Kentucky and a former
             aide to ex-U.S. Secretary of Defense
             Caspar Weinberger, was returning
             from a meeting with a local leader of
             the Shi'ite Amal militia. The inciderat
             was a major embarrassment for Amal
             Leader Nabih Berri, Lebanon's Justice
             Minister. Arnal, along with U.N.
             peacekeeping forces, immediately
             launched a manhunt for Higgins and
             b is abductors.
             F1MF,VTBRLJARY ') 1988 e r
             Approved For Release 2000/08/08 CIA-RDP96-00789ROO0400020001-5
             Higgins on U.N. duty last November