ARTICLE FROM NEWSWEEK MAGAZINE, FEBRUARY 8,1982 EDITION: HOW DOZIER WAS RESCUED.

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00788R000100270001-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 17, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 8, 1982
• Content Type: NSPR

The scruffy young men wore bulletproof
- vests under their, sport shirts: In the
'chill before a northern Italian dawn last
week they began to filter' into "Via Pinde-'
? nu;:it a residential street in Padua, At
a'Wt 11-30 as a construction crew with a
bulldozer provided a noisy cover, the 80
plainclothesmen suddenly leaped into ac-
tion. They hustled people out of cars and
phone booths; they grabbed the attendants
from the gasoline station. As the piazza was
cleared, a moving van pulled up to the sub-
?.. urban apartment building and ten masked
commandos dressed in black and cradling'
pup tent in the middle of the room the
. rescue squad found U.S. Brig. Gen. James
? Dozier, bearded, shoeless and manacled to a
camp bed. "Wonderful!" Dozier cheered.
police!"
In 90 breath-taking seconds, Italy's anti-
,.
: terrorist c9mrciandos ended Dozier's 42-
day ordeal as a Red Brigades prisoner, deal-
ing a crunching blow to the 'cause and
mystique of the brigatisti. Six weeks after
? kidnappers jumped him in his Verona home '
and carried him off in a trunk, Dozier, 50,
- was rushed to freedom. At fu-st he looked
haggard in a borrowed sheepskin coat. But
phoned to greet Dozier' personally, inter-
rupting the military man in the middle of his.
shave. "I told Nancy he sounded as if he had,
just gone down to the corner for five min-
utes,', .the President said afterward. He
praised the general's "courage and resolve."
Cheers also rang out at the U.S. Embassy in
Rome and at the NATO military base in
Vicenza. But the triumph was mainly Ita-
ly's?and Italians celebrated in the key of
85-year-old President Sandro Pertini, who
shouted "Bra vii Bravissimir -
Not since 1975 had Italy's police rescued
? a Red Brigades kidnap victim alive. The
^ ' `: %,.; ? ;- . ? Photos by Edoardo Fomacittn?Gatrin.allaison
'Just one small sacrifice for freedom': Dozier thank; his rescu. ers and gives his wife, Judith, a belated Christmas hug
M-12 light submachine guns jumped out.
One blocked the exit from the Dea Super-
market on the ground floor. The nine others
sprinted into the building.
? The commandos raced up twenty steps to
? the second floor and barged into a dingy
apartment over the street. Facing them in
the hall stood a startled terrorist of the Red
Brigades wearing a jogging suit; he had just
come in with two plastic bags of groceries.
One commando felled him with a karate
chop to the forehead. Another brigatista
rushed into the apartment's middle room,
leveling a pistol equipped with a silencer at
the "people's prisoner" on the floor. But a
commando swung his rifle butt and
knocked down the terrorist before he could
shoot. Three other surprised terrorists sur-
rendered without resistance. Under a blue
once 'in an army hospital, he asked for a
shave and crew cut, ordered a cheeseburger,
French fries and Coke?then returned to
military trim with dnazling speed. The day
after his rescue, crisply outfitted in uniform,
Dozier conducted his own press briefing
with wife Judith and daughter Cheryl by his
side. In his Florida accent, he thanked "all
those people who were on the praying end of
it," lauded his rescuers as "true profession-
als" and shrugged off his captivity as ,"just
one small sacrifice for freedom." Turning to
his wife, who had made tearful pleas on
Italian TV for his release, Dozier presented
a belated Christmas gift: a pendant featur-
ing the Lion of Saint Mark, the insignia of
Italy's Veneto region?and of NATO's
Southern Command.
In Washington Ronald Reagan tele-
search for Dozier had deployed 6,000 Ital-
ian lawthen with the support of American
and European anti-terrorist experts?an
operation that exceeded even the 1978 hunt
for former Prime Minister Aide Moro, who
was executed after 54 days in Red Brigade:.
. hands. And the rescue established Italy's
secret Leatherheads commando unit as one
of the world's elite anti-terrorist forces (page
? 44). In one swift strike, the Leatherheads
destroyed the insolent, catch-me-if-you-can
aura of the Red Brigades, sinking the terror-
ists to a psychological and organizational
low (page 42) after twelve years of political
havoc. In the sweep for the American gener-
al, Italian police arrested dozens of terrorist
suspects, seized weapons ranging from
handguns to surface-to-air missiles and con-
fiscated thousands of brigades strategy pa-
Approved For Release 2000108/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R0001WeRggaBRUARY 8,1982
,
Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100270001-2
pers and documents. After Dozier's release
last week, police kept up the pressure, arrest-
ing dozens of suspects around Verona and
uncovering numerous terrorist safe houses
between Verona and Venice.
'NATO Hangman': In kidnapping Do-
zier, the brigatisti had picked a bigger fight
than usual. Never before had the Red Bri-
gades abducted a non-Italian. And by
choosing Dozier, the deputy chief of staff
for logistics and administration in NATO's
Southern Command, the Italian terrorists
were declaring war on the entire Atlantic
alliance. The day after taking the American
general, the Red Brigades pronounced him
a "NATO hangman." In their first commu-
nique, deposited in a Rome garbage pail, the
terrorists denounced the alliance as ? a
"structure of military occupation."
The Red Brigades apparently drove Da
zier from Verona to Padua, 48 miles to the
east, and hauled him up in the trunk to a
,
"People move in and out all the
time," said a local merchant.
"Not many know each other.
This is the place in Padua
where they get their drugs.
This place is full of addicts,
former students, kids without
jobs andfanulloni [dropouts]."
Lifeless at night, Via Pinde-
monte bustled with commerce
by day. Much of the business
centered on the Den Supermar-
ket under Emanuela Frascel-
la's window in the eight-story
apartment building that locals
call "the skyscraper." "This
was a perfect place for them,"
said a neighbor. "All day long
they unload vans here, bring-
ing stuff to the supermarket. If
the terrorists carried the gener-
al upstairs in a trunk in broad
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Standing tall after 42 days in a pup tent
The general apparently spent most of his
time restrained in the pup tent?a measure
designed to prevent him from ever describ-
ing his surroundings. When the terrorists
wished to talk privately, they clamped
earphones on him playing classical music.
Eventually, the terrorists issued a tran-
script of an "interrogation" of the gen-
eral, saying their "proletarian trial" had
exposed him as a "butcher." Early last
week the Red Brigades issued its fifth com-
munique?complete with a new snapshot
of Dozier showing his growth of beard?
Commando unit storms
apartment building, rushes up
to the second floor and breaks down
the apartment door.
The Padua raid: A six-week ordeal ends in a
second-floor apartment at No. 2 Via Pinde-
monte. The apartment had-been rented by
4Mario Frascella, 51, a local physician who
specializes in lung diseases. His daughter
Emanuela, 20, a history student who was
among those arrested by the Leatherheads
in last week's raid, may have served as the
apartment's legitimate tenant and as the
kidnappers' contact with the outside world.
According to Padua's daily Il Mattino,
neighbors noticed Emanuela "buying large
amounts of food regularly." A nearby news-
paper vendor recalled that she had stopped
by to purchaseer ai.vw"
itiee ro
The neighb ?I% 'Wf dr (4 a
men t, a drab suburb called Guizza where
many of Padua's 50,000 university students
lb OhIsson---NEwsveteK
daring 90-second blitz
a
daylight, no one would have
noticed a thing."
Hours after the abduction,
the Red Brigades announced
that Dozier had been taken to a
"people's prison and will be
submitted to proletarian jus-
tice." Their second communi-
qu?ccused Dozier of service
as an "assassin and hero of the
American massacres in Viet-
nam." It arrived with a fuzzy
snapshot of the captive general
i?v2 ? isregtom
ing his abduction. Dozier suf-
fered no other physical injuries
-00788R00010
Commando stuns
terrorist with a blow to the
head before he can shoot Dozier.
e,
1 0 02_7 9 aon.,4,z.inter offensive.
Among the plots:.as Christian .
Democrats held their nation-
?
;;?,. --;.', ally televised national?T.onfer:357,,..1
ence, the brigades planned to ?..
1' open fire, seize television cam-
eras, focus on the politicians
being
'1 I being 'shot and read a commu- -
fiiique oxi the air.-:-....,t,.-..i