*.<
.
„.-
-«»-••••
.
.
v
Photaiby EdoardoFornw^ri^amma-Uaiston
‘Just one small sacrificeforfreedom
Dozier thanks his rescuers and gives his wife, Judith, a belated Christmas hug
y
M-12 light submachine guns jumped out.
once in an army hospital, he asked for a
search for Dozier had deployed 6,000 Ital-
One blocked the exit from the Dea Super-
shaveand crew cut, ordered a cheeseburger,
ian lawmen with the support of American
market on the ground floor. The nine others
French fries and Coke—then returned to
and European
anti-terrorist experts—an
sprinted into the building.
•
.
,
;
>
military trim with dazzling speed. The day
operation that exceeded even the 1978 hunt
The commandos raced up twenty steps to
afterhis rescue, crisply outfitted in uniform,
for former Prime MinisterAide Moro, who
the second floor and barged into a dingy
Dozier conducted his own press briefing
was executed after 54 days in Red brigade
apartment over the street. Facing them in
with wife Judith and daughter Cherylby his
. hands. And the rescue established Italy’s
the hall stood a startled terrorist ofthe Red
side. In his Florida accent, he thanked “all
secret Leatherheads commando unit as one
Brigades wearing ajogging suit; he hadjust
those people who were on the praying end of
ofthe world’s elite anti-terroristforces (page
come in with two plastic bags of groceries,
it,’’ lauded his rescuers as “true profession-
44). In one swift strike, the Leatherheads
One commando felled him with a karate
als” and shrugged off his captivity as “just
destroyed the insolent, catch-me-if-you-can
chop to the forehead. Another brigatista
one small sacrifice for freedom.” Turning to
aura ofthe Red Brigades, sinking the terror-
rushed into the apartment’s middle room,
his wife, who had made tearful pleas on
ists to a psychological and organizational
leveling a pistol equipped with a silencer at
Italian TV for his release, Dozier presented
low (page 42) after twelve years of political
the “people’s prisoner” on the floor. But a
a belated Christmas gift: a pendant featur-
havoc. In the sweep for the American gener-
commando
swung
his
rifle
butt
and
ing the Lion of Saint Mark, the insignia of
al, Italian police arrested dozens ofterrorist
knocked down the terrorist before he could
Italy’s Veneto
region—and
of NATO’s
suspects,
seized
weapons
ranging from
shoot. Three other surprised terrorists sur-
Southern Command.
handguns to surface-to-air missiles and con-
rendered without resistance. Under a blue
In
Washington Ronald Reagan
tele-
fiscated thousands of brigades strategy pa-
Approved For Release 2000/08/07
: CIA-RDP96-00788R0001Qft5trI^£y9t)F2aRUARY8 , 1982
Release ^0&^^^-4^iA^bt^6 -06788R0004^02700Q4-
T
he scruffy young meat wore bulletproof
vests under their, sport shirts.-: In the
chill before a northern Italian dawn last
week they began to filter into Via Pinde-
monte^ a residential street in Padua. At
"about l 1:30, 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 piazzawas
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.
“OK, police!”
;
'
.In 90 breath-taking seconds, Italy’s anti-
terrorist commandos ended Dozier’s 42-
, day ordeal as a Red Brigades prisoner, deal
, ing a crunching blow to the cause and
mystique of the brigatistL Six weeks after
kidnappersjumped him in his Verona home'
and carried him off in a trunk, Dozier, 50,
‘ was rushed, to freedom. At first he looked
haggard in a borrowed sheepskin coat. But
phoned to greet Dozier personally, inter-
rupting the military man in the middle ofhis
shave. “I told Nancy he sounded as ifhehad
just gone down to the comer for five min-
utes,” .the President said afterward.- He
praised the general’s “courageand 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—jand Italians celebrated in the key of
85-year-old President Sandro Pertini, who
shouted “Bravil Bravissimil”
Not since 1975 had Italy’s police rescued
a Red Brigades kidnap victim alive. The
Approved For Release 2000/08/07
: CIA-RDP96-00788R0001 00270001 -2
pers and documents. After Dozier’s release
last week, policekept up thepressure, 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 aRome garbage pail, the
terrorists
denounced
the
alliance
as
- a
“structure of military occupation.”
The Red Brigades apparently drove Do-
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 Dea 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
Fabian—Sygma
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—
lb Ohlsson—
ewsweek
The Padua raid: A six-week ordeal ends in a daring 90-second blitz
second-floor apartment at No. 2 Via Pinde-
monte. The apartment hacTEeen rented by
Mario 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
II Mattino,
neighbors noticed Emanuela “buying large
amounts offood regularly.”A nearby news-
paper vendor recalled that she had stopped
by to purchase four papers ei/ecy mcuj
The neighbOrBiOT^rmtndHie
ment, a drab suburb called Guizza where
many of Padua’s 50,000 university students
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-
que accused Dozier of service
as an “assassin and hero of the
American massacres in Viet-
nam.” It arrived with a fuzzy
snapshot ofthe captive general
ing his abduction. Dozier suf-
fered no other physical injuries
par_00788R0001 0T&OT001 -2
Commando stun
terrorist with a blow to the
head before he can shoot Dozier.
p0 1 00(^PQQjl>r3vinter offensive.
_
\ Among the plots: as Christian
'
,
,
Democrats held their nation-
5,;;«
I ally televised national :confer-V; r
.
J
Fence, the brigades planned to {
! open fire, seize television cam-
eras, focus on the politicians
I being shot and read a commu-
f nique on the air.
•
vK
:
M Police foiled the plan’ only
I days
before
the
convention.
| The brigades’ setbacks are sig-
nificant
not
only
for -their,
[‘immediate effects, but also be-
5 cause they have a profound im-
! pact on recruitment efforts. As
I the group loses some ofits beat-
’
the-world glamour, it also loses
s some of its appeal to would-be
i members. With fewer recruits,
^ the organization must rely on
f less
tested,
: less ^committed
0iympi*
;.i members who are also less like-
;
?
:
lv to die for the cause—and
Wounded JBut Still Denserous
:
"-4^ J ^
'xhat might explain why pohee broke the
terous
;
Dozier case and not the Moro case—-and
, %
'
-
why Dozier, was not .Wll^/.wheii police
; v
intra'
bnniol
Vuirct in
A r’r'nrHincr f'nlTlInirft Sterling ail-
,;’ 1
badly dented
ofTtaliarf'te
| rorist groups are sb'jdarmed about the bri-
.
.gades’
recrtiitment problems }that
they.
..
Italy, so why''should'§iie£^^
by half—to*1^264—^
executive ’by-iflie
. an Jenkins oftheRanci Cb^^OT^xp^pn^§h^the number of arrests of suspected
. ; Venice, theRome “column” issued a state-
>-~''tdTorisin^^^'lroi^§^^t^e^^S&Mla^tB^.s<»red to 1,083. Police contin-
; ment saying it disapproved. One copy of a
2,000 terrorists in jail—inchiding the*top i "ued their successes during their search for v communiquefrom Dozier’skidnappers in-
leadershipof the Red Brigades.”
_
(
./‘';;»jr
rpjDozier, staging a series of raids on Red
eluded a hazy, 50-line appendix attacking
- .'"'Long Struggle: Even so,
fno one behevw^iBrigades hide-outs in which they arrested
. the “second column of the August col-
v.that ^the^tGCTorirtvoi^ams^ridn^ls^Ti^df-^idl'least.42 suspected terrorists, including
umn”—believed to be a breakaway group
business^It still has as mucli as'SlO inil-"‘mastermind Giovanni Senzani, a long-
from theVenice unit—for the “petty bour-
'hon-—from kidnappings, bank robberies
" ’ sought former professor of criminology at
geois” offense of stealing brigades’ funds,
and, some say,
foreign countries—plus ^ the University of Florence. Police found
From prison
in Palmi, Renato Curcio,
morethan400activemembersandperhaps ^missiles, hand grenades, guns and 3,000
founder of the brigades, smuggled to a
10,0(M
active ^abovegfouhd
supporters.
pages
: of. documents,
including
plans
Paris newspaper
a remarkable
10,000-
long struggle, withmany losses,
Brigades members Libera, Savasta, Frascella, Ciucci: Grim warnings of retaliation
^
^
.
HSfisia.
But the police arenow much^
better
equipped
, to
combat
;
them.
Since Moro’s murder,
’’
_
..
tV-A:
UPI photos
ATOvAed For Rel
1.
Approved For Release 2000/08/07
: CIA-RDP96-00788R0001 00270001 -2
I
4?
w°rd letter, pain fully typed on eight sheets
•
:
of flimsy nee' paper“that indirectly crfti-?v|
‘ cized Dozier’s kidnappers for not realizing M
that Soviet “social imperialism” was just
‘
as bad as the American kind.
-
'.0 Despite the brigades’ setbacks, the Ital-
ian
authorities remain extremely, wary; “
The terrorists “are likeWorldWarI gener-
'
f
als^-theyi measure progress in terms- of
yards,” says Jenkihs- Sterling believes that Vi
while theVenicecolumn seems to be on the%
ropes„ the Milan and Rome columns are
virtually
- untbuchSL' Italians say the ter®$
ronsts now;pre^ tQQvmgramed
ur: Itahari
iome^^pma^throughout the prison ;?
systernVVto .be eradicated easily, if at all*
I
“Itwas a very hard blow, but not a decisive _
oneVS said bne^fficial in Rome. “Wecan-
notidrop our guard.” ^
since the
-*•
s recent rai^ showedfhat' the terrorists are*!?
1 epurppefiVwthly^ilrafsind other heavy
weapons,evenahand fill ofbrigatisti couid
launch a major attack;;
•
. /
•
.
. Tarasitesh. Pohtiailly,
. the
brigatistiT
— nr> thf‘ anti;®
¥ viRathej than thinking this is the end ofthe
;
s rmd for
fit,-*
I tfiinVif- rriaY, 1-w. V"
SI
f
it ihavi
KU
Pghe that has
. to clo
f ifyfor<^atwor^5He^ysll5?j|M^^S®®
.
'
'
criminologist FriedrichGeerdspoints out^jS;
the.- rescue-“wiU.’'give
: enbnnous impetus “•!
andself-confidencejcr police authorities.”
American anti-teri;orist;experts are espe-K>|
ciaUy optimistic:.? Everyone agrees on one
-
"
point: the Red Brigades will probably try
to recover its morale and prestige by doing
/
something spectacular—and soon. At the
weekend, the Red Brigades sent out a mes-
sage vowing to free their imprisoned com-
rades arid declaring,-“The liberation of
Dozier will not succeed .in stopping the
current revolutionary process."-NATO in--.'--'
stallatiorisv throughout:;!taly remain
ori-
high security alert: “Wo'don’t believe ter~“
rorism' will’end'simply.because Dozieris;-
free,” says oneNATO official. “Now is the
most dangerous;time of all. The Red Bri-->;
gades is like a wounded animal, looking to V
i strike back.” And thatmeans uneasy daysn
‘
INTERNATIONAL
but
coldly
declined
to
discuss
his
release.
“Negotiate?
What
for?” demanded
the communi-
que. “The proletariat has nothing
to negotiate with
the bourgeoi-
sie.” After a few days in captivity,
Dozier
told
his
rescuers,
his
guards stopped wearing hoods or
blindfolding him to conceal their
identities. The general took the
carelessness as a sign that he had
been sentenced to die.
Professional:
Dozier
himself
gave the Red Brigades little propa-
ganda value for its effort. A 1956
West Point graduate, he had col-
lected a Silver Star, Bronze Star
and Purple Heart
in
Vietnam,
where he served in the Eleventh
Armored Cavalry Regiment. At
the hands of Italian terrorists, he
apparently conducted himselfas a
thoroughly
professional
soldier.
Dozier’s
“interrogation”
dis-
closed no
classified information
about NATO
security.
Instead,
the five-page transcript released
by the Red Brigades seemed to be
based for the most part on bio-
graphical material seized from his apart-
ment during the kidnapping.
According to a ten-page analysis of the
interrogation prepared for the U.S. Embas-
sy in Rome, Dozier apparently rearranged
and even falsified several dates in his career
to confuse his captors. The U.S. analysts
also noted that Dozier had identified his
Vietnam outfit as “Delta Charlie Battal-
ion”—and some of them guessed that by
adding the superfluous word “Delta,” Do-
zier had meant to signal that he was being
held close to water. (Padua is closer to the
shore than Verona, but still lies 19 miles
west ofthe Adriatic Coast.) Dozier demon-
strated no inclination to spout leftist rheto-
ric in a bid for freedom. “I think his captors
got a lot more than they bargained for when
they took Jim Dozier,” said aNATO friend.
“They were probably more intimidated by
him than he was by them. Jim was probably
the toughest guy they ever got.”
As Dozier tried to cope with his captors,
Italian police closed in methodically. Their
manhunt was assisted by at least six Ameri-
can anti-terrorist experts, including special-
ists
in
intelligence, communications and
operational
security. But in the flush of
success, the Italians emphasized that they
had run the show. “We never even saw” the
foreigners, boasted Verona police chief Pa-
squale Zappone. “They all looked on and
marveled at our efficiency. Today we can say
that we are the best in the world.” An Italian
judge
involved
in
the
investigation
dis-
^t^l^i^n^*
l
‘a^o^lely'useleTs." m
one instance, the collaboration turned into a
minor competition. Based on Judith Dn-
x.: J
Gianni Giansanti—Sygma
Freedom at noon: Commandos hustle Dozier to safety
can police artists drew sketches of the kid-
nappers. “She said ours were better than
theirs,” chortled an Italian investigator.
The investigation that ultimately uncov-
ered the little apartment in Padua was built
on extensive and thorough Italian legwork.
Early last month the dragnet swept up two
well-armed guerrillas in central Rome who
apparently were on the verge of a major
kidnapping. Five days later police stormed
three Red Brigades headquarters in the cap-
ital and captured a key brigades theorist.
The weekend before Dozier’s rescue,
five
suspected
terrorists were arrested in the
countryside north of Rome. Closer to Ve-
rona the search intensified: one local official
guessed expansively that police had combed
through “a million” apartments. In public,
the authorities expressed total frustration.
“Dozier could well be in the hands of the
Martians, for all we know,” said one top
investigator.
Hope: At least twice, anonymous callers
announced Dozier’s death and sent police
on wild-goose chases looking for the body;
in one case authorities dragged a lake in
search of the remains. But hope was kept
alive; partly because Red Brigades turn-
coats provided clues—possibly encouraged
by harsh police interrogations, or perhaps
even by “rewards” from a mysterious $1.7
million fund
established by anonymous
“friends” of Dozier.
Finally, the patient
policy of checking each tip paid off. Early
.
last
week
investigators
narrowed
their
_!>n ofVerona
and Padua. By some reports, police were
following the lead of a captured terrorist
who revpnWl
RrronH^c
police uncovered clues leadingto additional
hide-outs-4lPftf<0M^My^K>wE.
©
'demonte. “It was a
.textbook operation,”.,
said one U.S.
official. "They cracked the
column, the people talked, and they fol-
lowedup every single lead. They did it right
and it worked.”
Meticulous Care; Detectives identified
Dozier’s prison at least twelve hours before
the Leatherheads launched their raid. As
they did throughout the manhunt, the com-
mandos proceeded with meticulous care.
They decided against a nighttime assault for
fear that Dozier might go unrecognized and
be killed in a cross fire. They also ruled out
an early-morning mission, worried that the
terrorists might notice the advancing com-
: timed its attack for the midday bustle. In
preparation, scores of uniformed police be-
gan to ring the southern suburb in the pre-
dawn darkness to control
traffic into the
area. Throughout the morning the 80 plain-
clothesmen casually took stations around
the apartment building with a twin set of
orders: to clear civilians out of the potential
fire zone and to subdue any terrorists who
escaped the commando charge. At a remote
location the attack squad filed into the little
green moving van.
. The Leatherheads who rescued Dozier
were
equipped
for
every
contingency.
Against the possibility of a change in plans
commandos
scmWcnnrra^iTd glasses fdrnight vision and
equipped
their
Weapons
with
infra-red
night scopes. In case tear gas should be
required, they carried gas masks. They took
along their favorite assault rifle, the Italian-
made M-12, a lightweight, short-barreled
burp gun. They also carried heavy-caliber
pistols strapped to their belts under loose-
fitting shirts and sweaters. And they wore
special, light bulletproof vests reinforced
with thin steel plates. The raiders were led
by a youngish-looking police colonel; his
identity was kept secret.
At 11:35 the raid began with force and
T Antlia'M'kan J
^ey learn judo and karate, high-speed driving skills, sharp-
CildrSjLQSLCL JtierOCS
.
shooting, demolition and explosives work; they also master the
...
.v
^ v
specialized weapons and equipment such as the M-12
iWhen the Italian police received the' crucial tip that led to
. submachine guns and lightweight bulletproof vests used in the
General Dozier’s rescue, they turned to their best men to do the
i “Padua raid. The training stresses night operations: the Leath-
; job: a crack anti-terrorist unit called the
teste di cuoio,
or .,
erheads who rescued Dozier were caijying special infra-red
Leatherheads! Roughly 50 highly trained policemen make up
•; glasses for night vision and had infra-rod .scopes, mounted on
the elite commando squad, whose official name is the Nucleo
their rifles.
.
; •
:.f.
-
*
•>
Operativo Centrale'di Sicurezza (NOCS). A veil of official
•
' TheNOGS commandos devote intense stiidy'to “knowing the
secrecy
' surrounds almost everything about them, from the
. enemy.” They steep themselves in terrorist tactics and methods
names oftheirleadersto the locationoftheir hea.dquarters.They
; and pore over Red Brigades tracts to absorb the murky brigatisti
-
owetheirdramaticname to'theirreputationfor toughness and to
^ideology. They verse themselves in the minute details of terror-
the light leather headgear they wear to shield their faces and
gists’ underground life-styles and secret communications tech-;
.1 - necks—and to conceal their idendty-^whilein action. And after:
niques. Before the Dozier rescue, that knowledge^—along with
V
' lastweek’sdarmgr^cue,sdmeItaliansgayeanothernametothe
NOCS expertise in radio interception, phone-rail tracing and
;
'a; teste di cuoio:
_ electronic surveillance methods—led to /several major
io-m*
fira
. in 1978. They modeled it .after^Eurdpe’s mosthespected spe: '; ,- ^Fierce Rivals: With the Padua raid, the NOCS unit scored its
r .cial operations umtshRn^n’s-Sp^M*^
major operational yictoiy-;Until lastw^
and Border Protection Group 9,
,the.West German anti-ter-;'
> cessful commando strike against the Red Brigades—a helicopter
.
rorist outfit that freed a group of hijacked Lufthansa passen-
raidohtheTrariiPrisoninsoutherhItalyinlate l980thatfreeda
• gers in a dramatic raid on the airport at Mogadishu, Somalia, > ^oup ofhostages held by Red Brigades inmates—was the work
in 1977, The Italian police allow only their best-young'officers
. of another anti-terrorist task force, the Special Intervention
.
to
volunteer, for. the NOCS
i,XT..Group (GIS), which operates
unit, and only a fraction of the
ANOCSsquad in training: Strong, fast, quick, lean
" asanarmo'fthecaraWnfer/par-
' applications; -.’WtaC.-
' amilitary police under the com-
'
To
pass
muster,
volunteers'
must show not
only
enthu-
siasm'
and
; intelligence
but
also top physical conditioning!!
Says one source in Italy’s Inte-
. rior Ministry; which oversees?
the force: “We want well-mo-
, tivated men who are strong,
fast, quick and lean!’’
‘: v ( v ^ ;f
V
Tike Marines’: The NOCS
! commandos undergo the most
... grueling
and
’ comprehensive
training of any Italian security
force.. “They are trained like
.
U.S. Marines,” says one aide
at the Interior Ministry. Once
the men are selected, they go!
to the Abbasanta Police Train-
ing
Center
in
the
rugged,
•
.
rocky hill country of Sardinia;
also the terrain where Italy’s
;
Army Reserve rehearses mili-.
tary maneuvers. At Abbasanta
:-r^
W5 ,*;v
- kI'A'**£^7*^^ '< =-S
HiiS
iJsJMBTKi,
-.
i
. mand of Italy’s Defense Minis-
try. The GIS anti-terrorists are
also called Leatherheads—and
' the NOCS and GIS units are
^fierce rivals. Lack of coordina-
,
' tion between the two groups
" has been blamed in the past for
hampering Italy’s anti-terror-
ist campaign. No more. The
' NOGS commandos arenow na-
tional—although
still anony-
" mous—^heroes.When Dozier’s
rescuers
went,
before
Ital-
ian
television
cameras,
they
masked
their
faces with
ski
masks,
scarfs,
' nylon
stock-
ings—even a paper bag. The
' unspoken message: the Leath*
; erheads are ready and eager to
“ grapple with the Red Brigades
: any time they have to.
-
MARK WHITAKER wUh
r
RON MOREAU io Rom«
*1 • 1 • 1
INTERfWr®Y^Lhor Release
ik sunlight ant.
precision. The commando who charged
into the supermarket shouted, “Keep qui-
et,” and told the customers: “We’re from
the police. Don’t be afraid and don’t move.”
One woman fainted. Another called home
afterward. “I was being held prisoner in the
market,’’ she recalled. “I thought it might
be a robbery.”
Across the street a witness telephoned the
police emergency number, 113, and report-
ed a robbery in progress. “They swarmed
out in ci vilian clothes, with their bulletproof
vests and waving their submachine guns,
and within seconds the whole piazza had
been emptied,” said pastry-shop proprietor
Adriana Boaretto. “Through my shop win-
dow I saw some young fellows with balacla-
va helmets, with
plastic bags over their
heads, with scarfs tied around their faces
very serious about it.” The brigatisti round-
ed up in Padua represent a cross section of
battle-seasoned veteran terrorists and raw
recruits. In addition to Emanuela Frascella,
the
apartment’s
nominal
tenant,
they
included:
Antonio
Savasta,
27,
a
leader
of the
Rome column of the Red Brigades. Police
suspect the former law student of helping
plan the kidnap-murder of Moro and of
chemical company executive Giuseppe Ta-
liercio. He is also suspected of involvement
in the kidnapping of Ciro Cirillo, an offi-
cial of the ruling Christian Democratic
Party. He won notoriety in a previous en-
counter with police—escaping after a Feb-
ruary 1980 shoot-out in the Sardinian city
of Cagliari.
Emilia Libera, 26, a Rome nurse and Sa-
vasta’s companion. Liberaaccompanied Sa-
driven to the local police station. About
ten minutes later Ciucci, the wounded ter-
rorist, was carried out and taken to a hos-
pital in an ambulance. After a few minutes
the four remaining brigatisti were led out,
first the two men, then the two women.
“They were all very quiet,” said a bystand-
er. “None of them shouted or showed his
fist as they usually do when the television
is around.”
.
Thursday: Safe at Padua's police head-
quarters, Dozier asked to know, first of all,
the day of the week. When told, he repeated
vaguely,
“Giovedi,
giovedi, ” (Thursday).
Police offered him a pair of shoes, but he
said, “No, it doesn’t matter.” He declined a
chair as well, explaining: “I’ve spent the last
six weeks without standing up, so I want to
stand.” He said he was tired and refused
food at first, but drank an espresso and a
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A soldier returns to trim: The last Red Brigades portrait, thefirst cheeseburger and a shave interrupted by the President
AP photo*
and woolen
skiing
caps. "They
certainly
vasta during the incident in Cagliari—and
looked like terrorists, but one could see they
by coincidence last week a Sardinian court
were not, because the police didn’t shoot at
sentenced the pair in absentia to 30-year
them. One came into my shop and told
prison sentences for attempted homicide,
everybody to stay inside and keep away^Vp Cesare di Lenardo, 22, a former construc-
from the entrance,” Boaretto said. “They
^tion worker from Gorizia.
were trying to take care ofthe people in case
of a shoot-out. Also they wanted the car
park empty in case some terrorist managed
to escape the net.”
‘Overjoyed’: On the second floor of the
apartment building, one ofthe commandos,
a champion weight lifter, broke through an
unmarked door “with one single blow,” as
the police report put it—and promptly con-
fronted and felled the terrorist who was
returning from shopping. Within seconds,
the Leatherheads had arrested all five Red
Brigades jailers without firing a shot. “I was
overjoyed,” Dozier said later, “and one of
the finest things I felt was [when] I grabbed
ahold of a policeman, and he had his flak
jacket on, and it felt pretty good.”
Dozier had a measure of respect for his
captors. “They are a bunch of dedicated
people,” h
Giovanni Ciucci,
32, a former railroad
worker from Pisa. Police named Ciucci as
the terrorist who was aiming a 9-mm Beret-
ta pistol at Dozier’s head before a comman-
do struck him down.
The grimy, four-room apartment itself
was a terrorist treasure-trove. Inside, police
found fifteen pistols, five submachine guns,
seven hand grenades, six packages of plastic
explosives, $17,000 in Italian currency, a
mimeograph machine,
false identification
documents and a card
file of prominent
personalities in the region. Police also re-
covered the steamer trunk used to transport
Dozier, the typewriter that had printed the
five terrorist communiques in the case
and the Red Brigades banner that served as
a backdrop in the two photographs of Do-
zier issued by the kidnappers.
Approved Forlteleage
cappuccino.
Finally,
police
chief Gian-
franco Comas asked Dozier ifhe would like
to take a shower. The general declined again,
saying, “Ijust want to go home.” “Here was
aman who secondsbeforehad apistol point-
ed at his head, yet he was the happiestman in
the world,” said Corrias. “He never com-
plained—a true officer.”
The general was taken to the U.S. mili-
tary hospital in Vicenza for a checkup and a
reunion with Judith and Cheryl Dozier,
who flew in from West Germany. Amid the
tears, celebrations and talk ofaWashington
meeting with the President, Dozier indicat-
ed his own preference: a short vacation with
his family and a quick return to his NATO
job. Back in Padua, three commandos in
battle dress were still keeping watch at No. 2
Via Pindemonte eleven hours after
their
proudest 90 seconds. “Wehavebeen trained
to do this job,” said the youngest one, pull-
ing the scarf from his face to speak briefly.
“We are professionals, and today we were
able to show it.”
STEVEN STRASSER with ELAINE SCIOLINO
ilia and bureau reports
NEWSWEEK/FEBRUARY 8, 1982