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

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The document describes the dramatic rescue of U.S. Brig. Gen. James Dozier from his 42-day captivity by the Red Brigades in Italy. It recounts the operation carried out by Italy's anti-terrorist commandos, known as the Leatherheads, who swiftly and successfully rescued Dozier from an apartment building in Padua. The rescue deal a significant blow to the Red Brigades and showcased Italy's elite anti-terrorist forces. The document also mentions the extensive efforts made by Italian and international authorities to locate and rescue Dozier.

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Body: 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 
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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. 
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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