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849.
Date: September 24, 2001
Target: Consuelo Araujo (Wife of Colombian Attorney General)
Location: Valledupar, Colombia
Details: Suspected leftist rebels kidnapped Araujo, and ten others traveling with her, including two bodyguards. The group was stopped at a rebel roadblock.

850.
Date: February 20, 2002
Target: Senator Jorge Gechem Turbay
Location: Neiva, Colombia
Details: Turbay became the fifth member of Colombia's Congress to be kidnapped when FARC rebels hijacked a domestic airliner, carrying 35 passengers. Shortly after takeoff, four guerillas -- two men and two women -- commandeered the plane. They forced the pilot to land on a highway near the town of Hobo, where they were met by several dozen guerillas in four-wheel-drive vehicles. All the other passengers were freed.

851.
Date: February 23, 2002
Target: Senator Ingrid Betancourt (Presidential Candidate)
Location: San Vicente del Caguan, Colombia
Details: Betancourt was abducted by FARC rebels at a roadblock, while driving into a volatile area of southern Colombia. Her campaign manager, Clara Rojas, was also taken hostage. Betancourt had always been a severe critic of the FARC, but had ignored military advice not to travel to the area.

852.
Date: April 2002
Target: Governor Guillermo Gavira
Location: Urrao, Colombia
Details: Guillermo was kidnapped by FARC rebels along with former Defense Minister Gilberto Echeverri Mejia. Both men were killed along with eight other hostages, during a failed rescue attempt by Colombian special forces on May 5, 2003.

853.
Date: September 12, 2002
Target: Lukoil Executive Sergei Kukura
Location: Vnukovo, Russia
Details: Kukura was
en route
to work in his company Mercedes with his driver and a bodyguard. Kukura's car was pulled over by a Volga bearing an Interior Ministry license plate. Another car cut in front of Kukura's car, boxing it in, and at least five masked men with automatic weapons dismounted their vehicles. After quickly overwhelming the Mercedes, the abductors ordered Kukura, his driver, and his bodyguard to exit the vehicle. The attackers impersonated police officers ostensibly carrying out a vehicle search and document check. As the Mercedes was being searched, Kukura and his escorts were handcuffed and blindfolded. After the attackers had secured the three men, the driver and bodyguard were injected with sleep-inducing sedatives and placed back in the Mercedes. Kukura was then forced into the Volga and driven away. Lukoil had offered a reward of nearly $6 million for information leading to Kukura's release. Thirteen days later, Kukura was dropped off at his residence unharmed by his abductors. According to the prosecutor, no ransom was paid.

854.
Date: June 2, 2003
Target: Politician Jose Genoino
Location: Sao Paulo, Brazil
Details: Genoino was about to leave his apartment to take part in a TV talk show when he realized he had forgotten his comb. He left his driver and press assistant waiting in the car and returned to his apartment. When he returned, he found his car, driver, and staff member had been kidnapped and robbed. The hostages were released unharmed shortly after.

855.
Date: September 21, 2004
Target: Cecilia Cubas (daughter of former President Raul Cubas)
Location: Asuncion, Paraguay
Details: Cubas was abducted near her home in a paramilitary-style operation. Her father, a businessman who was briefly president at the end of the 1990s, is reported to have paid an $800,000 ransom for her return, only to have the alleged kidnappers break off contact. Officials found her body in an underground chamber at a house near Asuncion. Six people were been arrested in connection with the kidnapping. Paraguayan prosecutors say one of them was in contact with a senior official in Colombia's main leftist rebel group, the FARC. The FARC rebels have kidnapped hundreds of people in Colombia but are not thought to have carried out abductions abroad.

856.
Date: March 28, 2006
Target: Businessman Filippo Sindoni
Location: Carora, Venezuela
Details: Three men dressed in police uniforms stopped Sindoni's car at a checkpoint and abducted him. His driver was not taken captive. Sindoni's body was found the following day. He was shot in the head and his hands were bound. There was no ransom demand made.

857.
Date: April 3, 2006
Target: Former Wife of Singer Garth Brooks
Location: Oklahoma
Details: The former wife of country singer Garth Brooks was reportedly abducted by a worker on her rural Oklahoma farm, but eventually escaped unharmed. She had allowed a bail bondsman onto her property after finding out one of her employees, Quintine Harper, was wanted on an outstanding warrant. Harper allegedly drew a gun and forced Brooks to drive him several miles before she finally stopped the car and ran into a convenience store. Harper was arrested the next day and charged with kidnapping and weapons violations.

858.
Date: June 30, 2006
Target: Legislator Tayseer Mashhadani
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Details: Gunmen in two vehicles hijacked Mashhadani's convoy as she traveled to the capital. She and eight bodyguards are still missing.

859.
Date: July 3, 2006
Target: Deputy Electricity Minister Raad Hareth
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Details: Gunmen wearing military uniforms and traveling in five vehicles ambushed Hareth's four-car convoy. They kidnapped Hareth and his 19 bodyguards. They released him the following day, but the fate of his bodyguards is unknown.

860.
Date: August 7, 2006
Target: Businessman Guido Vitiello
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Details: A group of armed men entered Vitiello's villa. They shot Vitiello and left him tied to a chair before abducting his wife, Gigliola Martino. Vitiello later died of his wounds in a hospital. Investigators believed Martino was kidnapped for ransom. Martino was also briefly kidnapped last year and released unharmed.

861.
Date: August 25, 2006
Target: Legislator Rodney Alcide
Location: Port-au-Prince, Haiti
Details: Gunmen kidnapped Alcide along with his driver and bodyguard. Alcide was reportedly freed unharmed two hours later, but the driver and bodyguard were still held the following day. It was unclear whether a ransom had been paid. Authorities blamed the kidnapping on well-armed street gangs based in the capital's violent slums.

"As soon as there is life, there is danger."

Emerson

Section 2

Unintentional Harm

In the course of our many years of protecting at-risk people, we never had one assassin or terrorist burst through the door with guns blazing -- but we have handled countless emergencies involving other risks.

In this section we have divided incidents into three categories. The first deals with pitfalls and accidents, including falls. The second section provides a sample of the more newsworthy cases of sudden illness and other medical emergencies. The third section covers situations that can be classified as "wrong place/wrong time," in which the protectee was the victim of a crime, as opposed to the target of an attack. Though the heading "Unintentional Harm" sounds innocuous, any of these situations can be lethal; accordingly, we sought to derive new insights through studying a sample of cases.

In 1975, Secretary of State Henry Kissinger came to Jefferson City, Missouri, to make an appearance with the governor. Kissinger was under the protection of the U.S. Secret Service at the time, and agents arrived a few days ahead to advance the trip. This amounted to discussing the details -- which car would they ride in, who would drive follow-up, which doors would they use -- and rehearsing every movement. It was decided that Dr. Kissinger would enter the governor's office through the double doors on the portico, which were located behind the governor's desk. Suddenly, the lead advance agent stopped and stated, "He can't come through these doors." The governor's detail leader asked why. The agent pointed over the door to a large brass state seal, which hung by chains over the doorway, like a 300-pound Sword of Damocles. "I don't want him walking under that," the agent announced. "It might fall on him." The governor's detail looked up at the seal which their governor sat directly under eight hours a day, five days a week, as had many governors before him. They were comfortable with their protectee spending most of his working hours seated under it, but the agents didn't want to trust the chains for even the split second it would take Kissinger to walk under the seal! So it was moved. If you go into the governor's office today, you will find the brass seal perched on a tripod in the corner of the office.

Between the blind trust of the governor's bodyguards that the seal would never fall, and the agent's intuition that it might, lies a diverse difference of opinion about risk. The agent's opinion was not based on fact; the seal had never fallen and there was no evidence that the chains were weak or poorly fastened. However, after seeing a situation that made him uncomfortable, he listened to his intuition, and wisely took action that reduced the perceived risk. Risk reduction is, after all, one of the primary missions for security personnel. Among these cases, you'll find several in which the actions of protectors favorably or even heroically helped protectees. Still, STARS are not awarded for cases in this section because STARS relate to attack situations.

Section 2A: Accidents

A pitfall is defined as a danger or difficulty that is not easily anticipated or avoided. In 1989, the security detail for a Midwest governor accompanied him to Washington, D.C., to attend the inaugural ceremonies for President George H. W. Bush. They were riding in a two-vehicle motorcade, proceeding across town in moderate traffic. As they reached an intersection, the lead car, carrying the governor and his family, proceeded through the green light. The follow-up vehicle, carrying additional officers and staff people, entered the intersection and was plowed into by a car running a red light. A fraction of a second earlier, and the governor and his family would have been hit. If for example, the governor had paused for a second longer while getting into his car, the whole outcome would have been much different.

A judge touring a building during renovations falls down the elevator shaft and is seriously injured. An airplane carrying a prince blows a tire on landing and slides off the runway. A car carrying a governor is involved in a serious traffic accident. These are all pitfalls, accidents that occur as often as attacks, sometimes through fault of the protectee, and sometimes not. These happenings can injure or kill the protectee just as surely as a terrorist car bomb. Machiavelli noted, "Unexpected accidents cannot be easily prevented, but those foreseen may easily be remedied." This section is a sampling of accidents that were not foreseen.

862.
Date: September 18, 1961
Victim: U.N. Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold
Location: Ndola, Congo
Details: Hammarskjold and fourteen others were flying on a diplomatic mission when their DC-6 crashed on final approach, killing all but one. The cause of the crash could not be determined.

863.
Date: October 29, 1970
Victim: President Richard Nixon
Location: San Clemente, California
Details: President Nixon was staying at the "Western White House," his private residence called Casa Pacifica. Nixon's valet had built a fire in the study fireplace. After Nixon had gone to bed, a fire alarm sounded in the Secret Service command post. An agent on post reported an "unusual fog" around the main house. Agents called the valet to check the house. The valet's wife called back, screaming that the house was on fire. Agents quickly evacuated Nixon to a safe location. Other agents extinguished the fire by the time the San Clemente Volunteer Fire Department arrived.
(Though the protective strategy of having smoke detection, and the actions of evacuating Nixon were effective and meaningful, STARS are applied only to attack incidents.)

864.
Date: October 14, 1975
Victim: President Gerald Ford
Location: Hartford, Connecticut
Details: Ford was riding in his motorcade through Hartford. At 9:51 p.m., the scout car reported that there was no traffic control at an intersection. At 9:54, the pilot car reported that a local police motorcycle had stopped traffic at the intersection, but then continued on. Fifteen seconds later, while the President's limousine was running through a red light at the intersection, a car with six teenagers drove through a green light and slammed into the right side of the President's limousine. Secret Service agents surrounded the teenagers' car, not knowing if it was an attack. Ford was uninjured.

865.
Date: August 13, 1987
Victim: President Ronald Reagan
Location: Santa Barbara, California
Details: While approaching his ranch in helicopter Marine One, a small airplane came dangerously close, causing Reagan's helicopter to take evasive action. The airplane pilot was detained, and then released without charges.

866.
Date: August 17, 1988
Victim: President Zia ul-Haq
Location: Bahawalpur, Pakistan
Details: The Pakistan Air Force C-130, carrying ul-Haq and 36 other dignataries, including U.S. Ambassador Arnold Raphel, exploded after takeoff, killing all on board. Some believe it was an act of sabotage.

867.
Date: July 14, 1991
Victim: PLO Official Yasser Arafat
Location: Baghdad, Iraq
Details: Arafat's motorcade was driving across Iraq at over 100 mph when his limousine lost control and overturned. His bodyguard shielded him, breaking both arms, and Arafat was unhurt.

868.
Date: August 7, 1992
Victim: Governor Brereton Jones
Location: Frankfort, Kentucky
Details: A state helicopter, transporting Jones from the Capitol, crash-landed near the interstate highway. Everyone on board was injured, including his state trooper bodyguard. They were all soaked in aviation fuel, but no fire broke out and they all survived.