To: GUSTAVE JAEGER who wrote (9827 ) 9/20/2000 10:31:12 PM From: Dayuhan Read Replies (3) | Respond to These are not professional terrorists. They are loosely organized and poorly disciplined bandit gangs. Many of them are raw recruits, drawn in since the first round of big ransom payments by the promise of easy money and the status of carrying a weapon around town instead of farming or fishing. Even most of the veterans have little experience in head-to-head combat against an organized military force - that's not their style. It doesn't seem at all unlikely that they might have been inattentive to the hostages, especially if the hostages had previously been docile and they were near a road crossing, where an encounter with troops would be likely. It also doesn't seem unlikely that none of them were willing to stick around in a high-risk area and conduct a thorough search. It's not easy to find anybody in the jungle, especially when you can't use lights for fear of detection.
