ABSTRACT
Terrorism is after all the political weapon of the weak. A strongly armed, well-supported group entertains not terrorism but guerrilla warfare or open conventional warfare as its means of political conflict. The American policy was sharply challenged at Khartoum with the taking of diplomats George Curtis Moore and Cleo A. Noel as hostages. The impact of political considerations was also revealed in the storm over the agreement reached between District of Columbia Police Chief Maurice J. Cullinane and the Hanafis. Domestic police continually say that every case is unique, and they wonder why the minuet leading to denouement works so often. Domestic policy appears to run directly counter to the official policy of the United States government, which refuses to enter into negotiations for the release of hostages. The most common hostage experience that the police encounter is with the professional felon who in the course of committing a crime finds himself interrupted and without escape.
