ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses the role of intelligence and the influence of the media during the hijacking of TWA Flight 847. It examines the crisis response options that were available to the administration by analysing the competing objectives of the key factors involved. In relation to the kidnapping of William Buckley and the other six American citizens in Beirut during 1984, the TWA crisis was also different. This was because those events occurred over a staggered time. The TWA crisis revealed the divergent interests which prevailed between the government’s departments and demonstrated that institutional competition and interests can exert negative influences. The TWA crisis reflected a fundamental shortcoming in the producer-consumer relationship; this was the absence of effective communication. A number of obstacles caused this breakdown between the intelligence community and the crisis management team. The argument that the media’s approach in the crisis was an underlying cause of President Ronald Reagan’s limited options in responding to the crisis is misleading.
