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William Francis Buckley (May 30, 1928 – June 3, 1985) was a U.S. Army officer and intelligence agency operative. He was kidnapped by the Islamist group Islamic Holy War on March 16, 1984 while serving as CIA station chief in Beirut, Lebanon, and was subject to torture and interrogation at the hands of his captors for 444 days; the man overseeing his torture was Imad Mugniyah, a former leader of Hezbollah. Buckley was eventually smuggled to Teheran via Damascus aboard an Iranian plane. He died in captivity in Beirut after illness and torture. He is buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia.

Director of the CIA, William H. Webster, eulogized Buckley saying, "Bill's success in collecting information in situations of incredible danger was exceptional, even remarkable."

CIA response

The CIA retaliated on 8 March 1985 by planting a car bomb with the intention of assassinating Hezbollah’s spiritual leader, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah, a disciple of Ayatollah Khomeini. Fadlallah escaped unhurt but eighty-one people were killed in the explosion. This led to more kidnapping of Westerners and the hijacking a month later of a TWA airliner.

See also

• Aziz al-Abub

Footnotes

• Note 1: . ISBN 0788151088. {{cite book}}: Missing or empty |title= (help); Unknown parameter |Author= ignored (|author= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Publisher= ignored (|publisher= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Title= ignored (|title= suggested) (help); Unknown parameter |Year= ignored (|year= suggested) (help), pg 64

External links

William Francis Buckley, Lieutenant Colonel, United States Army

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