If you have to ask... you don't need to know.

given where it happened it's likely the israelis would be the guys doing the rescue.

Wasn't there a "Delta Force" film along those lines?

>>If you have to ask... you don't need to know.<< Thanks for the great response, it was very insightful. Ehran, the reason I didn't think the Israeli's would get involved was because the captives are American Citizens, and in most cases we would be the ones rescuing the hostages. Yimmy, I don't really care what Hollywood has to say about any military situation....they are about making money and not showing fact (an example is Saving private Ryan, and good movie but alot of the tactical decisions made were completely wrong...a counterexample is Blackhawk Down, a pretty accurate representation about what happened).

GOP, I was joking - have you seen the Delta Force series of films? I am still trying to figure out why I have... And as to who rescues who, American forces can't operate in Israel unless Isreal invites them in.

I wouldn't expect to see a US hostage rescue operation. I'd think its more a PR deal than anything. It sounds to me like the fellow in the interview was blowing hot air. Hostage rescue isn't something that happens without the public getting wind of it and I honestly can't come up with very many examples of US efforts. In recent memory.. The whole PFC Lynch thing. And then um... er Grenada umm sort of. oh and I suppose Desert One As for the movie Yimmy is refferring to, its (Delta Force) starrring Chuck Norris. GOP, just be thankfull you are a generation late to have been subjected to those series of 1980's B action movies... Maybe if you ever take up drinking it might be watchable..

A US incursion, however brief and small, into Gaza or other Palestinian areas is *probably* too politically provocative for the powers that be, even GWB. I'd put money on any rescue attempt being an Israeli effort as Ehran suggested.

I expect it to be executed either violently or diplomatically by the "duly elected" wing of Hamas as sort of a "see, we're not all bad guys" gesture.

I was watching Fox News (The O'Reilly factor) a few minutes ago, and he was interviewing a Former CAG operator who is now some kind of Security expert (the name escapes me), and they were discussing the Pali terror organization (forgot their name, too...some no-name group with Al in it) who took Steve Centanni and another Fox news journalist hostage. The former CAG guy said "If you are in this kind of situation [being held hostage by a enemy of the US], you have to have hope and remember that the United States of America does everything in it's power to get American Citizens back safely"...then he says, "As a Former Delta operator, we see this". My question is, do you think that CAG has any kind of plan or preliminery plan to get these Steve Centanni back?<< Yes >> If so, when do they start to rehearse for the mission?>> they never stop rehearsing mission profiles, but on to this specific one, probable contingency planning was made the minute word was recieved of the kidnap >> How likely are they to perform the mission, if they can locate the Fox news crew? I am kind of interested in how the process works<< not likely now, the Israeli's would be better, local knowlage and it's really their turf, but it would be similar to the situation whn an Irish journalist was kidnapped in Iraq a while back, Irish Ranger's were sent along with G2 member's to liase with US SOF's in case of a rescue attempt, the US would probably do the same in this case.

Yimmy, sorry, I wasn't sure what movie this was. On second thought, I do remember watching a little bit of some ridiculous movie about Delta in Beirute with Chuck Norris in it...you have to REALLY be bored to watch that entire movie :)

Mough, thanks for the info. Which Israeli unit would be most likely to undertake the mission? Sayre't Matkal (or whatever)? I would definitely vote for Shayetet 13, considering they are Combat Swimmers (and, as expected, have the highest washout rate) andd we all know Combat swimmers are the best warriors :)... Only kidding, of course.