Manhunt

By Russ Hoyle

Search for U.S. General Dozier

Wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns, a 2,000-man Italian force combed northern Italy last week as the massive manhunt continued for kidnaped U.S. Brigadier General James Dozier. Acting on a tip, scores of officers swarmed over tiny Ponte Alto (pop. 91), searching dozens of houses and stopping cars on snowy roads, but they found no trace of the 50-year-old Army general who was abducted from his apartment in Verona on Dec. 17. The Italian government sent hundreds of reinforcements and alpine troops to join the search. At a roadblock near Padua, four suspected terrorists were arrested at gunpoint and held for interrogation, though any connection with the abduction of the American general was not revealed.

The Italian government, with U.S. support, restated its policy of "inflexible firmness" in refusing to negotiate with the terrorists for the return of Dozier, the deputy chief of staff for logistics and administration at NATO'S southern Europe land forces headquarters in Verona. However, police authorities in Verona offered a substantial reward, reportedly up to $167,000, for valuable information on the case. Moreover, by week's end a group of Dozier's friends had put up a $1.6 million reward for information leading to the general's release.

Italy's Prime Minister, Giovanni Spadolini, called the Red Brigades' action "a quantum leap in which the terrorists are trying to transform their armed movement into an armed party." He said that the Italian secret service was investigating possible ties between the Red Brigades and West Germany's Red Army Faction, a band of left-wing terrorists mentioned as potential allies by Dozier's captors. The West German group has been linked by authorities to the September attempt near Heidelberg on the life of General Frederick Kroesen, commander of U.S. Army forces in Europe. Said Spadolini: "The explicit attack on NATO, the connection with the attack in Germany, demonstrates that in the new strategy of terrorism there is a prevailing international objective."

Meanwhile, police experts were analyzing copies of a photograph distributed by the Red Brigades showing Dozier with a bruise under his left eye and holding a placard inscribed with leftist slogans. It read, in part: "The crisis of capitalism generates an imperialist war. Only an anti-imperialist civil war can end the war." A communique, the second that authorities have received from Dozier's captors, and a separate 188-page document accompanied the photo. The rambling tract, titled "Strategic Directives December 1981," was the first discussion of the Red Brigades' new policy of violent confrontation with NATO. It also called on other left-wing terrorist groups to unite in the struggle and implied that efforts had been made to infiltrate the pacifist movement in Italy.

Ominously, the communique said that the "trial of swine Dozier has begun." Because the message contained no demands or conditions for Dozier's release, investigators speculated that the general had already been sentenced to death. There was no indication that any sensitive NATO information had been forced from the general. Said a U.S. official who knows Dozier: "What we're in is a prisoner-of-war situation. Name, rank and serial number--that's all they're going to get. Dozier's not going to make it easy for them."

While the search went on, Dozier's wife Judith received messages of sympathy from both President Reagan and Secretary of State Alexander Haig. Maintaining a vigil at her home in Verona with her two children, Mrs. Dozier appeared for a second time on TV to thank the Italian people for their support. Said she: "Please continue to pray. You are in all our hearts, and we know we are in your hearts." --

By Russ Hoyle. Reported by Walter Galling/Rome

With reporting by Walter Galling

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.