Into the Lions' Den

An insider’s look into nefarious world of hostage taking, where the traditional criminal industry of kidnap and ransom became kidnap and kill. Beheadings replaced proof of life videos as terrorism’s latest tactic embodied the new face of post 9/11 Al Qaeda horror. When two Bulgarian truck drivers were kidnapped in June 2004, President Bush assured the President of Bulgaria that he would bring the full might of the United States to bear to secure their release. This “full might” manifested itself in the form of an intense, highly trained Navy SEAL, recently assigned to the U.S. Ambassador’s staff. Into the Lion’s Den is his story of frustration and fear, terror and triumph in the murky world of kidnapping, ransom and murder. No one understood the problem, the operating environment or obstacles to overcome when a kidnapping occurred in the most dangerous kidnapping environment in the world better than Dan O’Shea. Widespread hostage-taking incidents undermined every goal the US strived to complete in the post-Saddam era, becoming a metaphor for our failure to bring security, stability and governance to Iraq.