Experiments in Terror: Reporter as Undercover Agent

If a terrorist group abroad kidnaps an American employee, there is a Dallas newspaper reporter who almost certainly will be contacted for advice on rescue efforts. He is Hugh Aynes-worth, former Houston bureau chief for Newsweek, now a Times Herald reporter.

Recovering American kidnap victims could have been a full time business for Aynesworth, who last year negotiated the release of five Tenneco geologists kidnaped by a terrorist group in Ethiopia. After Aynesworth left Newsweek in Houston, he set himself up as a corporate investigator, just in time to sell Tenneco on the idea that he could rescue its kidnaped employees. Tenneco, which had refused to pay three million dollars ransom, agreed to let him try.

For 24 days Aynesworth conned and negotiated his way through the streets, dingy bars and one-bulb hotel rooms of the Middle East. The result: safe release of all five Tenneco geologists for $200,000 ransom in medical supplies plus Aynesworth’s fee, which he says he priced “way too low.” Since then Aynesworth has been offered a high paying job as trouble shooter for “a large corporation” (perhaps Exxon) and was paid handsomely by another corporation for writing a white paper on how to negotiate with political kidnapers.

Now Aynesworth almost certainly is at it again, aiding in the recovery attempts of two Collins Radio technicians kidnaped by the same Ethiopian terrorist group. Aynesworth refuses to comment on his involvement with the Collins case.

So far Aynesworth has resisted offers for full timetrouble shooting, saying demands of kidnap assignments abroad don’t meethis idea of “a family man’s life.”