Situation: You are abroad. Could be anywhere, but probably somewhere a little bit off the track such as South Asia, Middle East or Africa. You are just minding your own business. Then seemingly out of nowhere a group of men wearing balaclavas attack you. There are 5 or 6 of them. It's just you and them. Unfortunately you do not have Little Dark with you. It's apparent that these guys aren't trying to rob you, but clearly want to kidnap you. What do you do? Do you have a strategy?

Personally, I can't imagine a much worse fate than ending up in an orange jumpsuit on one of "those" videos.

I'd like to think that I would resist capture and die fighting these bastards, but the will to survive is strong. Why else would hostages go along with such videos? Very understandably, they are hoping against the odds that they will be released.

P.S. Let's leave Islam and Middle East politics out of this thread. There is enough of that already on the forum. This is purely about YOUR reaction if you were captured by clearly hostile terrorists such as ISIS.

Go along with those videos? They're forced to, man! I don't think any of these hostages mince any words if you were to ask them candidly - many of them who are aware of beheadings and other atrocities know that they're boned. I think its hard to fight back when you are knocked unconscious, unfortunately.


As much as you want to be IP Man or Jason Statham from The Transporter beating up packs of badguys, its near impossible to fight off 5-6 armed men.


Your best bet is to behave and plan pre-emptively. Travel in groups if you can.

One thing that crossed my mind was carrying cyanide tabs "just in case". But wanted to hear your ideas.

Quote: (02-16-2015 11:49 AM)dreambig Wrote:  

One thing that crossed my mind was carrying cyanide tabs "just in case". But wanted to hear your ideas.

Lol, what if you met a girl and she found one of those and popped it, thinking it was MDMA? Accident on Breaking Bad level proportions

Probably do my best to convince them that I wanted to become muslim, yell Allah Ackbar a lot, try to copy their mecca-praying thing, say how awesome Mooham-head was etc.
Then I'd wait for an opportunity to escape, and following that head for the nearest safe territory. When I got back I'd find the nearest US command, and give them any intel I could. That would hopefully lead to the US thoroughly bombing the crap out of them.

Probably die.

I was smart enough to get Little darks cell before the ban so I'm covered.

I've thought about this is a bit since the Jordanian video. Really it would depend on details not in the OP.

For example: I were in the Middle East, and I knew for a fact it was ISIS, I'd fight to the death and/or slit my own throat if possible. If not everyone I know and love (along with half of RVF apparently) is watching me get burned alive or worse. I have a buddy who's a U.S. fighter pilot, and he said everyone agrees they'd rather go down with the plane then eject over ISIS territory.

If I were in Africa or Asia or Latin America, there's a solid chance they're just angling for a ransom, which would change the calculus. The odds of me getting out alive are still slim, but that's a situation you'd have to ride out.

It also depends on nationality. Some governments pay ransoms or at least don't prosecute citizens who do, some don't (e.g. US).

Realistically, it depends on the circumstances in which you are captured - location, type of terrorist group, do you come from a country that negotiates, are you independently wealthy, are your captors ideologically motivated or financially motivated, what's your own state of health at the time of capture, on honest self-reflection are you a resourceful, resolute person capable of evading recapture and surviving should you escape?

Not really enough details in the hypothetical to give you an answer, and you mention a couple of very different countries, with very different potential kidnappers operating within them. Context is crucial here.

Edit: Seamus is quicker on the draw.

Refusing food and water doesn't guarantee a quick death either as they could force feed you. However, it would certainly serve as a pain in the arse for your captors which is precisely what I'd want to be.

If I was knelt down in front of a video camera in an orange jumpsuit, my star spangled ass would go out singing Bon Jovi and the national anthem. If death is inevitable, the best revenge would be to reduce the propaganda effect. One last "fuck you" as a man.

I'd rather have "Livin on a Prayer" as my death video soundtrack than this autotuned, gay flute mosque singing with the flag in the corner.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:16 PM)dreambig Wrote:  

Refusing food and water doesn't guarantee a quick death either as they could force feed you. However, it would certainly serve as a pain in the arse for your captors which is precisely what I'd want to be.

I think this is a popular Hollywood misconception. Once captured, your immediate priority should be to try to keep yourself in optimal health, and well nourished. You're likely to face beatings and uncertain, stressful situations. These place considerable demand on the body. Whilst you maintain hope of escape or freedom, it is important to keep your mind and body sharp, so that you are primed to take your opportunities as the arise, particularly as, should you escape, you may only have what you stand up in, an be required to survive in a hostile and unfamiliar environment for days or weeks on end. If you're well fed and watered, this becomes exponentially easier.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:19 PM)Blick Mang Wrote:  

If I was knelt down in front of a video camera in an orange jumpsuit, my star spangled ass would go out singing Bon Jovi and the national anthem. If death is inevitable, the best revenge would be to reduce the propaganda effect. One last "fuck you" as a man.

I'd rather have "Livin on a Prayer" as my death video soundtrack than this autotuned, gay flute mosque singing with the flag in the corner.

I laughed. Bon Jovi for the win.

That said, I think there are two reasons this doesn't happen:

1) They make these guys go through so many "dress rehearsals" they don't know when they're getting executed for real.

2) They probably threaten to torture them if they pull a stunt like this. Getting beheaded sucks, getting your fingernails ripped out before getting beheaded sucks worse.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:19 PM)Blick Mang Wrote:  

If I was knelt down in front of a video camera in an orange jumpsuit, my star spangled ass would go out singing Bon Jovi and the national anthem. If death is inevitable, the best revenge would be to reduce the propaganda effect. One last "fuck you" as a man.

I'd rather have "Livin on a Prayer" as my death video soundtrack than this autotuned, gay flute mosque singing with the flag in the corner.

Not sure if you saw it, but I noticed in one of the recent beheading videos, one of the guys beheaded was muzzled/muffled. I suspect he was either a biter, or a defiant singer. It's a tricky one, no one wants to be beheaded with a ball gag in their mouth, and in a way at that point it's an uncertain question how you best preserve your dignity and show your defiance.

Quote: (02-16-2015 11:49 AM)dreambig Wrote:  

One thing that crossed my mind was carrying cyanide tabs "just in case". But wanted to hear your ideas.

That's stupid.

Why not just carry some GPS tracker hidden on your person (like in your shoe or something) so if you go missing the authorities will be able to track your location?

You'll probably still die but at least there's a chance they can find and kill the assholes.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:19 PM)Blick Mang Wrote:  

If I was knelt down in front of a video camera in an orange jumpsuit, my star spangled ass would go out singing Bon Jovi and the national anthem. If death is inevitable, the best revenge would be to reduce the propaganda effect. One last "fuck you" as a man.

I'd rather have "Livin on a Prayer" as my death video soundtrack than this autotuned, gay flute mosque singing with the flag in the corner.

Then they turn off the camera and waterboard your ass. Behave and you'll get food after the dry run. Rinse and repeat until it's routine, until they do it for real on your now-docile self.

I'd want to go out like that Japanese guy (the second one obviously). He was a stoic bastard.

Edit: Fuck you Seamus, beating everyone to the draw.

Quote: (02-16-2015 11:49 AM)dreambig Wrote:  

One thing that crossed my mind was carrying cyanide tabs "just in case". But wanted to hear your ideas.

I've only heard of one guy who actually did that, he was a serial killer named Leonard Lake. Always had a cyanide tab with him in his belt lapel I think. He got arrested on a petty shoplifting incident at a hardware store and took the pill at the station before they figured out who it was. Trippy to think that someone would constantly keep a cyanide pill on them at all times in case they needed to kill themselves..

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonard_Lake

Your best bet is to avoid places where this is a good chance. Saying that I guarantee some random person will be attacked and beheaded in a west European country this year.

The likelihood of being beheaded in Mexico is dependent upon several factors.

- Your location
- What you're up to
- Who you are - Are you worth a lot?
- Are the Narco's looking to make a victim out of you because they can? (Usually the Zetas)
- Are you fucking around? Remember these guys kill anyone, you are nothing to them

The same goes for the ME. Dicking around in areas you ethnicity isn't well thought of can be a recipe for problems. You might be against the war on terror but they don't care. They can make up any story they want and off goes your head. They enjoy murdering people and will continue to do so unless they're killed.

Pretend I was a retard lost from his handler when in their custody.

If the act is convincing and their collective guard is down then either try to escape or kill as many captors as possible.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:28 PM)Peregrine Wrote:  

Edit: Fuck you Seamus, beating everyone to the draw.

Slow day at work, what can I say

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:28 PM)Foolsgo1d Wrote:  

The likelihood of being beheaded in Mexico is dependent upon several factors.

- Your location
- What you're up to
- Who you are - Are you worth a lot?
- Are the Narco's looking to make a victim out of you because they can? (Usually the Zetas)
- Are you fucking around? Remember these guys kill anyone, you are nothing to them

The same goes for the ME. Dicking around in areas you ethnicity isn't well thought of can be a recipe for problems.

Foolsgold, are you in Mexico now? I've been wanting to travel there for a while, but even as someone who's spent years in the third world I'm a bit nervous about it. It seems like that entire country is a warzone right now, not just a few hotspots. Do you have the impression that it's just between rival cartels and the cops, or that random tourists are at risk as well?

I'd think that as relatively sophisticated players the cartels would prefer to avoid killing tourists so as to avoid bringing heat down from foreign governments, but who knows.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:22 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:16 PM)dreambig Wrote:  

Refusing food and water doesn't guarantee a quick death either as they could force feed you. However, it would certainly serve as a pain in the arse for your captors which is precisely what I'd want to be.

I think this is a popular Hollywood misconception. Once captured, your immediate priority should be to try to keep yourself in optimal health, and well nourished. You're likely to face beatings and uncertain, stressful situations. These place considerable demand on the body. Whilst you maintain hope of escape or freedom, it is important to keep your mind and body sharp, so that you are primed to take your opportunities as the arise, particularly as, should you escape, you may only have what you stand up in, an be required to survive in a hostile and unfamiliar environment for days or weeks on end. If you're well fed and watered, this becomes exponentially easier.

Yeah, refusing to eat out of sheer defiance - as common in movies - has always seemed tremendously stupid to me. Assuming a chance should arise for you to escape or at least attempt to put up a decent fight, you'll want to be as strong as possible, not weak from hunger.

There's a lot of unknown variables in a situation like this.
For example, I don't know if language would be an issue, what my kidnappers objectives are or if I'm simply a pawn in a much bigger game.

Taking into account the considerable dedication required to execute something like this, it's safe to assume that such individuals would also possess the will to kill if necessary.

So there's 2 possible outcomes - live or die.

As a man who lost his fear of many aspects of death at a young age, the prospect of death isn't particularly scary to me. I've always thought that a prudent man should never seek out death but be ready for when it comes.

Therefore, if the bell should toll then I would do everything within my power to control my emotions and face it with dignity. I always swore that if I was ever afforded the opportunity to chose my position, that I'd want to die on my feet.

I won't be. Therefore, I haven't thought about it.

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:22 PM)H1N1 Wrote:  

Quote: (02-16-2015 12:16 PM)dreambig Wrote:  

Refusing food and water doesn't guarantee a quick death either as they could force feed you. However, it would certainly serve as a pain in the arse for your captors which is precisely what I'd want to be.

I think this is a popular Hollywood misconception. Once captured, your immediate priority should be to try to keep yourself in optimal health, and well nourished. You're likely to face beatings and uncertain, stressful situations. These place considerable demand on the body. Whilst you maintain hope of escape or freedom, it is important to keep your mind and body sharp, so that you are primed to take your opportunities as the arise, particularly as, should you escape, you may only have what you stand up in, an be required to survive in a hostile and unfamiliar environment for days or weeks on end. If you're well fed and watered, this becomes exponentially easier.

Yeah my OP wasn't very clear - I was thinking more along the lines of groups like ISIS. As a westerner if you get captured by them, you are going to die. My priority would be dying quickly and without serving their despicable propaganda.

I would tell the terrorists that I know Mikado.

Mikado, can we be friends now?