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>tVA3e._XtJEiiOA^l)ECEMBER 13, 1988
“
• The 'Washington <Post_
ins
HIGGINS, From Al
vas
•ailed captor efforts, to
... try
their
SsVotesqufetid^V^^
5ion qf
C°";
cept^of iustice.^enouncmg what
it
called
the
“cynical attempt
to
exploit the plight of Higgins during
Christmas
season,
the
State ^De
partment called for his immediate
and unconditional release.
| Administration sources said U.s.
officials have been unable to deter-
mine the validity of the announce-
ment or any of the previous claims
bv
Higgins'
-captors,
Washington
Post staff writer Molly Moore
re-
ported. “There is a great feeling ot
helplessness,” said one administra-
tion official.] - /•
•
Jn
!v
Higgins, 43 , of Danville, Ky., was
head of a 76-man observer group
attached to the U.N. peace-keeping
force in southern Lebanon when he
was
kidnaped
near
the
southern
port city of Tyre on Feb. 17.
The new picture of Higgins, the
; second in 10 month?, resembled a
^photograph released by the kidnap-
ers
April
21. That, photo showed
the
balding
Higgins,
stoop-shoul-
dered with his eyes cast down, not
looking at the camera. He had gray
stubble on his cheeks and was wear-
ing a dark field jacket.
" The statement accompanying the
earlier picture
iHiUl
Llie ^*'^P^a
Lf
put Higgins on trial before
a tribu-
nal
of
the
oppressed"
on
spying
C
The
Organization
of
the
Op-
pressed on Earth, believed made up
of Shiite Moslems loyal to Iran, had
charged that Higgins used his U.N.-
uniform as a cover for espionage^
In today’s statement, the group
said, “It has been proven by clear-
cut evidence that [Higgins] and his
American team
of
observers
are
-
guilty
of providing the Zionist en-
emy with accurate and detailed mil-
itary and security information about
our resistance fighters, their posi-
tions,
movements,
supply
routes
and the quantity and quality ot their
weaponry.”
“The spy has been turned over to
those responsible for executing this
just and revolutionary verdict,
the
statement said. No specific execu-
tion date was mentioned.
,
There
have
been
three
other
communications
from
the
group
since
Higgins’
abduction
twc
statements listing demands for
hi-
release and
a
videotape
ut whicl
Higgins repeatedllie .deitWMS^^, „
The demands focused on the re-
lease
of
Palestinian and Uhati^!
prisoners
held
by
Israel
proxy
militia,
the
South Lebaqo
Army. Israel rejected the demands f
On Saturday, the secretary gei
.-
oral of the United Npfions. Javi<
.
‘if
WILLIAM RICHARD HIGGINS*
, .
for blood of martyrs
Per^z’ de
: Ctiellar, made
a
special
appeal for Higgins’ release when He
accepted the Nobel Peace Prize
in
Oslo on behalf of the 10,000 U.N.
peace-keeping forces.
Tonight,
a
U.N.
spokeswoman
said, “the secretary genera
urgently „
calls on those holding Col.
Higg' 1*
not to carry out their threat but to
release
him
immediately
and
un-
harmed. The secretary general also
urges all those who may be in a po-
sition to help to do all that they c|i
to assist in securing the release.
§
'
Fifteen
foreigners
are
misgmg -
»
kidnaped jn .tebnnQfi.
•
They
are
nine
Americans,
three
i
Britons, one Irishman, one
Italian
\
...and
a
Swiss. The longest held
fit %merican Terry Anderson, 40, o
The Associated Press,' who 'vasM;
..
r
qaped March 16, 1985.
||
'•
'
'
*'•
'
'
»
»
:>
CPYRGHT
U’Y
ns
Raid Friday
— —r~
~
,
,
,
By Farouk Nassar v jJ.
RRlttllT
Dec.
12—-Lebanese'
' kidnapers bolding U.S:
J Marine Ltf
Col. William R. Higgins said today
>
they had decided to “execute” their
hostage because they .believe he is a
spy for Israel.
•
“We have issued the irrevocable
sentence to execute this American
spy,”
said
a
typewritten
Arabic
statement signed by the Organiza^
tion of the Oppressed on Earth and
.delivered to the independent Beirut
newspaper An Nahar.
A photocopy of a picture purport-
ing to show Higgins,. -the most
re-?
cent kidnap victim of nine Ameri-
cans held hostage in.Lebanon, was
printed at the bottom of the-15-line
.statement. Hostage holders in Leb-
•anpit usually insert a picture with a
'statement to prove its authenticity.
-
In
its statement, the group said
the decision' to
kill Higgins was a
retaliation^'
Israeli
attacks
against
wour people in,.occupied Pal-
estine”-tthe ,,We?t Bank, and Gaza
Strip—arid-
predominantly
Shiite
southern Lebanon.
It also said Higgins would die m
“revenge for the blood of the mar-
1, tyrs of the latest Israeli raid” on a
[/Palestinian guerrilla base nine miles
south
of
Beirut.
Nine
guerrillas
were killed Friday in the Israeli at-
tack. An Israeli officer also died.
'[In
Washington,
the
State
De-
partment issued a statement saying
> the charge that Higgins was a spj
?
See HIGGINS, A36, Col. 1
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
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CPYR®
//#?£.
—
/ri—
TWrv AnHpr^on with Madeleine Bassile and their daughter Sulome in a “fresh and bright and beautiful” world
“The World Is
Fresh and Bright
And Beautiful”
After
recuperating in
Antigua,
Terry Anderson
talks about his
chief captor
(surprisingly
pleasant) and
the West’s
mistrust of
Islam
By DAVID AIKMAN NEW YORK
Q. Did you ever Knowjor sure wno your Kidnappers
were?
A. We had our guesses. They would always deny be-
ing connected with the Hizballah [Party ol God], but
I don’t think it’s surprising that kidnappers should
lie. We believed Hizballah was the umbrella organi-
zation, although
it’s not a unitary group but an as-
semblage
of factions or family-connected groups.
All had different names.
It was very strange. There were Brian Keenan,
John McCarthy. Frank Reed, Tom Sutherland and
I,
all in the Bck’aa Valley in one underground secret
prison, all of us being held under different names.
We would laugh about
it, wondering which hat they
wsarmg wmr imy httttt? m to talk to us. Was
he going to wear the Islamic Jihad hat and talk to
Tom [Sutherland ] and me? Or was he going to wear
the Islamic Dawn hat and talk to Frank Reed?
Q. Did you ever meet the person who seemed to be in
charge ofall the hostages?
A. Yes. There was a gentleman called the Haj who
was the chief of our particular taction, and
I guess
one of the senior members of Hizballah. He was ac-
tually a very pleasa nt man
.
He was a rather stocky man.
I never saw his
face, of course, was not allowed to, but my biggest
impression is of his hands. He has big, thick hands,
and he’s paunchy. He would come in, and he’d take
my hand, and he’d say, “Essalamu alaykum [Peace
be with you].” I’d say, “Wa alaykum essalam
. Haj.”
He’d say, “Keefhalak [How are you]?”
He was unquestionably in control.
I mean, they
jumped when he came. He almost always spoke soft-
ly, and he almost always seemed reasonable. He was
not vicious to us, as some of the guards were, partic-
ularly when he wasn’t there.
Q. Ifhe came into the room now , what would you say
to him?
A. Ooh,
that’s much, much too difficult.
1 have no
reason to like the man. He was responsible for hav-
ing me kidnapped and for chaining me to a wall.
I
don’t want to see him ever again, and
I have no idea
what I would say lo him.
Q. You were with Terry Waite for a tony time. What
was he like as a fellow prisoner?
p_v__|,T
TIME. MAY IN,
CPYRGHT
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“You can’t lock
five men in a
room for 24-
hours a day
without
fighting about
something.
Sometimes it
something
small as ‘St.-
off my erf.
or my
STUB
i
s
or i doiV'i.
like the v e
;
you piay
bridge
.
.
>.
*
personality.
There
were
disagreements
in
the
room. I have nothing bad to say about Kir. Waite.
I
think he’s a very, very courageous man. and
I ad-
mire what he tried to do. About half the year we
were together, he had extreme asthma, to the point
where
I thought he was going to die on
us. He
would hyperventilate himself to unconsciousness.
It’s very difficult to live in a small room with a man
who has got asthma, because you don’t get any
sleep. He’s gasping all night long and having crises
and attacks.
q. What were the disagreements about?
A. You can’t lock five men in a room for 24 hours a
day without fighting about something. Sometimes it
would be something as small as “Stay off my cot, or
my mattress,” or
“I don’t
like the way you
play
bridge,” or something like that.
Q. You were moved to different locations about 20
times . How did they move you?
_
A. Usually in the trunk of a car or quite often in a se-
cret compartment built under the bed of the truck
and bolted in. They would come in, and they’d take
this wide plastic tape, shipping tape, and they’d tape
you up. Then they would wrap a towel around your
head this way and over your eyes: You were just like
a mummy.
q.How could you breathe?
a. They left your nose out. A couple of times
I had
fights with them.
I had to struggle and buck and go
“Mmmmm!” because
I had a cold.
I had
to make
them understand that they couldn’t completely cov-
er my mouth, because I couldn’t breathe. \ou d get
exhaust fumes underneath the truck. I was deathly
afraid during one move that I was going to vomit-1
was very sick, and of course my mouth was taped
Up_anc[ that
I would choke to death on my vomit.
When we went to South Lebanon, it was four or five
hours underneath that thing.
Once they dressed me in a chador [the head-to-
toe veil of strictly religious Muslim women] and put
those little round spot Band-Aids on my eyes, and
then they put the sunglasses on. Well, the Band-
Aids came
loose, and with the prescription
sun-
glasses on, I could see perfectly well. So I was sitting
In the back of the car with a guard sitting next to
me, just kind of peering around.
Q. What do you think about, the Iran-contra affair?
A.
It was a bad mistake. Those kinds of bargains
are not the way to deal with kidnappers. They only
encourage more kidnapping. I think it made it very
difficult
for Reagan
to convince
the kidnappers
that he was still a virgin, that he wasn’t going to
bargain with them, because he had already done it
once.
Q. During your years as a captive , you were constant-
ly exposed to the beliefs ofyour kidnappers about
themselves and the rest ofthe world. What were they
saying?
A. They were radicals within
the fundamentalist
movement. The way they interpret their religion al-
lows them
to do things or to justify to themselves
doing things that any normal reading of the Koran
would find insane or evil. I’ve read the Koran; I’m
1 - a ml
f ? ~
Plain » and they’re not
that
different from Christianity at base.
They are paranoid in the way they look at the
world. They see America as the Great Satan that
does everything wrong, and yet
it is all-powerful,
and therefore all American acts must be deliberate;
they can’t be the result of accident or misunder-
standing, or simply stupid policy.
Q. Do you think Westerners understand this
mentality?
A. No, not at
all. Even many of the hostages after
some years of it could not understand
it, could not
grasp it. We need to understand these people, we’ve
got to understand their motives, how their minds
work.
Q. What did they allow you to read in captivity?
a. At various times we did have a lot of books. The
book 1 got first was the Bible, and I kept that almost
throughout my captivity;though not the same copy.
I read that over and over and over and over and over
again and thought about it. That book was by far the
most important to me and remains the most impor-
tant to me.
^
We got westerns, we got science fiction, wc got
good books, \ye gol ispme excellentbooks on political
theory, college textbook stuff in paperback that was
very interesting’ Then when we moved to the Bekaa
Valley, the books ended for some reason. They got
us Time and Newsweek and the Economist and, for
some'Teason, Fortune and- Business
Week
fairly
regularly.
Q. Did your philosophical outlook change while you
were a captive?
A. I was brought up a Catholic. I left the church and
was an apostate for most of my life.
I called myself
an agnostic, which simply means I was too lazy to
figure
it
out.
I
returned
to
the
church,
luckily
enough, about six months before I was kidnapped.
I
believed in God,
I believed in Jesus Christ, I believed
in the things the Catholic Church believed in. Well,
not all of them. I’m not sure the Pope would like me
too much, but
I am a Catholic, whether he likes it or
not. And thinking seriously about my religion was
providential,
I guess, because I needed it very badly
;
when I was kidnapped.
q. After being awayfrom the U.S. so long, what has
struck you on your return?
A. I think it’s a better world, in general. Despite the
>
events of the past few days,
I think America is also
t
making progress.
I think
it is a better place than
r
when I left.
i
I had worked through
in my head a
lot about
)
my life before
I was kidnapped that
I didn
t
like.
I
t
thought of myself as not a good person. And pray-
er, and
I think God’s touch, brought me back out
of
that,
gave me
a
different way
of looking
at
things.
Q. Do you have any bitterness toward the. people who
held youfor so long?
A.
I don’t have any time tor
it.
I don
t have any
need for
it.
It
is required of me as a Christian
to
putjhat aside, to forgive them.
I pray for them.
I
wish them no
ill
in
their
lives. My
liie
is
veiy,
very busy-
it is full of joy. Ihc world
is fiesh and
bright and beautiful.
TIME, MAY IS, VMY2
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CPYRGHT
A42
Friday, March 16. 1990
fv-ui
—
AR
Moslem Group Threatens
. To Kill Three Hostages
BEIRUT—A
Moslem
faction
holding
three American professors hostage threat-
ened yesterday to
kill them
if the United
States
fails to meet
its demands, which
it
did not specify.
The group, the Islamic Jihad for the Lib-
eration of Palestine, also threatened to at-
tack airlines that carry Soviet Jewish im-
migrants to Israel.
The
organization,
believed made up of
Shiite Moslems
loyal
to
Iran, made
the
threats
in
a
statement
delivered
to
the
newspaper An-Nahar,
accompanied
by
a
photograph of Robert
Polhill, one of three
'
American
educators
kidnapped
in
1987.
The
others
are
Alann
Steen
and
Jesse
Turner.
The statement denounced “media reports
about humanitarian moves to free the hos-
tages"
and
asked
“the
authors
of
these
moves not
to interfere
in
this matter be-
cause we
are
holding
agents
and
spies
against our people, and they
will be exe-
cuted if the American administration fails to
meet our demands."
Mongolians Promised Vote
.
ULAN BATOR,
Mongolia—Mongolia’s
new Communist Party leaders promised to
hold the country’s first free elections after
69 years of communist dominance.
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CPYRGHT
Hi
1 i
-
iR000400040001 -3
gpn.Hpfp.nfte: A rmp.d peacekeepers on patrol north of the Israeli border.
A New Victim
in Lebanon
Terrorists kidnap a U.S. officer serving
with unprotected United Nations observers
A glaring security breach: Higgins in the field
GPYRGHT
DEPARTMENT OF
T
[he first reports were bad enough. A
U.S. Marine Corps officer attached
to a United Nations peacekeeping
unit had been kidnapped in south-
nnvDPLlT —
era Lebanon, apparently by pro-
L/n Y IxOrl Urornan gunmen. The victim, Lt. Col. Wil-
liam R. Higgins, 43, instantly disappeared
into
Lebanon’s
terrorist
underground,
where eight other Americans have long
been held prisoner. Then came word that
made the nation’s newest hostage drama
look even more serious. It turned out that
in his previous assignment, Higgins had
worked in the office of Caspar Weinberger,
who was secretary of defense at the time.
Contrary to usual practice, Higgins went
from his sensitive post at the Pentagon to a
new job as an unarmed, unguarded U.N.
observer
in
lawless
Lebanon,
with
an
American flag sewn on his shoulder.
It wasn’t clear what Washington could
do to help Higgins. President Reagan off-
handedly told reporters that "we’ll try to
get him located, and certainly we want to
rescue him.” Fearful of increasing the risk
to Higgins, White House aides quickly said
that they had no idea where he was being
hold and insisted that no rescue mission
|
vas
in the works.
The administration's
itrongest hope was that other Muslim mili-
I
’ iamen would track Higgins down and take
| ffm away from the rival Shiites who kid-
lapped him—a perilous undertaking at
)est. Meanwhile, Washington tried not to
Link about the glaring security breach
:hat allowed Higgins to go to Lebanon in
the first place.
For more than 48 hours, the^ Pentagon
managed to keep a lid on Higgins’s back-
I ground. The Defense Department’s new
spokesman, Assistant Secretary Dan How-
ard,
easily
persuaded
Pentagon
corre-
spondents not to publicize the fact that
"Rich” Higgins had spent two years as a
relatively low-ranking aide to Weinberger.
But that was hardly a secret; Higgins’s as-
signment was listed in recent editions ofthe
Pentagon phone book, which is sold to the
public. Two days after the kidnapping, a
Beirut radio station revealed the Weinber-
ger
connection.
With
Higgins s
covei
blown, the Pentagon announced that he
had served as "a junior military assistant”
and was "one of36 peoplewho worked in the
immediate office of the secretary,
where
j^^^^j^j^d^a^ervvorl^arffiothei^dminis-
ti alive dufeiea.” During part of that pennV
Weinberger’s top military assistant was C<\
lin Powell , then an Army major general and
now Reagan’s national-security adviser.
Higgins, who is married to a Marine ma-
jor and has a teenage daughter, volunteered
for duty with the United Nations in Leba-
non. He was facing one
of the toughest
"cuts” in an officer’s career, the jump from
lieutenant colonel to full colonel, and there
was a shortage of jobs in which he could
stand out. "He wanted a field command,”
said one colleague, "and he wanted some-
thing that was adventuresome, where he
could be independent.” The U.N. assign-
ment would give him command of 75 truce
observers and could open the door to other
political-military slots in Washington.
Pulling
strings: He was well qualified for
the job, having specialized in Middle East
issues during a hitch on the Pentagon s
International Security Affairs
staff. Hig-
gins pulled strings to get the U.N. assign-
ment, which normally goes to an Army
officer. Pentagon gossip had it that Wein-
berger’s influence won him the post, in any
case, his position on the secretary’s staff
gave him what the military calls
juice.
32 NEWSWEEK
: FEBRUARY 29. 1988
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Approved For Release'Ovrro'n^sf
00789™
hunts
r^\>
t,^
& **
's,
0789R000400040001 -3
Marine^TT
colonel
s '
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
TYRE, Lebanon (AP) - United
Nations
peacekeeping
troops
and
Shiite Moslem militiamen sealed off
300 square miles of southern Leba-
non today, searching for a kidnapped
U.S.
Marine
officer
who
heads
a
U.N. observer team.
Lt.
Col. William R.
Higgins,
43,
was abducted yesterday by gunmen
who blocked a highway and pulled
him
from
his
car.
His
abduction
brought to nine the number of Amer-
icans held hostage in Lebanon.
U.N. troops and Justice Minister
Nabih
Berri’s
Shiite Moslem Amal
militia
combed
the
region
around
the
ancient
port
of
Tyre' as
the
search went into
its second day.
“We
hope
the
kidnappers
will
have no chance of slipping out with
their
captive.
That’s why
all
exits
have been blocked,” an Amal spokes-
man said.
Timiir Goksel, spokesman for the
U.N. Interim Force
in Lebanon, or
UNIFIL,
said
the search had U.N.
peacekeeping
troops
operating
in
frs&ir zone and Amal militia active in
otht&vnon-U.N. sectors.
He said
“has vowed to car-
ry
on
the'search
until
Higgins
is
found.”
' \
i
Officials said two gunmen
in
a
brown Volvo car seized Higgins af-
ter
blocking
the
coastal
highway
three miles south
of Tyre.
Higgins
was driving back
to UNIFIL head-
quarters
in
the
border
town
of
Naqoura
after meeting Amal
offi-
cials.
Higgins,
of
Danville,
Ky.,
has
commanded the 76-member Observ-
Dragnet for abducted American
2?
LEBANON, From A1
KKP
Group, Lebanon, since Jan. 8. The
s^ sgroup, made up of officers from 16
^countries,
is attached
to the
5,800-
££man, nine-nation UNIFIL, deployed
***in south Lebanon since 1978 to police
»J4he border with Israel.
Higgins was the third U.N.
offi-
cial
to be kidnapped
in south Leba-
non
in two weeks and the 25th
for-
eigner being held in the country.
Amal spokesmen refused to say
^^whether
they
believe
Higgins was
^seized by
the
militant,
pro-Iranian
^Hezbollah,
or Party
of God, which
J^fras been vying with Amal for domi-
nance
of
the
south.
Hezbollah
fac-
tions
in Beirut are believed to hold
almost of the 24 other hostages.
J2
Plainclothes militia security men
2Jn cars blocked roads along the Li-
:-4ani River from the Mediterranean
!Scoast 25 miles inland to the slopes of
^dount Hermon.
gj
Uniformed
militiamen
armed
f^with submachine guns and
rocket-
propelled
grenade
launchers
pa-
Apj^Uecti Fck2
1R€daas€r^a0(M0B/e8
^coast
from
the
Qassmieh
Bridge
LT. COL WILLIAM HIGGINS
Pulled from car by gunmen
north of Tyre to the scene of the ab-
duction, the spokesman added.
“Our men are searching villages
in
an
800-square-kilometer
area
north,
east and south
of Tyre,” he
said.
“U.N. troops are blocking the
southern exits.”
ment’s military commander in south
Lebanon, and security chief Moham-
med Harqous.
“They have personal orders from
Berri that no one sleeps until we get
the man back,” the spokesman told
the Associated Press.
He
said Amal was
“anxious
to
protect and safeguard UNIFIL irre-
spective
of
the
nationality
of
the
peacekeepers. Amal views Higgins’
abduction as a deliberate challenge.”
Security sources said French spe-
cialists
were
dispatched
to
Tyre
from UNIFIL headquarters to inter-
rogate an unidentified Lebanese bus
driver who claimed he witnessed the
abduction.
“The
French have managed
to
draw a face sketch of the gunman
the eyewitness says he saw pointing
a pistol at Higgins’ head as he forced
him into the kidnappers’
car,” said
one source, speaking on condition of
anonymity.
In
Washington,
White
House
spokesman Roman
Po^adiuk
said
: CIThdRB®a6dBfl@W0R0i0CWO004Od04Wd the kidnappers responsible”
vised by Daoud Daoud,
the move-
for Higgins’ safety.
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CPYRGHT
XJ.S. Marine (Jiticer
^
v
Abducted in Lebanon
Gunmen Seize Colonel Working With U.N.
By Nora Boustany
Special to The Washington Post
BEIRUT, Feb. 17—A U.S. Ma-
rine officer in charge of a U.N. ob-
server group in Lebanon was kid-
naped by unknown gunmen today as
he drove in a two-car convoy near
the southern port city of Tyre
The officer, identified by Penta-
gon
officials
as
Lt.
Col.
William
Richard
Higgins,
43,
of
Wood-
bridge, Va„ was seized after leaving
a meeting in Tyre with Abdel Ma-
jeed Saleh, a senior political officia
of the mainstream
Shiite Moslem!
Amal group, Amal officials said.
By
late
tonight
there
was
nd
claim of responsibility for the attacH
and no indication of who might hav^|
carried it out or of the motive.
The
kidnaping, which
brings
td
nine the number of Americans hel(J
captive in Lebanon, brought imme
diate expressions of concern fron
the White House and
the
Unitec
I
Nations,
whose
peace-keepinj
forces
in
southern
Lebanon!
mounted a wide search for the miss
ing officer.
“Most of [the U.N. peace-keepinJI
force]
is involved in the search,
infl
eluding helicopters, and we are getj|
ting
substantial
help from Amal,
Timor Goksel, spokesman
for
th
U.N. peace-keeping force, said.
The White House called for th
prompt
release
of Higgins.
Presjl
dent Reagan, asked about the
kic
naping as he boarded Air Force On
in California to return to Washing
ton
after
a
vacation,
said, “We’r
still
investigating,
trying
to
lear|
more about it.”
U.N.
Secretary
General
JavieU
Perez de
Cuellar,
traveling
in A
rica, expressed “profound concern
a
U.N.
spokesman
in New Yodt
said, and Undersecretary Genera
Marrack Goulding, who is traveling
' imalf
in the Middle ^st. began diplyma
ic efforts to gainHiggihs release.
The kidnaping came just 12 dajft
after two Scandinavian
officials
<w
the U.N. Relief and Works Agenc
which
administers
the
Palestinian
refugee camps in the Middle Easjl,
were kidnaped by unknown gunman
in southern Lebanon, and
it raisdp
new fears for the safety of the thoU-
sands of foreigners working in var-
ious U.N. organizations
in
chaoljjc
Lebanon.
Higgins
served
with
the
U.
Truce Supervision Organization,
small unit that, since
its formati
in
1948, has supervised
armisti||
agreements
between
Israel
a
See LEBANON. A19, CoL 3
Unit Leader
Had Sought
Lebanon Duty
By Molly Moore
and Lynda Richardson
Washington Post Staff Writers
Marine
Lt.
Col.
William
Richard
(Rich)
Higgins,
kid-
naped by gunmen in Lebanon
yesterday,
“actively
sought"
the post with the U.N. obser-
vation
unit he heads
in
that
country, according
to Penta-
gon officials.
Higgins, 43, lived in Wood-
bridge when he was assigned,
last June to the Lebanon Ob-
server
Group,
part
of
the
U.N. Truce
Supervision Or-
ganization
that
operates
throughout
the Middle
East,
Pentagon
officials
said.
Last
month, he became chief of the
75-member
Lebanon
unit,
which
includes
16 U.S.
mil
itary officers, officials said.
Pentagon and State Depart-
ment
officials
said yesterday
that
Higgins'
kidnaping
has
not
triggered
discussions
about removing the remaining
U.S.
team
members
from
Lebanon.
“These people are not
as-
signed
as
a
national
contin-
gent," said State Department
spokesman
Charles
E.
Red-
man. “There are U.S. officers
assigned to this organization,
and as such,
they are under
the authority and responsibil
ity
of
this
[U.N.]
organiza-
tion.”
Some Pentagon officials ex-
pressed concern over the vul
ing
in Lebanon* notinffthA#*
the
State
Department
Has
recommended
for
the
past
several years
that American
civilians leave that country.
But other military
officials
noted that the United States
has participated
in
the U.N.
unit
since
it was formed
in
1948 and did not withdraw its
members even after the 1983
bombing of the Beirut Marine
barracks,
in which
241 Ma-
rines and other U.S. person-
nel died.
The
Lebanon
Observer
See MARINE, A19, Col. 1
CPYRGHT
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pmMuI^
USA TODAY
• THURSDAY, FEBRUAh
.
CPYRGHT
The other eight
held in Lebanon
, Terry Anderson, corre-
spondent
for
Associated
Press, was kidnapped
.. March 16, 1985.
Edward Tracy, a writer
from Vermont who was liv-
ing in Beirut, was abducted
Oct. 21, 1986;
Thomas Sutherland,
agri-J
culture dean
at American
University
of
Beirut, waq
seized June 9, 1985.
Jesse Turner, a math
in-
structor at Beirut University
College, was kidnapped
Jan. 24, 1987,
Frank Herbert Reed, direc-
tor
of
Lebanese
Interna-
tional School, was kid-
napped Sept 9, 1986:
Robert
Polhill, a business
professor at Beirut Univer-
sity
College, was
seized)
college,
. 24, 1987.
Joseph Cicippfo, comp-
troller at American Univer-
sity
in
Beirut, was kid-
napped Sept. 12, 1986.
Alarm Steen, a journalism
professor at Beirut Univer-
sity College, was
kid-
napped Jan. 24, 1987.
LT. COL WILLIAM HIGGINS
Pulled from car by gunmen
r
\l
Anderson, 40, chief Middle East corre-
spondent of The Associated Press. Kidnapped
March 16, 1985.
—• Thomas Sutherland, 56, agriculture dean at the
American University of Beirut, June 9, 1985."7? s
(JP Frank Reed, 55, director of the Lebanon Interna-
tional School in Beirut. Sept. 9, 1986.
,
.
„
,
Joseph CicippiO, 57, acting controller of the 71 "p
:
i
American University of Beirut. Sept. 12, 1986/*
\
Edward Tracy, 57, author. Oct. 21 , 1986/
;
;
Jesse Turner, 40, visiting professor of mathe- T p/
matics and computer science at Beirut Univer-^*
£
sity Col lege. Jan. 24, 1987.
—
Robert Polhill , 53, assistant professor of busi-
. .7
^
ness at Beirut University College. Jan, 24, 1987.
’T' Alann Steen, 48, journalism professor at Beirut
University College. Jan, 24, 1987.
(y
yflarine Lt. Col. William Higgins, 43 , head of a u.N,
v^~^/observer group attached to the U.N. Interim 7/7
Force in Lebanon. Feb. 17, 1988.
..
"•
y
Don ltirk
^ /ye/. 3
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''//tj-i'-- (f o
Mill
CPYRGHT
ATTAR—SYGMA
AFl'
A tale of beat ings , cha ins and blindfolds Singh, Stem
Hostage Escape Attempt
CPYRGHT
A
lann
Steen,
one
of
nine
American
hostages
still
held in Lebanon, tried to escape
from his terrorist captors but
was caught and beaten, U.S, in-
telligence has learned. Fellow
hostage
Mithileshwar
Singh,
an Indian with
U.S.
resident
status
who
was
freed
last
month in Damascus, has told
U.S. officials that Steen didn’t
make it far before neighbors in
the Beirut suburb where he was
held last year spotted him and
turned him in. Several fillings
were knocked
out
of Steen’s
teeth
when
he
was
beaten,
Singh said.
One
of three
teachers
cap-
tured with Steen from the Bei-
rut University College campus
in 1987, Singh told U.S. officials
he was treated better than the
Americans because he is Indi-
an. The four men were kept in
Beirut but moved
frequently
because their captors feared a
U.S. rescue efFort. Most of the
time they were
chained and
sometimes
blindfolded.
Their
captors never talked
politics;
critical
of the United
States,
they
also
fantasized
about
a
U.S. visit. All four hostages had
expected to be released around
Election Day or the presiden-
tial Inaugural, Singh said.
The captive Alann Steen
HOSTAGES
I
The Taxmen
Strike Again
It was just the sort of heartless
harassment that has made the
Internal Revenue Service one
of the most resented arms of the
Federal Government. A while
ago, the IRS sent a computerized
notice
to journalism
professor
Alann Steen, telling him that if
he did not cough up back taxes
due on
Iris 1984 return within
days,
the
tax
collectors
would
take him
to
court. But
there was a hitch. For the past
21 months, Steen has been one
of the Americans held hostage
by Islamic
terrorists
in Leba-
non. As such, Steen, 49, seems
to qualify for the unofficial IRS
policy not to pursue hostages or
prisoners of war. That exemp-
tion expires once a hostage
is
freed.
It may
be
enough
to
make captivity look just a little
bit appealing.
_
TIME. NOVI
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CPYRGHT
Israel Says 5 Hezbollah Guerrillas Killed
Associated Press
JERUSALEM, Aug. 24—Israeli
troops
ambushed
and
killed
five
guerrillas
of the
pro-Iranian
Hez-
bollah group
in southern Lebanon
today, the Army command said. Six
of the soldiers were wounded.
Guerrilla and Israel artillery bat-
teries exchanged fire after the bat-
tle,
and
the
attacking
soldiers
moved back behind their lines,
Is-
rael television reported.
Hezbollah, or Party of God, is an
umbrella group for Shiite Moslem
extremists
believed
to be
holding
American hostages in Lebanon. The
clash was near the village of Kaou-
kaba, north of Israel's security zone
in southern Lebanon.
The zone, up to 10 miles wide, is
patrolled by about 1,000 Israeli sol-
diers and more than 1,000 South
Lebanon Army militiamen
trained
and financed by
Israel. The Army
command said the Israeli force op-
erated
in Lebanese territory on a
search-and-destroy mission.
The Army command said five of
the
soldiers were
treated on
the
spot and a sixth was slightly wound-
ed and hospitalized.
Israeli troops were last known to
operate outside the security zone in
May, when they attacked two Hez-
bollah
strongholds,
killing
more
than 40
guerrillas. Three
soldiers
died in those attacks.
In Nablus,
in the occupied West
Bank,
Israeli
soldiers
shot
and
wounded up to 15 Palestinians today.
Troops
fired
on
Palestinians
who
hurled stones and burned tires in the
central market, the Army said.
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ton Post
R96-00789R000400040001 -3
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
Why Khomeini’s Designated Heir Quit
Instead of being mad at Rafsanjani, Khomeini
turned on Montazeri and had at least 200 of
Montazeri's followers arrested, including his son,
son-in-law and brother-in-law. The brother-in-law,
tVlehdi Hashemi, was tried for various "crimes” and
executed in September 1987.
Montazeri wisely kept a low profile after that
episode, but would occasionally object to
Khomeini's repressive domestic policies.
Last summer, when Khomeini's regime hit rock
bottom and had to accept a cease-fire in its long and
bloody war with Iraq, Montazeri was emboldened.
He wrote.at least two secretjetters;rf
to
T
he fanatical followers of Iran’s Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini tortured their own
ambassador to the United Nations nearly to
death. That was the last straw that drove
Khomeini’s designated successor to resign last
month, according to a highly sensitive Central
Intelligence Agency report.
The report details the secret struggle between
Khomeini and Ayatollah Hussein Ali Montazeri,
•who was designated in 1985 as Khomeini's heir.
According to the CIA, Montazeri was furious over
the arrest of Mohammed Mahallati,
I ran’s
ambassador to the ynitedT^tions.^The Pasdaran,
1 Khomeini’s Revolutionary Guard Corps, claimed
that-Mahallati was riot faithful to the revolution.
They arrested him in Tehran and tortured him until
he had a heart attack. He was rushed to the
hospital in critical, condition.
It was too much for Montazeri, who had long
been disgusted with Khomeini's abuse of civil rights
in his country. The resignation doesn’t make
Montazeri a saint. Even at his most charitable, he is
by no means a nibe guy. It was Montazeri who
called for attacking
1Americans anywhere in the
world after the USS Vincennes shot down an
Iranian airliner mistaken for a bomber last summer
.
For years, Montazeri has supported terrorism
against Americans,
v
,,
-n-
Montazeri's faction leaked the story of the U.S.
arms-for-hostages deal to a Lebanese magazine in
November 1986. Montazeri had hoped that the
exposure would cripple the chief backer of the deal,
Iranian Speaker of the Parliament Hashemi
Rafsanjani.
executions of political opponents.
••
,t
! t-
‘
:
^
Thousands of dissidents, many of them members
.
of the anti-Khomeini People’s Mojahedin, haver been
imprisoned without trial and tortured to makethem
admit the error of their ways or cough up the
names of their compatriots. Khomeini ordered
wholesale executions of his opponents after the
cease-fire. He feared that without the distraction of
a war, his internal enemies could foment rebellion.
Montazeri’s objections festered for months.
Khomeini became increasingly angry with the man
who was once his student, whom he called “thev
light of my lifeJ^^
-
.r
-
I
With Moritazeri's firial^totest over the torture of
the U.N. ambassador, Khomeini demanded his
resignation. Khomeini said it was clear Montazeri
didn't have the stuff to succeed him to this “very
grave responsibility that requires endurance more
than your capacity.”
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qton Post
Ionday, April 17, 1989^A17.
Can Nominee Illuminate Hostage Deal?
State Dept, ’s Bartholomew Was on Scene of First Arms Shipment cpyrght
By Walter Pincus
Washington Post Staff Writer
Reginald
Bartholomew,
whose
confirmation
hearing
as
President
Bush's choice for undersecretary of
state
for
security
affairs,
science
and
technology
takes
place
today
before
the
Senate
Foreign
Rela-
tions Committee, was on the scene
for the
first, and one of the more
mysterious, arms-for-hostages ship-
ments in the Iran-contra affair.
He was the U.S. ambassador in
Beirut when
Israeli
shipments
to
Iran of 508 American-made TOW
antitank missiles led to the release
on Sept. 14, 1985, of the Rev. Ben-
jamin Weir, one
of six Americans
then held by Islamic Jihad, a group
of pro-Iranian extremists.
The
background
of
that
first
arms-for-hostages
shipment,
and
particularly
the
involvement
and
knowledge of
it by then-President
Reagan and
his top Cabinet advis-
ers,
has
never
been
publicly
ex-
plored, although
it formed the foun-
dation of the Iran-contra scandal.
In
their
first
statements,
shortly
after reports appeared in November
1986 about the arms sales to
Iran,
Reagan and others said they had not
known
about
the September
1985
shipments and
their
relationship
to
Weir's release. The president and his
aides have always said the operation
was run solely by the Israelis.
Materials released by the White
House-authorized
Tower
Review
Board,
by
the
congressional
Iran-
contra' panels, at the
trial of Oliver
L. North and in. interviews with par-
ticipants show
that
U.S.
involve-
ment in the September 1985 events
was greater than publicly disclosed.
North
testified
at
his
trial
last
week that there was ongoing intel-
ligence'; monitoring of the planning
by the Iranians and Israelis for the
September shipment and
U.S.
re-
sponses.
“We
were
aware
when
Rev.
Weir
was
going
to
be
re-
leased/'
North
said.
“We
didn't
know which hostage
it was or how
many there would
be. We had
to
position people
in places where he
could
be
safely
recovered
and
brought back to the United States."
Government
sources
have
de-
scribed how a U.S. aircraft carrier
was moved near the Lebanese coast
and Delta Force commandos were
put aboard to be ready to attempt
to free any hostages not released in
response to the arms shipment.
Under the plan, a counterterror-
ist team would be sent into Beirut
in hopes
it could track the hostage
release operation.
If
all
six Amer-
icans were not freed, the plan called
for
trying
to
follow
the
hostage-
holders back to their headquarters
and
mounting
a
rescue
operation
after the location of remaining pris-
oners was determined.
Weir was released Sept.
14, but
his freedom was
kept
secret. He
was flown to the
U.S.
carrier and
interrogated by the head of the Del-
ta Force, then transferred
to Nor-
folk and questioned again. On Sept.
18, when
it became
apparent
no
more hostages would be freed and
the
counterterrorist
teams
had
failed to
locate the others, Weir’s
release was announced.
At his trial last week, North said
that
“at the direction of the pres-
«
ident” he met with Weir, carrying a
*
letter from Reagan “in an effort to
«
assure Rev. Weir that his cooper-
*
ation was necessary
for us
to be
able
to help rescue the other—or
J
recover the other hostages.”
j
Bartholomew, who has been
in-
*
formally
interviewed,
but
never
{
called as a witness in any of the in-
vestigations, was identified by Sec-
retary of State George P. Shultz in
>
his
1986
appearance
before
the
Tower
board
as
having
informed
him on Sept. 4 that “North was han-
dling an operation that would lead
;
to
the
release
of
all
seven
hos-
<
tages,” according to the board.
*
“[A U.S.] team had been deployed
to Beirut, we were told,” the report
quotes Shultz as saying. “Ambassa-
:
dor Bartholomew had been alerted
j
directly
by
the
[National
Security
J
Council] and would assist.”
!
The record on this first arms-for-
j
hostage effort
is far from clear, and
j
Bartholomew's knowledge could help
»
in reconstruction of those events.
i
Reagan
has
said he
cannot
re-
\
member
if his authorization of the
j
Israeli
September
arms
transfer
;
took place before or after the event.
?
Then-national
security
adviser
]
Robert
C. McFarlane, who
said
it
)
was
authorized
beforehand,
has
\
been
fuzzy
in
his
recollections
of
.
how the shipments occurred
:
Then-Defense Secretary Caspar
\
W.
Weinberger,
who/ received
)
copies
of the
electronic intercepts
J
that North
said monitored events
;
closely,
has
maintained
he
knew
;
nothing about
the arms
shipment
and its relationship^ the hostages.
!
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))c
CPYRGHT
, f oVCH
Syria, Iran Impose
Truce in Lebanon
Halt in Shiite War Seen Aiding Hostages CPYRGHT
By Nora Boustany
_J|Vashingt^
BEIRUT, Jan. 30—Syria and Iran
the chief supporters of two warring|
Lebanese
Shiite
Moslem
factions;
signed an agreement today that
ik
intended
to impose
a truce on the
rival groups and allow the pro-Iran-
ian
Hezbollah
forces
to
return
to
southern Lebanon.
Officials from
all
three countries expressed hope that
the accord also will help gain the re-
lease of foreign hostages.
Leaders
of
the
pro-Syrian Amal
movement
and
representatives- of
|
Hezbollah,
which
is backed and
fi-
nanced by Iran, grudgingly met (and
embraced in Damascus after signing
a pact negotiated by Iran and Syria.
Syrian
Foreign
Minister
Farotik
Charaa attended the signing ceremo-
ny and told reporters later: "Any pos-
itive step in Lebanon like
this
will
help gain the release of hostages.”
Iranian
Foreign
Ministet^AlI
Akbar Velavati expressed the same
wishes when prodded to comment on
the issue. "Anyhow,” he said, "we do
hope that
all hostages, despite their
nationalities, will be freed very soon
on humanitarian grounds.”
Amal leader Nabih. Bern, asked
about the fate of U.S. Marine Lt.
Col. William Higgins, abducted by
Hezbollah on Feb.
17,
1988,
said
that the agreement did riot specif-
ically deal with the hostages but he,
too, sounded an optimistic note.
"I can say I am sure this agree-
ment
will help the
release
of the
hostages
[as]
quickly
as
possible,
but
I cannot say or give a date for
that,” Berri said.
Under
today's agreement,
secu-
rity
in
Beirut's
southern
suburbs,
where most of the foreign hostages
reportedly are held; would be con-
I
sidered
as; part
of/ Beirut's
overall
security; Which in/ theory, at least,
Butsi the inaanly Shiite slums under
SyriahcphbroL
/
,
;>.
,
Analysts hdre said last week that,
in
aiiy case, the/ intensity of Syrian
and
Iranian
pdace-making
efforts
Approved For Release
into focus.
The plan signed today was the out-
come
of long
talks ,over
the
past
week between Charaa and Velayati
as well as senior Ama^ and Hezbollah
officials. The accord, worked out to
end
bitter
fighting
that
has
killed
more than 150 people
in
the
past
three weeks, was a setback to efforts
by Amal
to
shut
Iran-inspired
ex-
tremists out of the embattled south.
Amal
fighters
drove
Hezbollah
from southern Lebanon
last April
with the aini of policing and paci-
fying
that
part
of the
country to
protect it from Israeli reprisal raids
provoked by guerrilla attacks.
The agreement, However, calls for
a return to the situation before April
1988, but
also provides
that Amal
will be in charge, of security in south-
ern Lebanon and allows both factions
to carry out
political,
cultural and
propaganda activities there.
A vague article providesthat Amal
and Hezbollah
will establish a joint
military operations room in southern
Lebanon to "coordinate and escalate
resistance
missions
against
Israel,
with each side retaining the right to
carry out individual operations.”
An Amal spokesmen here said he
was "not exactly happy with the end
result, but it seems this is the best
they could come up with,”
The agreement calls on both par-
ties to abide by a
cease-fire that
was declared
last Wednesday but
has been largely ignored.
The
only
clear
victory
for
the
more moderate Amal movement is a
declaration
that
hoffr
sides
should
refrain from^hamiing
: U.’Nf peace-
keeping forces or nersonnel of other
international
organizations
in
Leb-
anon:/lran-backed^
^ gr^psrhttacked
UNTtroops in southern Lebanon in
1986, and Hezbollah has seen them
as an obstacle to its missions against
israieli-'&ldier^''
|
In ^Christian
< e^fi^irut^. mean-
while, a car TOmb ™leti' twcfpeople
and wounded 15 as the motorcade of
Phalange
Barty
president
George
J)
was not hurt,
but his car was destroyed.