Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00788R0021 00450004-7
vd-
%
J
»
V-/
.
Staj- Wire S^ryicgs
.
wxhe: freed American hostages will
Py home Sunday to the United States,
j'-sSMe Department officials in Wies-
West Germany, announced
. State Department spokesman Jack
Cannon snitf they will fly to a “pri-
vate, location” where they
will be
^Mlted with their families.
_
Jerome Rcircak, medical direc-
f
fo^of the State Department and lead-
LOf
trie ,re to very team
in
lesbaden,
said .the
freed
Americans are expected
to return
IpgetL'r.
Earlier, the Pentagon was quoted
4s saying the 52 would be lodged
ft the U.S, Military Academy at West
Point, N.Y
on
their,.Igtyrn^lhey
'..pportedly
to
stay there
for
two days for private reunions
their
, famuis^,
.
faihi)ies,^aye.jhe,en learning
.©.bits and nieces what life was like
during the
captivity
in
Iran, and
njuch of wnat they have discovered
t‘"
Ji
-‘~,SS§Sd andjmgered them,
tone conversations with the
.,,.-WR»enia"Wl£5haden con-
_wt8
.
ill
lent .by their Iranian captors,
members said .yesterday.
’’jpe
Laingen,
wife
of
L.
.ingen, the former embassy
;e d’affaires , said she had been
her husband
of
.
treatment, and
the.
is Iranian
captors
to
:ains out.”
_Jl^s|wffiushand,Gar^;
described two mock executions and
MS ffipnths ibsolitary confinement.
;vary didn’t see sunlight or daylight
rom Juae JM.until hornet
the
‘’gerians,.” she said,
„
„ Wd EalP amended
his
pre-
, j.wHdrCffitentipn
that
his brother
Malffllm had spent 150 days in soli-
-Wm*
.
^See HftcfAr.rc
a_a
’ /
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00788R0021 00450004-7
ApprovedeFor Release 2000/08/08
CIA-RDP96.W
r
Iranian Official Denies
Torture of
Negotiator Accuses
U.S. of Brainwashing
Iran yesterday vehemently denied
it tortured the former hostages, ac-
cused them
of being "ungrateful”
and
claimed
U.S.
officials
are
. brainwashing the 52 Americans -as
a
pretext
for breaking
the
agreements signed with Tehran.
"Considering the mentality of this
type of comfort^eking diplomats,
there
is no doubt that they found
the duration of their detention not
desirable;’ Behzad
Nabavi,
Iran’s
chief hostage negotiator, said in an
interview with the Pars news agen-
cy, monitored in London.
....
Nabavi’s
denial
of
the
torture
charges was the first official Iranian
.reply; to statements made by the re-
leased hostages after
their arrival
in Wiesbaden, W&ii Germ any,- which
ended 444 days in Iranian captivity^ „
Nabavi said the .United States was
"bringing up such baseless claims"
of torture in order
to' revoke
the
release settlement and claimed the
Americans
"confessed’’
they were
well treated.
Senate to Hold
Inquiry Into
Iran's Brutality
By Roberta Hornig
Washington Star Staff Writer
Senate
Majority Leader Howard
Baker said yesterday the Senate will
conduct a full inquiry “into the bru-
tal treament of the American hos-
tages in Iran.”
But Baker told a news conference
he believes the hearings should be
put off for the time being because
“the wound is too fresh. The wound
will
be even deeper
as we
learn
more of the atrocities" perpetrated
on
the American
diplomats who
were held hostage for 444 days, he
said.
“I think we should
wait a
little
for our wounds to heala little before
we pass judgment on our policy to-
ward
Iran
or
the
nature
of
the
agreement" which led to the freeing
of the hostages on Tuesday, Baker
said.
He
said
the
hearings — which
* will be conducted by the Senate For-
eign
Relations "Committee — ‘will
.
have two^u rposes ;
^
•:
•
The first wTll'l)e
:to help determine'
Andean' policy toward Iran in the
,
*Pen
.ms
Deconcini
D-Ariz
u rg
president v Reagan jjjp ^ate
225P
that the United SWm4E5;
legally or morally bound
to
the
ihl hM™'
that gained freedom for
’
the hostages since
it
is an
"estab-
lished matter of criminal imu
"We expected ‘this kind of libel
on behalf of the American officials
who have been enemies of the
Is-
lamic
revolution
of
Iran," Nabavi
said.
p
,
Nabavi said former President. Car-
ter and
and
"his
colleagues *who
were
defeated
in
the
diplomatic
stage
of America" were deceiving
American^ for political advantage,
*v MAll torture claims of the released
hostages emana
t e
fro
m
brainwashing,
carried
out
during
their
forced
stay
in
Wiesbaden,
Nabavi said. "The fact
is their stay
in Wiesbaden is designed to prevent
their direct contact with the people
and
to
prevent
the
disclosure
of
truth
before
Washington
cquld
make
its owi)
disclosures.’.’
,.
He said America's step was com-
pletely Wedlgtabii.
”
;
:v
"We have. available
video, tapes
Qt'ymofy .’irUervlews wfjh
the' re-
m which- ‘they ah
.conTessea JOat they have feeea,y$n
trea t ed
a h er h u ifraaely and had he
complaints;’ The. tapes \om:M
fransfhjlled
jiosta’gfes sWttp.
diet them,
'
t v
: -
'
; “We. .khe^th^f ’isome bf the'.fe-
leased hostages were ungrateful and
do hot understand the meaning of
kindness, since they were trained
for the affairs of the Foreign Min-
istry of the U.S.," Nabavi
said.
Nabavi also thanked the militants
who seized the U.S. Embassy in Teh-
ran Nov.
4,
1979, which
triggered
the
crisis.
The released Americans accused
the militants of carrying out much
of the abuse.
"We must express our thanks to
them
(the
militants),
because,
de-
spite their profound hatred of U.S.
policy and its operators in Iran, they
treated the cause of their nation’s
misfortune
so magnanimously,”
Nabavi said.
United Press International
it**
V
•
United Press Internal ic
Returnee Bruce Laingen of Bethesda gives victory sign at Wiesbaden.
Hostages Will Fly Home
State Dept. Says
;
his eyes
so he
couldn’t
see
an>
thing,” she said. "They slammed hii
back onto the chair — he used th
word ‘slammed.’ ”
-
,
,
Mrs. Lee said her husband
tol
her she was certain he was abou
to die. "He said
‘I was dead,
1 " sh
recalled,
adding
that
he
said
i
passed through
his mind
that h
hoped
his
wife
and
11-year-olc
daughter, Dana, could understam
that
his
life was being
sacrifice!
for the country.
’'Three times there was a click o
rifles,” she said her husband
tol<
her.
>
-
Mrs. Lee said her husband
hat
told her that a second "execution
was held .in the embassy basemen
in February 1980. "He said
I couk
feel the bulled iti'ifcy back.
I didn’
yet my p^s.:Jw^;ed ^ be proud
iM’antediojSmy Mrafehtand tall/’
Mrs. Lee saidJter hlftbahdlold her.
Over and over family member?
repeated the same refrain yesterday
that despite
their healthy appear
fince and bight spirits, the hostage-
had not been treated as well as their
families had thought.
Hazel Albin,; mother of Robert O
Continued FromA-1
tary confinement. Kalp said that in
fact his brother said he spent 374
days confined alone in a cell because
he had tried to escape.
And
relatives said other former
hostages described the small indig-
nities of daily life as political pris-
oners:
their watches
being
taken
and their reading material censored,
their clothes’ falling to shreds and
disintegrating in dirt and their trips
to
the bathroom
accompanied
by
armed guards.
At
the same
time, some
family
members began to vent their anger
at the Iranians and their enforced
separation from their loved ones,
Mrs. Laingen, who has been a For-
eign Service wife for three decades,
.
said Of her ;own 'ordeal: "So much
of my
life -lies -been sitting; on the
froht lbwni watchingJChatak4anec$£>
or
Japanestf'ttperd, *up holding^.the?
honor of the u,S„ and never a mo-
ment of peace and tranquility. I’m
tired of it I'm not burned up, I'm
burned out”
' r
y
..
>
t
On Tuesday night Mrs. Laingen
spoke to her husband on the
tele
Appr
CIA-
agreed with Deconcini
"I
Woijlci
<-, v
.
V
.
...
« «azei^oin,; mother or Robert
f
K
flickerj&iff
ft®* her
' Lth
ye&f with Y$o 0ttf#'hostagbs4fi^s?!
shoved frim^roundna
lot” Sus
aavroaMriar jbmwmbmms-
Tison, to a cell whose walls were
covered with
the words,
"Angela,
Angela, my love”
consul at the embassy, said her
\ his paptors were
conti
.larahghing him with the
propaganda” and that stories wei
cut out of magazines he read. Lelan
Holland’s mother. Clara, said her so