Hostage returns to freedom after 16 months
By SUSANNE M. SCHAFER
Associated Press Writer
CONCORD, N.H. The Rev.
Benjamin Weir is free after a 16-
month kidnapping ordeal in Leb
anon, but President Reagan said
yesterday that he “will not be satis
fied” until the six remaining Ameri
can captives also are released.
Weir was releasd to U.S. authori
ties in Beirut on Saturday, but an
announcement was withheld to de
termine whether the release of the
other Americans might also be ob
tained.
“We were trying to keep it so
quiet because we don’t want to do
anything that endangers the
chances of the other six,” Reagan
said at the conclusion of a speech
promoting his tax reform proposal.
But White House spokesman Ed
ward Djerejian, briefing the press
after Reagan’s speech, said it be
came apparent Tuesday night that
no more releases were “immi
nent.”
Unconfirmed reports about
Weir’s release surfaced Sunday
with an anonymous telephone call
to the Reuters news agency. The
Presbyterian Church said early
Wednesday that Weir had been
freed. Soon afterward, Reagan sup
plied the official confirmation that
Weir was “back in America, safe
with his family.”
“I am happy for him and his
family,” the president said, “but I
will not be satisfied and will not
cease our efforts until all the hos
tages, the other six, are released.”
Later, as he boarded Air Force
One to return to Washington, Rea
gan held up six fingers and told
reporters, “Six more to go.”
Weir, 61, a Presbyterian min
ister, was kidnapped by terrorists
May 8,1984, in Beirut. Neither Rea
gan nor Djerejian offered any de
tails about his release.
Djerejian said Weir was in Nor
folk. Va., although a church official
said later in the day that the min
ister and his family had left the city
“but we don’t know where they
Tax plan
may not
be ready
By JIM LUTHER
Associated Press Tax Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. - Con
gressional leaders agreed yester
day that they will not be able to
deliver tax overhaul legislation to
President Reagan’s desk this
year, as he wanted.
“I don’t think it has any chance
of getting through Congress this
year,” House Speaker Thomas P.
O’Neill Jr., D-Mass., said after a
private meeting with Senate Ma
jority Leader Robert Dole, R-
Kan., and other top leaders from
both sides of the Capitol to dis
cuss the legislative agenda for
the remainder of the year.
Earlier in the day, Dole repeat
ed to reporters his view that “I
don’t see how we can finish it this
year.”
The comments came as Rea
gan appealed for support of tax
reform in a speech in Concord,
N.H.
O’Neill emphasized that the
House still plans to take up the
measure this year.
“Are we trying to put it through
the House? The answer is yes,” *
O’Neill said. But, he added, “It’s
taken us this long and it’ll take
the Senate some time, too, I
would imagine.”
O’Neill said, “We’ve agreed
that we’re going to be out of here
before Thanksgiving” for the
year. That means there would be
no time on the congressional cal
endar for passage of the tax mea
sure. .
Dole said that while the Senate
would not act this year, he feels
support will still be there at the
beginning of next year in ef
fect, a delay of only a few
months.
Reagan, however, has urged
Congress to pass the tax legis
lation as a Christmas present to
the nation.
The House Ways and Means
Committee announced yesterday
that its work on the proposed
overhauling of the federal income
tax system will be done behind
closed doors.
the
daily
are.” Doctors described Weir as
being “in good mental and physical
condition,” Djerejian added.
He said the United States had
“absolutely” made no deal with the
terrorists who had held Weir. “Our
position on negotiating with terror
ists is very clear," he said.
Asked if the United States had
given up anything to win Weir’s
release, the spokesman said, “I’m
not going to get into that.”
Djerejian refused to answer ques
tions on why only Weir had been
freed.
But he said, “We have been in
touch with a number of govern
ments, and various contacts, in
cluding the Syrian government.”
Asked whether he would say the
Syrians had been helpful in winning
Weir’s release, Djerejian said,
“Not specifically, I can’t say.”
Reagan himself was asked upon
returning to Washington whether
Syria was involved in Weir’s re
lease. “I can’t comment on that,”
the president said.
According to Djerejian, officials
had hoped the release last week of
the last Lebanese prisoners held at
Israel’s Atlit prison camp “would
improve the atmosphere in the re
gion.” Following the release, he
said, “We did enhance our efforts.”
A State Department official,
speaking only on condition of ano
nymity, said Weir told debriefers
that he had been held in Lebanon
during the entire length of his cap
tivity. The official said Weir had not
been tortured and that, “for some
one who’s gone through what he’s
gone through, he’s in pretty good
condition.”
The official said Weir had been
hospitalized for a medical checkup -
after his release.
The official declined to say
whether Weir said he had been
contact with the other six American
hostages.
Vice President George Bush has
scheduled a meeting tomorrow with
the families of the six remaining
kidnapped Americans.
Britain calls a halt
to ousting Soviets
By DAVID MASON
Chief AP European Correspondent
LONDON Britain called a halt
yesterday to the exchange of diplo
matic expulsions that began when the
KGB's top agent in London defected.
The end came after the Soviet Union
ordered six more Britons out, making
the score 31-31.
The Kremlin, in its first major
diplomatic imbroglio since Mikhail S.
Gorbachev assumed power Mar. 11,
made the unusual decision to retal
iate in equal numbers to Britain’s
expulsion of 25 alleged Soviet spies
last Thursday and six more on Mon
day.
The Foreign Office said after Mos
cow cpmpleted the second round
Wednesday that it would not evict any
more Soviets, insisting that it had not
backed down and that Britain had
come out ahead.
Prime Minister Margaret Thatch
er, who is on an official visit to Egypt,
said, “We have eliminated the core of
their (the Soviet) subversive and
intelligence operation in Britain, so
we shall not respond further to their
wholly unjustified expulsions. ... I
shall try to draw a line under it.”
In Moscow, the official news agen
cy Tass said Ambassador Bryan Car
tledge was summoned to the Foreign
Ministry yesterday morning and told
that the Soviet Union expected Brit
ain to stop its “unfriendly actions.”
Tass initially reported that “a num
ber of” Britons were being expelled
for “impermissible activities,” and
that the Soviet Union had resolutely
protested their actions. A later dis
patch told the Soviet public there
were 62 Britons and Soviets involved.
The cycle of ejections reduced the
Collegian
Another White House spokesman,
Peter Roussel, said the president
told Weir the United States would
continue its efforts until all the
hostages are freed. Roussel said
those efforts would include “prayer
as well as diplomacy.”
He quoted Reagan as telling the
freed American, “You are an inspi
ration to the people of this country
and to all who might find them
selves in situations of similar ad
versity.”
National security adviser Robert
McFarlane, speaking at the South
ern Newspaper Publishers Associa
number of British citizens in Moscow
from 103 to 72 and the number of
Soviets in London from 234 to 203.
Britain started the scrap by expel
ling 25 alleged Soviet agents last
Thursday on information provided by
Oleg A. Gordievski, 46, identified by
the Foreign Office as the KGB station
chief in Britain who defected recently
and received political asylum.
Gordievski is reported to have been a
double agent for up to 15 years.
The Soviet Union responded on
Saturday, ignoring London’s warning
not to retaliate and ordering an equal
number of Britons out of Moscow.
On Monday, Thatcher’s govern
ment expelled six more men it said
were second-rank intelligence opera
tives, and the Kremlin matched that
Wednesday by ejecting six more Bri
tons.
Those declared unwelcome by both
sides were allowed three weeks to
leave.
It was the biggest spy confrontation
between Britain and the Soviet Union
since 1971, when London kicked out
105 alleged Soviet spies. The Kremlin
reacted mildly, expelling only 18 Bri
tons, 10 of whom had already left the
Soviet Union, and the matter ended
there.
The only expulsions since were in a
series of exchanges between 1981 and
April of this year that cost the Soviets
12 alleged spies and Britain 8.
Sir Geoffrey Howe, Britain’s for
eign secretary, said yesterday in
London: “The Soviet Union must
bear the full responsibilty for this
lamentable episode. This severe set
back to United Kingdom-Soviet rela
tions was not of our choosing.”
Both he and Thatcher expressed
hope that relations would improve
Benjamin Weir
tion meeting in Colorado Springs,
said the administration also with
held announcement of the release
because Weir “deserves a normal
family life.”
Weir was kidnapped at 8:15 a.m.
while walking in Moslem West Bei
rut with his wife. Three men
jumped out of a white Peugeot 504,
forced him into the car and drove
off, police said at the time. They
said the car had no license plates.
Weir, the oldest of the American
kidnap victims, looked haggard and
drawn in a photograph released to
Beirut newspapers in June.
Tater tots
Scenes such as this were common at the Amish market yesterday. In this particular photo, Alvin (standing) and
Jonnah Peachey (crouching), of RD 1, Belleville, were caught in the camera’s eye as they busily packed fresh
potatoes.
Thursday, Sept. 19,1985
Vol. 86, No. SO 16 pages University Park, Pa. 16802
Published by students of The Pennsylvania State University
©1985 Collegian Inc.
Six Americans still
held in Lebanon
By LEE BYRD
Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, D.C. - So now
they are six a librarian, two
educators, a priest, a journalist
and a diplomat Americans still
held hostage in Lebanon but not
quite so forgotten on the day that
President Reagan shared his
“little news note” about the re
lease of the Rev. Benjamin Weir.
One of them, William Buckley, a
political officer for the U.S. em
bassy in Beirut, has been captive
since March 18, 1984, longer than
Weir or any of the others seized by
radical Shiite Moslems in hopes of
bartering their lives in exchange
for comrades imprisoned in Ku
wait.
Buckley, 56, could lay claim to
being the least discussed of the
men called “The Forgotten Sev
en” by anguished families and
friends who have sought for
months, with mixed success, to
overcome the calculated silence of
the administration by stirring a
constant drumbeat of public inter
est.
Buckley, a native of Medford,
Mass., and a former librarian,
Army captain and building con
tractor, is a bachelor and one of
the State Department’s own.
While the wives and sons and
brothers and daughters of the oth
ers have gone public to vent their
sorrows, frustration and even
their fury over the plight of their
captive loved ones, Buckley has
remained almost a footnote in the
on-again, off-again drama.
Weir, released over the weekend
under circumstances still not fully
known, was kidnapped on May 8,
1984. He is the second of his group
to be freed; Jeremy Levin, former
Beirut bureau chief of the Cable
■4 -
News Network, was kidnapped on
March 7, 1984. He broke away
from his captors on Feb. 13 this
year in what he now believes may
have been an escape they deliber
ately allowed.
Weir and Levin, like the still
imprisoned Buckley, had long sur
passed the 444 days of captivity
endured by Americans held hos
tage in Iran during the adminis
tration of Jimmy Carter.
Peter Kilburn, 60, a librarian at
American University, disap
peared in Beirut on Dec. 3, 1984,
and the shadowy group called the
Islamic Jihad later claimed re
sponsibility. But subsequent com
munications and threats by the
militants have not mentioned him
and friends and officials fear for
his condition. The university said
he suffered “grave” ailments, in
cluding heart and artery disease.
Terry A. Anderson, 37, the chief
Middle East correspondent for
The Associated Press, was kidnap
ped by gunmen on March 16,1985.
His wife, Mikki, and 8-year-old
daughter, Gabrielle, had left the
city earlier because of concern for
' their safety. Anderson, a graduate
of lowa State University, worked
at AP bureaus in Tokyo and Jo
hannesburg before being assigned
to Beirut.
The Rev. Lawrence Martin Jen
co, 50, was seized on Jan. 8 this
year. He is a Roman Catholic
priest from Joliet, 111., and di-
rected the church’s relief services
in Lebanon, serving both Chris
tians and Moslems. “He always
said that if he were to die, he’d like
to die as a missionary,” according
to brother John Jenco of Joliet.
Jenco’s sister, Mae Mihelich,
said yesterday that Weir’s release
means “We’re going to fight hard
er. ”
Collegian Photo I Mary Celentano
/*0