BEIRUT, Lebanon -- Terry Anderson, the last American hostage in Lebanon, was freed Wednesday by his pro-Iranian kidnappers and taken to Damascus, Syria, where he was handed over to U.S. officials.
For America, a nine-year ordeal was over.
Anderson's upstate New York hometown resounded with the clangor of church bells. His colleagues at the Associated Press greeted the news with champagne. And the former hostage himself, blinking at the television lights at the Syrian Foreign Ministry, said, 'I've thought about his moment for a long time and I'm scared to death.'
Looking cheerful and healthy, the 44-year-old journalist, wearing an open-necked shirt, a cardigan sweater and a pair of broken glasses, thanked the United Nations, the governments of Syria, Lebanon and Iran, his news colleagues and his family for eventually bringing out his relese after 2,455 days.
Anderson also thanked 'the thousands and thousands of people whom I don't know, never met, who don't know me, who I know have been working and praying for us, all the hostages. Your support, your prayers were important, they worked, they made a big difference, they made a difference to us through a very dark time.'
Asked what kept him going, Anderson cited his companions, his faith and his 'stubbornness, I guess. You just do what you have to do. You wake up every day and you summon up the energy from somewhere, even when you think you haven't hot it, and you get through the day, and you do it, day after day after day. And it works.'
Anderson also was asked how he felt about the dubious honor of being the longest-held hostage in Lebanon. 'It's an honor I would gladly have given up a long time ago,' he replied with a smile.
And what were his last words to his captors? 'Goodbye,' Anderson recalled, laughing.
In Washington, a State Department spokesman said it was not immediately clear whether Anderson would spend the night at the U.S. Embassy in Damascus or take a special early-morning flight to Wiesbaden, Germany, for physical and psychological examinations at a U.S. military medical facility.
A videotape of Anderson issued shortly before his release in Damascus showed him reading a statement in which his captors promised to free him. 'We are going to free the last captive, Terry Anderson, thus folding this page in the hostage file before glorious Christmas,' he said, reading from the text.
The statement said the kidnappers had decided to 'separate the issue of our captives from the hostages in the prisons of the enemy,' an apparent reference to the previous demand for the release of Arabs held by Israel and its surrogate militia, the South Lebanon Army.
'Our decision came after Israel put obstacles in the course of comprehensive solutions to this issue and tried to endorse it to her benefit only,' Anderson read, without elaborating.
Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent of the AP and the news agency's Beirut bureau chief, was kidnapped by gunmen on March 16, 1985. The pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
He was be the third and last American freed from captivity in three days, following Joseph Cicippio and Alann Steen. Two Western hostages, German relief workers Heinrich Streubig and Thomas Kemptner, remained in custody.
Steen, 52, was released Tuesday after nearly five years' captivity. Cicippio, 61, was freed Monday. Both were at Wiesbaden for medical and psychological exams after being handed over to U.S. authorities in Damascus.
Anderson was the ninth hostage freed since Aug. 8, when Briton John McCarthy was released to carry a message from the kidnappers to U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar. U.N. efforts then led to freedom for Britons Terry Waite and Jack Mann, and Americans Edward Tracy, Jesse Turner, Thomas Sutherland, Cicippio, Steen and finally Anderson.
Germans Struebig and Kemptner were kidnapped May 16, 1989, by a group calling itself the Freedom Strugglers Organization. German news reports said U.N. negotiator Giandomenico Picco was trying to win their release in exchange for possible amnesty of two Arab brothers, Mohammed Ali and Abbas Hammadi, held in Germany on terrorism charges. Their family is believed to be responsible for abducting the Germans.
In Beirut Tuesday, Foreign Ministry sources said the German ambassador to Lebanon met with Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz on the matter. A Beirut source said Germany had agreed in principle a few months ago to swap the brothers for the German hostages, but this was rejected because Bonn insisted that this be part of an overall settlement of the hostage issue.
Muslim Shiite sources said the kidnappers have insisted in secret talks on swapping the Germans for the Hammadi brothers. They added that Washington was 'not encouraging' lenience for the Hammadis, one of whom was linked to the killing of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847.NEWLN: more
Steen's kidnappers, meanwhile, hinted the Israelis were expected to free more Arab prisoners held by them or the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia.
This week, the SLA has released 25 of the estimated 350 Arab prisoners while the Iranian-affiliated Revolutionary Justice Organization freed Cicippio, who was deputy comptroller of the American University of Beirut when he was kidnapped from his campus home in September 1986.
Israel has recently released scores of Arab prisoners. The United Nations is campaigning for the release of the remaining Arab prisoners, as well as to determine the fate of at least three Israeli military servicemen missing in action in Lebanon since the 1980s.
The fate of the missing Israelis has been crucial in the hostage talks. Israel has received the remains of one and concrete information that two others are dead.
Arab political sources said Tuesday that one missing Israeli, airman Ron Arad who was shot down over Lebanon in 1986, was alive and had been turned over to Syria by Ahmed Jibril, chief of the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. 'The Syrians are engaged in informal negotiations over his fate,' said a political source who requested anonymity.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli Defense Ministry said it had received no reports Tuesday on Arad's whereabouts and would not comment on the report.
A main demand by the Lebanese kidnappers is the release of Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, a Hezbollah cleric jailed in Israel. Obeid was snatched from his house in southern Lebanon in July 1989 by an Israeli commando force for involvement in border guerrilla action.
Anderson's hometown of Batavia, N.Y., as well as nearby Buffalo and Rochester, celebrated with a ringing of church bells, and residents tied yellow ribbons and red, white and blue bunting to trees.
An exuberant Tom Perry, manager of an appliance store in Batavia, said, 'This is as exciting as the day the (Persian Gulf) war ended.'
Candee McConnell of Batavia, who has worked with Anderson's outspoken sister, Peggy Say, to win the journalist's release, broke into tears as she opened a bottle of champagne. 'This is the most exciting moment in my life,' she said.
At AP headquarters in New York, Executive News Editor William Ahearn told the staff, 'The AP has moved a lot of bulletins and will move a lot more, but I don't think there's one that means as much as this one because a member of the AP family is back. I don't think there has been a more beautiful bulletin in my time.'
Holding up a tray of plastic glasses filled with champagne, Ahearn said to the staff, 'Get some glasses, let it flow. We're going to keep one of these bottles for him.'
About 15 journalists gathered at the AP office in Beirut amid huge banners reading, 'Terry Is Free,' and 'Welcome Back, Terry,' popping open bottles of champagne and pouring it over themselves. Farouk Nassar, the acting Beirut bureau chief, said he was 'the happiest person in Lebanon today.'
At U.N. headquarters in New York, Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar also thanked the governments of Iran, Lebanon and Syria. 'For me, I have closed the American chapter, I have closed the British chapter, now I have to close the German chapter, the Israeli and the Lebanese chapters,' he said.
'I feel happy, but of course my happiness will be total when I seel all of them free, including the two Germans, the missing Israelis and the over 200 Lebanese who are detained in the southern part of Lebanon.'
In Washington, President Bush said in a statement that he joined Anderson's family 'in their happiness for his return to freedom' and a spokesman said the president was actually on the telephone with Say, Anderson's sister, when she saw him, over television, for the first time free.
Anderson's release capped a day of delay and conflicting reports on his fate and hours of agonizing by his family, whose hopes had been raised, then dashed.
Before his freedom was confirmed, his brother John said in an interview from Ocala, Fla, with Cable News Network, 'I just don't know what to think.' He said the State Department had called him early in the day and erroneously 'confirmed reports of the release.'
In Washington, a state Department spokeswoman, asked about John Anderson's comment, said only, 'We never talk about what we tell families.'
Forty-eight Westerners -- journalists, businessmen and professors -- have been kidnapped in Lebanon since 1982. They include 20 Americans, 12 French citizens, seven Britons, five Germans, one South Korean, two Swedes and an Italian.
Of the Americans kidnapped, 17 have been freed and three died in captivity. Of the French, 11 have been freed and one died in captivity. Of the Britons, four were freed and three died. Of the Germans, three were freed and two are still held. The South Korean and both Swedes have been released. The Italian was believed killed shortly after his abduction.
x x x hostage issue.'
Steen, 52, was released Tuesday after nearly five years' captivity. Cicippio, 61, was freed Monday. Both were in Germany for medical and psychological exams after being handed over to U.S. authorities in Damascus. Anderson was expected to take the same route.
'We're absolutely overjoyed. The last hostage is finally home,' said John Anderson, of Ocala, Fla., brother of Terry Anderson. 'I think the time for celebration is here.'NEWLN: more
x x x is here.'
Anderson, 45, would be the ninth hostage freed since Aug. 8, when Briton John McCarthy was released to carry a message from the kidnappers to U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar. U.N. efforts then led to freedom for Britons Terry Waite and Jack Mann, and Americans Edward Tracy, Jesse Turner, Thomas Sutherland, Cicippio, Steen and now Anderson.
With Anderson's release, the onlyWesterners still being held are Germans Heinrich Struebig and Thomas Kemptner, workers for a relief agency who were kidnapped May 16, 1989. Their captors identified themselves as the Freedom Strugglers Organization.
German news reports said U.N. negotiator Giandomenico Picco was working toward the release of the two Germans in exchange for possible amnesty of two Arab brothers held in Germany on terrorism charges.
In Beirut Tuesday, Foreign Ministry sources said Germany's ambassador to Lebanon met with Lebanese Foreign Minister Fares Boueiz on the German hostages.
Earlier Tuesday, Iran's ambassador to Germany, Hussein Mosavian, urged the Shiite Muslim Hammadi family to release the Germans immediately and unconditionally. The Hammadi family is believed to have abducted the Germans to pressure Germany to free Mohhamed Ali Hammadi and Abbas Hammadi.
A Beirut source indicated German authorities agreed in principle to swap the Hammadi brothers for the German hostages a few months ago, 'but the Germans demanded that such an agreement be part of an overall settlement of the hostage issue.'
Muslim Shiite sources said the kidnappers have insisted in secret talks on swapping the Germans for the Hammadi brothers.
They added Washington was 'not encouraging softening the punishment of the two jailed Hammadi brothers, on the grounds that one of them was responsible for the killing of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem.' Stethem, of Waldorf, Md., was killed during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847.
Israel, in turn, has released dozens of Arab prisoners. The United Nations is campaigning for the release of the remaining Arab prisoners, as well as to determine the fate of at least three Israeli military servicemen missing in action in Lebanon since the 1980s.
The fate of the missing Israelis has been crucial in the hostage talks. Israel has received the remains of one and concrete information that two others are dead.
Arab political sources said Tuesday that one missing Israeli, airman Ron Arad, was alive and had been turned over to Syria by Ahmed Jibril, chief of the Palestinian Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine- General Command.
'The Syrians are engaged in informal negotiations over his fate,' said a political source who requested anonymity. The source said Arad was 'in good health and would be handed over at a later phase' amid U. N. mediation.
Arad's plane was shot down by Palestinian guerrillas over Lebanon in 1986 near the southern city of Sidon, but he fell into the hands of pro- Syrian Shiite Amal militiamen. The sources did not elaborate how Arad came under control of the PPFL-GC.
In Jerusalem, the Israeli Defense Ministry said it had received no reports Tuesday on Arad's whereabouts and would not comment on the report.
Steen's kidnappers meanwhile hinted the Israelis were expected to free more Arab prisoners held by them or the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia.
This week, the SLA has released 25 of the estimated 350 Arab prisoners while the Iranian-affiliated Revolutionary Justice Organization freed Cicippio.NEWLN: more
x x x freed cicippio.
Forty-eight Westerners -- journalists, businessmen and professors -- have been kidnapped in Lebanon since 1982. They include 20 Americans, 12 French citizens, seven Britons, five Germans, one South Korean, two Swedes and an Italian.
Of the Americans kidnapped, 17 have been freed and three died in captivity. Of the French, 11 have been freed and one died in captivity. Of the Britons, four were freed and three died. Of the Germans, three were freed and two are still held. The South Korean and both Swedes have been released. The Italian was believed killed shortly after his abduction.
A main demand by the kidnappers to end the hostage stalemate is the release of Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, a Hezbollah cleric jailed in Israel. Obeid was snatched from his house in southern Lebanon in July 1989 by an Israeli commando force for involvement in border guerrilla action.
Steen, formerly of Arcata, Calif., who taught journalism at Beirut University College, said he was held with other American hostages and that 'I exercised every day for two hours to keep my mind off' captivity.
Steen's wife Virginia, in Clarklake, Mich., said she saw her husband on television after his release 'and he looks OK. He's very thin, very tired and pale, of course, after five years. Oh, it's such a relief!'
The Steens had been married only six months when he was kidnapped Jan. 24, 1987. Asked if she thought a second honeymoon might be in order, Mrs. Steen said, 'Oh, yes! Definitely!'
Cicippio, deputy comptroller of the American University of Beirut, was kidnapped from his campus home in September 1986.
After medical tests at the U.S. medical facility at Rhine-Main U.S. air base in Wiesbaden, Germany, Dr. Uwe Fullmeister said Cicippio was doing well, but had suffered frostbite on his hands and feet during the winters of 1986 and 1990.
Fullmeister added that Cicippio 'two months ago ... had constant abdominal pain, nausea and vomiting and underwent surgery to correct this.' He said Cicippio had fully recovered.
'Neither Mr. Cicippio nor I know what specific illness he had, nor what surgery he had,' Fullmeister said.
