TERRY ANDERSON (Senate - September 27, 1991)
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Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to inform my colleagues that today marks the 2,386th day that Terry Anderson has been held captive in Lebanon.
And I note that former hostage John McCarthy--held for a time with Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland--has offered the first public reflections on his captivity. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the Associated Press report of his remarks be printed in the Record at this time.
There being no objection, the report was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
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From the Associated Press, Sept. 27, 1991
FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS, SEPT. 27, 1991
McCarthy Salutes Strength of Hostages
London.--John McCarthy says the strength of his fellow hostages helped him through more than five years of captivity in Lebanon and supports him still.
`These are all men of real merit,' McCarthy said of the hostages he was held with: Brian Keenan, Terry Anderson, Thomas Sutherland, and Terry Waite.
`I realize how lucky and privileged I was to share their ordeal. Their strength continues to support me now.'
McCarthy, who was released in Aug. 8, made his first lengthy public comments this week about his 5-year ordeal.
In a series of interviews with newspapers and Britain's two television networks, McCarthy, 34, was joined by Jill Morrell, 33, who led a campaign to keep his case in the public eye. Both turned aside questions about whether they intended to marry.
McCarthy said he was imprisoned longest with Brian Keenan, the native of Belfast, Northern Ireland, who was released in 1990. `He was the rock on which I built my survival and I always missed his dear presence,' McCarthy said.
McCarthy and Keenan later were held with Anderson and Sutherland. The two Americans had a radio and gave McCarthy the news that his mother had died.
`As I got to know Anderson and Sutherland again I realized that I had found two new right arms. They gave me a new and very great support,' McCarthy said.
Anderson, the chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, is the longest-held hostage. He was kidnapped March 16, 1985.
Waite, a Church of England envoy, was the last to join the group, just before Christmas last year, McCarthy said.
`Terry had been kept alone for almost four years, yet within a few hours he was chatting away as if that huge chasm had never existed,' said McCarthy.
After a serious attack of asthma, Waite had `returned to form and kept us entertained with tales of his life and experiences around the world.'
`Days and weeks would pass without note. But I did find that if I slept during an afternoon I would often awake, terrified of the time years and months that I had lost, in which nothing had been achieved,' he said.
`A hostage doesn't relax. Apart from the obvious questions forever on one's mind * * * there are more immediate tensions.
`I was always apprehensive about moving to a new location as the moves were traumatic. I slept badly. At whatever time the lights went out, it always took me two or three hours to relax and restore a sense of proportion and hope before I could go to sleep.'
He said he felt no bitterness toward his captors.
`A long time ago one came to terms with the fact that the people who were holding us were doing what they thought was the right thing what they believed in,' he said.
The hostages filled the time with cards, invented games and endless conversations, he said.
`We used to make plans, just enormous and wild plans particularly Brian Keenan would come up with enormous schemes that he would insist that we discuss for days on end,' such as Keenan's scheme for starting a yak farm in Patagonia.
`We know nothing about yaks nor Patagonia, but this didn't really seem to matter at the time. You know, we make it up as we go along, and discuss possible problems, and figure them out when we get to Patagonia,' McCarthy said.
`The days of despair were fairly short-lived. I might go up and down a few times in a day, but it didn't stretch over many hours or something like days, so that one might be up a little and then down a little, but it kind of evened out. We all watched each other, obviously, to how it was going, to try to jolly someone along.'
McCarthy said he kept a newspaper picture of Ms. Morrell in his cell.
`You can see we are here together today and we're taking it very slowly and I think that's the only way to do it. We're just two normal people getting to know each other again. It's going very nicely,' McCarthy said.
Earlier this week, Britton Jack Mann, 77, was released. He was kidnapped in Beirut in 1989.
At least nine Westerners are still missing in Lebanon five Americans, a Briton, two Germans and an Italian. In addition, British officials says Alec Collett is presumed dead following claims he was killed in 1986 in retaliation for British complicity in U.S. bombing raids on Libya.
TERRY ANDERSON (Senate - October 25, 1991)
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Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to inform my colleagues that today marks the 2,414th day that Terry Anderson has been held captive in Lebanon.
Today, two Beirut daily newspapers published a letter from Peggy Say to Terry Anderson. In her letter, Peggy calls the videotape of her brother--released earlier this month--a wonderful gift, noting his good health and sense of humor. And she reminds him:
Thousands of people will be praying for you this Sunday for your birthday and for the continued success of the Perez de Cuellar mission.
More. Sulome, Terry Anderson's daughter, has recorded a video message. And the BBC is broadcasting birthday greetings from John McCarthy and Brian Keenan, perhaps others. I add my own.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an Associated Press report detailing the day's events be printed in the Record at this time.
There being no objection, the report was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Two Papers Publish Peggy Say's Letter to Anderson
BY RIMA SALAMEH
Beirut, Lebanon.--American hostage Terry Anderson's sister sent him a letter that was published in Beirut newspapers on Friday, two days before his seventh birthday in captivity.
Freed hostages John McCarthy and Brian Keenan also broadcast messages of hope to their former cellmates Friday, including a special birthday wish to Anderson.
The greetings came four days after kidnappers released American educator Jesse Turner, who returned to the United States on Friday. Turner was freed as part of complex negotiations mediated by the United Nations that have raised hopes for the freedom soon of all the Westerners held in Lebanon.
In her letter to Anderson, who turns 44 on Sunday, his sister Peggy Say wrote that the family was heartened by the way he looked on a videotape broadcast by Cable News Network on Oct. 6.
`The family is still basking in the glow of your robust good health, which was quite obvious on your videotape,' Say wrote.
`Equally apparent was the survival of your sense of humor and emotional well-being.'
`We are very grateful that you were allowed to send us this wonderful (videotape) gift,' she wrote.
The letter was published by Beirut's two conservative newspapers, Al-Answar and Ad-Diyar. Other Beirut dailies, including the leading An-Nahar and as-Safir, also received Mrs. Say's letter and plan to publish it Saturday.
Anderson's 6-year-old daughter, Sulome, who was born nearly three months after his capture, sent him a videotaped birthday message, saying she felt he would be out soon.
Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, is the longest-held hostage. He was kidnapped on March 16, 1985.
Islamic Jihad, a pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim fundamentalist group, claims it holds Anderson as well as American educator Thomas Sutherland and Anglican church envoy Terry Waite, a Briton.
Keenan, McCarthy and other freed Westerners have said Anderson and other captives are allowed to read newspapers and magazines and listen to radios.
In their radio message on the BBC, McCarthy and Keenan spoke hopefully about what Anderson and the others would encounter when they are finally freed. `I think it struck me, and will probably strike all the boys as they come home, that we are very famous people because of what has been done for us, and that is a little unnerving if you haven't been when you went away,' said McCarthy, 34, a television journalist who was released on Aug. 8.
McCarthy wished Anderson a happy birthday and then assured the hostages: `Everything's fine with your families ... It's been a great joy to talk to them and get to know them. When you're ready when you come home, it will be lovely to meet up with you all again, with the families.'
Speaking of Anderson's daughter, Sulome, he said: `There's a lot of Terry obviously in her, though they have yet to meet. But God willing, that will be very soon.'
Say's letter gave her brother a detailed account of the activities of each family member, as well as the efforts being made by U.N. Secretary-General Javier Perez de Cuellar to free him.
`Thousands of people will be praying for you this Sunday for your birthday and for the continued success of the Perez de Cuellar mission,' said the letter.
The United Nations has been trying to arrange a swap of the Western hostages held in Lebanon for an estimated 300 Arab prisoners held by Israel and its proxy militia, the South Lebanon Army.
Perez de Cuellar's efforts came in response to a letter from Islamic Jihad that was brought to him by McCarthy. Since then, three Western captives have been released--Briton Jack Mann as well as Americans Edward Tracy and Turner.
TERRY ANDERSON, FRANK REED, AND BRIAN KEENAN (Senate - July 10, 1990)
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Mr. MOYNIHAN. Mr. President, I rise to inform my colleagues that today marks the 1,942d day that Terry Anderson has been held in captivity in Beirut.
In addition, I would like to remark that recent Air Force and Justice Department tests have indicated that those who held former hostage Frank Reed poisoned him regularly with arsenic. We can only hope that those holding the other hostages do not engage in similar practices, practices which make the already inhumane act of hostage-taking even more so.
On a more encouraging note, it is now widely reported that another Western hostage might soon be released. The hostage is believed to be Brian Keenan of Scotland.
Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that an AP wire story discussing recent developments with the hostages be reprinted at this point in the Record.
There being no objection, the story was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
Former Hostage Says Captors Poisoned Him With Arsenic
Boston: Frank Reed's captors deliberately gave him arsenic, the former hostage said he was told by Air Force officials. Reed also said that hostage Brian Keenan's sister had told him in a telephone conversation from Belfast, Northern Ireland, that negotiations toward the Irish educator's release were `50 percent finished.'
`I think it's the most wonderful news I've heard since I've been home,' Reed said Monday of Keenan's possible release. `Brian and I were mates in the holes, the hideouts. Brian on several occasions tried to intervene to try to stop the beatings that were going on.'
A Shiite source in Beirut, Lebanon, said Iran was pushing hard for the release of a hostage in appreciation for aid it received after the devastating June 21 earthquake there.
Based on hair and nail samples, Air Force and Justice Department officials believe Reed was given arsenic over a long period of time and one large dose shortly before he was released, Reed told Boston television station WHDH.
The news made Reed wonder if Keenan may also have been given arsenic.
`Brian was exhibiting the same symptoms that I had of arsenic poisoning, so let us hope that it hasn't been too severe. Brian and I got in a little trouble over there together and maybe they were giving it to him for the same reasons,' he said.
Reed, released April 30 after 44 months of captivity in Lebanon, speculated that the captors' goal may have been to subdue the hostages or to make them appear sickly in order to speed negotiations.
A spokesman at the Malcolm Grow Medical Center on Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland said Reed was released from the hospital on Friday. Neither the Justice Department nor the Air Force would comment late Monday.
The hospital reported last month that tests on Reed had found arsenic, but gave no indication of deliberate poisoning.
Hostages held in the Middle East include six Americans, four Britons, two West Germans, two Swiss, an Irishman, and an Italian. The longest held is Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press. He was kidnapped March 16, 1985.
Keenan was taken hostage April 11, 1986.