JOURNAL REPORTER IS STILL BEING HELD BY THE IRANIANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000705990009-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: February 3, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

P
17-
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000705990009-6
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAS
Journal Reporter
Is Still Being Held
By the Iranians
Bya WALL STREET JOURNAL Staff Reporter
WASHINGTON - Wall Street Journal
Middle East correspondent Gerald F. Seib
who was detained by Iranian authorities in
Tehran on Saturday, was still being held.
U.S. officials said neither they nor the
Swiss government, which represents Wash-
ington in Iran, had received any word from
Iranian officials concerning Mr. Seib's
whereabouts or whether any charges had
been brought against him.
"Mr. Seib continues to be held by the
Iranians and is prevented from leaving
Iran," said State De-
partment spokes-
man Charles Red-
man. "The Swiss
Embassy, our pro-
tecting power in
Iran, is protesting
Mr. Seib's detention
and demanding his
immediate release.
Seib, who was in-
vited to Iran by the
government there,
should be released
now and permitted Gerald F. Seib
to depart Iran. His
continued detention is unwarranted."
Wall Street Journal editors and execu-
tives met with Secretary of State George
Shultz yesterday. Mr. Shultz expressed his
concern and support for Mr. Seib.
"He (Mr. Seib) is being held by the gov-
ernment of Iran. No charges have been
filed," said Warren H. Phillips, chairnian
of Dow Jones & Co., which publishes The
Wall Street Journal. "We believe a dread-
ful mistake has been made and we hope,
we fervently hope, that the government of
Iran will realize it has made a mistake and
set him free."
Mr. Phillips added: "We are working
through many diplomatic channels, includ-
ing Iranian diplomatic channels and oth-
ers, and we are trying to convey that this
is a well-respected American reporter who
has been seized without any cause at
all."
Mr. Seib had spent 10 days in Iran as
part of a group of 57 correspondents who
were invited by the Iranian government to
tour the front lines of Iran's war with Iraq.
Along with a Swiss diplomat, he was or-
dered into a van in front of his hotel in
Tehran at about 6 p.m. Saturday. The
WALL 6TKE rT JOURNAL
3 February 1987
Swiss diplomat was released after he iden-
tified himself. '
Mr. Seib had sought help from the Swiss
Embassy after immigration authorities im-
pounded his passport Thursday as he made
plans to leave the country. The U.S. has
had no diplomatic ties to Tehran since the
U.S. Embassy there was stormed on Nov.
4, 1979, and its staff then held hostage for
444 days.
The Swiss ambassador to Tehran has
tried to make an appointment with the
Iranian foreign ministry to protest the de-
tention and gain more details concerning
Mr. Seib's whereabouts and possible
charges against him. But U.S. officials
said late yesterday that the ambassador
hadn't yet been granted an appointment.
Iran's official Islamic Republic News
Aeencv. or IRNA. reported Saturday eve-
ning that "a spy of the Zionist regime" had
entered ran posing as a journalist and
using a false passport. The three-para-
graph report didn't name the alleged spy
ve his nationalit . Iran has never
linked the news report to Mr. Seib.
It was unclear why the year-old,
Cairo, Egypt-based correspondent had
been singled out for detention from the
other journalists. "At this point, we don't
have any explanation," said Mr. Redman,
the State Department spokesman:
A report datelined Tehran and distrib-
uted yesterday by the South-North News
Service, a small agency with offices in
New Hampshire quoted an unnamed
source in the Iranian intelligence agency
saying Mr. Seib was being held in soli-
tary confinement. a source was also
quoted as asserting that Mr. Seib had col-
lected sensitive information about Iranian
military defenses and that unspecified
charges would be made against him.
Norman Pearlstine, managing editor of
The Wall Street Journal, said: "This re-
port carries no official statement by any-
one in the Iranian government. It is a spec-
ulative account quoting only unnamed
sources. There has been no accusation
made against Jerry Seib, nor is there any
basis for one. He is a respected American
journalist traveling on a valid passport
who entered Iran at the government's invi-
tation. We continue to urge Mr. Seib's im-
mediate release from detention."
The South-North report also said "it is
understood here (in Tehran) that Seib is
Jewish." In fact, Mr. Seib is Roman Catho-
lic.
In his role as a Middle East correspon-
dent for the Journal, Mr. Seib traveled
throughout the region, reporting not only
from Cairo, but from nearly every Middle
East nation. Several nonpartisan organiza-
tions appealed to the Iranian government
to release him.
The Cairo Foreign Press Association,
which represents more than 150 journalists
from 30 countries, expressed its "deep con-
cern," and called Mr. Seib "a respected
member of the association and a corre-
spondent whose integrity is widely re-
spected by his colleagues in the Middle
East."
The Committee to Protect Journalists, a
New York-based group working on behalf
of journalists world-wide, sent a telegram
to Iranian Prime Minister Mirhossein
Moussavi saying that Mr. Seib was pursu-
ing only journalistic activities in Iran and
was there at the government's invitation.
The group urged the Iranians to release
the reporter.
The Reporters Committee for Freedom
of the Press, an association of reporters
and editors based in Washington, protested
the detention in a cablegram to the Minis-
try of Islamic Guidance in Tehran, which
had organized the journalists' visit to that
country.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000705990009-6