MISSING LEB HOSTAGE DIED AFTER TORTURE IN TEHRAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950005-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: December 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950005-3
viN PON" i'paTii
NEW YORK POST
12 December 1985
MISSING LE'B HOSTAGE DIED
AFTER TORTURE
IN TEHRAN
WASHINGTON ? William
Buckley, one of the six
Americans kidnaped in
Beirut by Shiite Moslem
extremists, is dead.
The State Dept.'s official
position is that 'we assume
that he is alive and have been
operating on that principle."
But the CIA, for which Buckley
worked, has highly sensitive in-
telligence information that
leaves no doubt of Buckley's
death.
From our intelligence sources,
we have pieced together the grue-
some details of Buckley's cap-
tivity and death, and can disclose
the nation responsible: Iran.
In fact, he died in a Tehran hos-
pital from a heart attack brought
on by months of torture.
The 57-year-old Buckley was of-
ficially listed as a political officer
with the American Embassy in
Beirut. Actually, he was the CIA
station chief.
A brave and effective intelli-
gence professional who had
served earlier in Vietnam, Buck-
ley was painfully aware of the
risks that were an inescapable
part of his job.
Friends say that's why he never
married ? he didn't want to
cause suffering to a wife and chil-
dren in the event of his death.
Ironically, Buckley devoted
much of his time and energy to
developing information that
might prevent terrorist attacks
on Americans in the Mideast. He
did not hire local contract agents
for missions of violence.
Buckley was kidnaped by
Shiites on March 16, 1984, and
taken initially to the eastern
Bekaa Valley, a Syrian-controlled
hotbed of Iranian terrorists and
revolutionary guards. One source
says the CIA believes it was the
Syrians who disclosed Buckley's
true identity to his captors. the
Hezbollah (Party of God). -
There is no doubt Buckley ss
tortured brutally over a IslinPeri-
od. His appearance had ged
shockingly in a videotape released
by his captors last January.
Buckley was taken to the Ira-
nian revolutionary guard (Pas-
daran) headquarters at Baalbek.
Lebanon, for repeated interroga-
tions. Then, in early March 1983,
the Hesbollah, apparently fearing
the Syrians would turn Buckley
loose, arranged to transport him
secretly to Iran.
He was disguised as an injured
Pasdaran soldier and flown with
several wounded revolutionary
guards to Damascus in a Syrian
army helicopter.
The same day, Buckley and at
least one authentic Iranian soldier
were put aboard an Iran Air 727,
which had just brought a high Ira-
nian official to the Syrian capital,
and were flown to Tehran.
The American agent's first
place of captivity was a house on
Fereshteh Street in a northern
suburb of Tehran.
Buckley was interrogated ?
and tortured further ? in the
basement of the Iranian foreign
ministry. He required frequent
medical treatment.
In late March, an Iraqi bomb
landed in Fereshteh Street, nar-
rowly missing the house where
Buckley was being held.
He was hastily moved to a revo-
lutionary guard camp (called
Salehbad), near the Shiite holy
city of Qom.
It was there, probably between
April 10 and 15, that Buckley suf-
fered a heart attack induced by
torture and captivity. He was
taken to a hospital in Tehran and
died soon after.
Even in death, Buckley's mur-
derers tried to use him. The Is-
lamic Jihad, a group closely
linked to Hezbollah, announced
last October that they had "exe-
cuted" Buckley.
They released a grisly Polaroid
picture of him in a coffin, and tried
to trade his body for 100 Palestin-
ian prisoners held by IsraeL
Footnote: The U.S. government
is still denying the only thing Wil-
liam Buckley can now claim as
his own: his death. We 'hope the
American people won't allow the
country's forgotten hostage to re-
main forgotten. He deserves the
Medal of Honor, not obscurity.
By JACK ANDERSON
and DALE VAN ATTA
Now ',OA Poo VO(1111?1111 Froth?
Anwrkon losstogis WInispoto Watley was token on this pails
front Wort Signet to Ins &with in Iron.
Hostage William WMley (lett) looked fit in a photo
released last swat by tbis State Dept. But he Welted gaunt
in a photo roloasod two months asp by his captors (right).
STA
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706950005-3