JOURNALIST IN LEBANON FREE AFTER 11 MONTHS' CAPTIVITY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100660013-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 28, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: February 15, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100660013-8
r _ r
WASHINGTON POST
15 February 1985
journalist in Lebanon Free
after I I Months' Captivity
(YWV Reporter Walks to Syrian Army Unit
By Nora Boustany According to the Bekaa Valley
sprcial to The Washington Post correspondent of AFP, Levin said
BEIRUT, Feb. 14-Jeremy Lev-
in, an American journalist kidnaped
here last March by Moslem mili-
tants, appeared early this morning
near a Syrian Army post near Baal-
bek in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. He
was taken in Syrian custody to Da-
mascus, and U.S. officials said he
was well and v'ould be turned over
to the U.S. Embassy there.
Lenin, 53, the Beirut bureau
chief of Cable News Network, told
Agence France-Presse in Damascus
that he had escaped Wednesday
night from a villa in central Lebanon
where he was being held and
walked to his freedom. One of five
Americans kidnaped here in the
past year, Levin reportedly said he
had been held alone by his captors
and knew nothing about the others.
The development took U.S. of-
ficials by surprise, according to
State Department sources., There
were indications of Syrian involve-
ment in negotiations, however, and
many private U.S. citizens, includ-
ing the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Mu-
hammad Ali, had pressed publicly
for his release. Arrangements were
being made to fly Levin and his
wife, Lucille, to a reunion in Eu-
rope. [Details on Page A18.J
An anonymous caller claiming to
speak for the Islamic Jihad organ-
ization told a western news agency
here today that the group had freed
Levin after determining that he was
not a spy.
Islamic Jihad, a shadowy organ-
ization with no visible structure but
believed to be associated with Shi-
ite Moslem fundamentalists here,
had claimed responsibility for the
kidnaping of Levin as well as the
other four Americans who disap-
peared in the past year in west Bei-
rut, which fell into the hands of
Moslem militia groups on Feb. 6,
1984. Levin was last seen on March 7,
when his wife left their home as he
was preparing to go to work. He
never reached his office.
today that on the day of his disap-
pearance he had been walking near
the coast in west Beirut when he
was accosted by a bearded man in
his twenties who pushed him at
gunpoint into a car and took him to
his place of detention.
AFP quoted Levin as saying he
had been kept alone in a room, tied
to a radiator. He said his jailers
blindfolded him every time he was
taken out of the room. He said he
could not identify his abductors.
Levin said had remained in the
Bekaa Valley throughout his cap-
tivity, but that his place of detention
had been changed four times.
"I escaped Wednesday at around
midnight from a two-story villa
where I was being held," he told
.AFP. "I walked for two hours in the
[Bekaa) plain before hearing dogs
barking and human voices. Thinking
my assailants were following my
tracks, I hid under a truck. Howev-
er, as soon as I saw that they were
Syrian soldiers, I turned myself
over to them."
It was 2 a.m. local time, AFP re-
ported, when a bearded and pajama-
clad Levin approached the Syrian
soldiers, who took him to Syrian
military police nearby. AFP said he
seemed to be in good health but
fatigued by his detention and long
trek.
The police took him to a Syrian 4
Army intelligence post in Baalbek,
55 miles northeast of Beirut
Syrian troops control most of the
Bekaa and parts of northern Leb-
anon. The report of Levin's escape
is similar to that of Reuter corre-
spondent Jonathan Wright, who was
kidnaped in the Bekaa last fall and
escaped 21 days later.
Wright said he was certain he had
escaped on his own. But there were
reports that intensive efforts with
go-betweens in touch with groups
based in central Lebanon as well as
a plea by Syrian President Hafez
Assad to forces in the area to help
in the search were instrumental in
gaining his release.
While little is known about Islam-
ic Jihad, Lebanese officials say it
could be a front for a group seeking
to destabilize Lebanon. It claimed
responsibility for the suicide bomb-
,ings against the U.S. Embassy in
,;west Beirut in 1983 and outside
e4st_Beirut last year as well as for
the attacks against U.S. and French
military barracks in October 1983.
On Jan. 11, a telephone caller
told The Associated Press here that
the Americans would be released if
all U.S. citizens left Beirut. On an.
14, a caller claimin to speak for
Is amjc iha said it would try the
Americans it was holdi as s ies.
The Americans still missing are
William Buckley, a political officer
at the U.S. Embassy who was kid-
naped March 16; the Rev. Benjamin
Weir, a Presbyterian minister kid-
naped May 8; Peter Kilburn, a li-
brarian at the American University
of Beirut, reported missing Dec. 3;
and the Rev. Lawrence Jenco, di-
rector here for the Catholic Relief
Services, who was kidnaped Jan. 8.
The caller today who claimed to
be from Islamic Jihad, speaking in
Arabic, said: "We released ... Lev-
in after many approaches by some
brotherly and effective sides, .. .
after our investigations established
he was not involved in espionage or
subversion against Islamic forces."
The reference to approaches by
"brotherly and effective sides" sug-
gested that pressure may have been
exerted by Syria, the only quarter
that has any authority in central
Lebanon.
The caller added: "We are asking
the president of the American Uni-
versity of Beirut and some Leba-
nese and foreign professors not to
interfere in Lebanese political af-
fairs and not to adopt an attitude
hostile to Moslem causes. Other-
wise their fate will be like that of.
their predecessors."
Malcom Kerr, then president of
the university, was shot and killed
outside his office on Jan. 18, 1984.
The caller said the warning was
prompted by, the group's noting
some suspicious activity by some
members of the university's admin-
istrative and educational staff re-
cently. He gave no details.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100660013-8