Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 8, 1990 TAG: 9003081821
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BEIRUT, LEBANON LENGTH: Medium
The group also accused the United States of planning a military operation to free the 18 Western captives.
The statement was released by the Revolutionary Justice Organization just hours after Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani said he wants the issue of Westerners held in Lebanon resolved. It followed a flurry of news reports that had raised hopes some hostages might be released.
"We tenaciously cling to keeping America's nose in the mud under our feet. There is no intention to release hostages," Revolutionary Justice said in an Arabic-language statement delivered to the independent Beirut newspaper An-Nahar and a Western news agency.
The handwritten statement was accompanied by a black-and-white photograph of hostage Joseph Cicippio of Valley Forge, Pa. Cicippio, acting comptroller of the American University of Beirut, was kidnapped Sept. 12, 1986, in Lebanon.
The group said "suicide strugglers and special operations should be directed" against the United States and its allies.
In the picture, Cicippio, dressed in a striped sweater over a T-shirt, looked straight into the camera. He was without his eyeglasses and had a bushy, grayish beard.
The statement was the first from Revolutionary Justice since Aug. 3, when the group announced it had reversed a decision to kill Cicippio, 59. The execution had been threatened to retaliate for Israel's abduction of a Shiite Moslem cleric from southern Lebanon.
"By monitoring American moves here and there and through planting elements in regional American stations, and after trailing some spies, we have acquired accurate information that an American military operation is imminent against areas where the Americans believe hostages are held," the statement said.
"We call upon all to watch out against this threat and beware and be on the alert against what America is hatching," the communique added.
In an apparent reference to recent comments made by Lebanon's leading Shiite cleric, the communique said: "The Revolutionary Justice Organization holds spies, and humanitarianism requires just punishment, not a reward."
On Feb. 23, the clergyman, Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, said a "realistic and humanitarian means" must be found to free the hostages.
Rafsanjani, in his most direct statement so far that he wants the hostages freed, said Wednesday: "I and my friends would like the issue to be settled since the United States and others are exploiting the matter as a means for branding the Lebanese as terrorists and so they are not seriously seeking a solution."
Rafsanjani said Iran was not directly linked to the hostage issue, but that he had pledged to use Iran's influence to seek their freedom.
by CNB