Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990 TAG: 9005010243
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: DAMASCUS, SYRIA LENGTH: Long
"I'd like to tell my family, especially my son Tarek, that his daddy is well. He is a little skinny, but he will be home very soon," the 57-year-old educator from Malden, Mass., told state-run Syrian TV after his release.
In the Boston suburb of Malden, Reed's Syrian Moslem wife, Fahima "Fifi" Reed, 39, saw her husband on television and exclaimed, "He looks great! He's in a suit. . . . I want to see everybody as happy as I am now."
Reed, who lived in Beirut since 1977, converted to Islam to marry her. Tarek is their 9-year-old son.
Reed was freed in Beirut at 8:30 p.m. (1:30 p.m. EDT), Syrian officials said, and was driven to the Syrian capital, where Foreign Minister Farouk al-Sharaa turned him over to U.S. Ambassador Edward Djerejian.
He left Damascus at 2.22 a.m. today (7:22 p.m. EDT Monday) on a U.S. military transport plane headed for the U.S. Air Force Base at Wiesbaden, West Germany, where he will undergo medical checks and a debriefing by a State Department team.
President Bush hailed Reed's release as Bush welcomed to the White House former hostage Robert Polhill, another U.S. educator who was freed in Lebanon on April 22 after 39 months in captivity. Bush thanked Syria and Iran for their help in securing the releases and said "things seem to be moving," but that there could be no rest "until all hostages are free."
There are still 16 Westerners, including six Americans, held in Lebanon.
The Iranian newspaper Tehran Times said today that unless Washington answers the latest releases with goodwill gestures, no more Americans will go free.
Reed, who appeared pale and had grown a white beard, said at a briefing at the ministry that he could not answer some questions out of concern for those still held - "I do not want to say anything that could harm them."
The freed captive appeared in good health, considering his ordeal. His voice was husky.
Reed said he hoped the other hostages will be freed soon, but would not say if he saw any of them in captivity. However, Reed referred to "we" while describing the conditions of his captivity.
"We had adequate fresh food, and the opportunity to bathe and shower, and given clean clothes," he said.
"Our problem was the passage of endless time. We had no radio. we had no news. . . . There were times when I did not know what month it was.
"We were given lots of books and allowed to watch TV but never the news." However, he later said: "I refused the books and TV. I didn't want to be entertained when I lost my freedom."
He said of his captivity, "It was lonely. It was boring. . . . I'm very happy to be free . . . and I hope my fellow hostages will be freed very soon."
Reed spoke haltingly at times, his eyes downcast. "I haven't talked much" as a hostage, he explained.
He said he did not hold the Lebanese people responsible for his ordeal, and he thanked Syria for its efforts "in helping me become a free man."
Reed said he was blindfolded 24 hours a day during much of his captivity.
"I feel odd that my blindfold is not here," he said, touching his face.
"I hope, Godspeed, that my colleagues . . . somehow will be released soon," he concluded.
Word that Reed would be released first came Sunday in a statement from a group calling itself the Organization of Islamic Dawn. It released a communique, accompanied by a photograph of Reed, and said the hostage would be freed within 48 hours and would carry a message for the Bush administration. It did not list any demands.
The group's statement caused confusion. Reed's abduction was earlier claimed by the Organization of Arab Revolutionary Cells-Omar Mukhtar Brigade.
In Beirut, Reed was handed to officers of the Syrian army contingent that controls east and north Lebanon as well as Moslem west Beirut, where Reed was kidnapped Sept. 9, 1986, said the Syrian officials, who refused to be identified. The Syrian military presence dates from an Arab League peacekeeping mandate in the 15-year-old Lebanese civil war.
The officials refused to specify the release site.
Most of the remaining hostages are believed held by Shiite groups loyal to Iran. Longest held is Terry Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press. He was kidnapped March 16, 1985.
Iranian officials and Lebanese Shiite leaders recently have called for reciprocal releases of Shiite fundamentalists held by Israel and Kuwait.
The Tehran Times said in a Tuesday editorial: "Release of two American hostages without any pre-conditions and solely for humanitarian and Islamic causes was an extreme gesture of goodwill and self-sacrifice by Lebanese Moslem groups.
"The Islamic Republic used its maximum power and credibility for the release of the hostages. Naturally, without an appropriate response from the West, there is no chance for the continuation of Iranian mediation"
"Now the ball is in the court of the U.S. and the Western countries," said the paper, which is considered to favor the viewpoint of Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani.
by CNB