Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 16, 1991 TAG: 9103160040
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"We have not forgotten them and we will not forget them," President Bush said of six American hostages in a letter to Peggy Say, Anderson's sister, marking the anniversary of his capture.
Bush, who has revived the hostage issue since the end of the Persian Gulf War, told Say that her brother and five others "are held cruelly apart from their families simply because they are Americans."
Katharine Graham, chairman of The Washington Post Co., said at an emotional, 90-minute ceremony at the Capitol that Anderson had risked his personal safety to bring the world the story of Lebanon.
"Our American name for it is guts," she said. "Terry Anderson embodies this description."
Relatives and friends of the other American hostages - Thomas Sutherland, Joseph Cicippio, Jesse Turner, Alann Steen and Edward Austin Tracy - attended the ceremony. Sutherland's wife, Jean, flew from Beirut.
Anderson, 43, the chief Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press, was seized by unknown assailants on a street in Beirut on March 16, 1985.
"There is only the frustration and the anger that we in the AP feel at the mindless savagery of people who would hold a man for so long for no reason," said AP Vice President Walter Mears.
Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan, D-N.Y., one of Say's strongest backers on Capitol Hill, said the United States was closer than ever to promoting "a political settlement" that could lead to freedom for the hostages.
"True peace can't be achieved as long as American hostages remain in captivity," said Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole, R-Kan.
The State Department said in formal statement Friday that the continued detention of the hostages "is a criminal act that serves no cause. We continue to hold the kidnappers responsible for the safety and well-being of the hostages."
"We call on all countries with influence to obtain freedom for all the hostages. . . . We have not forgotten [the hostages] and we will not forget them," the department said.
Shiite clerics familiar with the kidnappers' thinking said they saw no real signs that any hostages would be freed soon.
One cleric, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said there were three "main elements that should be met to facilitate the release of the hostages." These are:
> Releasing billions of dollars in Iranian assets frozen in the United States since 1979.
> Freeing a pro-Iranian Shiite leader abducted by Israel.
Giving "solid guarantees for the kidnappers that the Americans won't go after them once the hostages are released."
by CNB