Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 2, 1995 TAG: 9505020124
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: BAGHDAD, IRAQ LENGTH: Medium
``I cannot begin to say how good it was to see my husband, and I know that Kathy feels the same way,'' Linda Barloon told Cable News Network after she and Kathy Daliberti were allowed into the Abu Ghraib prison on Sunday.
``It was reunion full of tearful emotions.''
Before the visit, William Barloon, 39, and David Daliberti, 41, had had no link to the outside world in two weeks.
The men were arrested March 13 after crossing into Iraq from Kuwait. On March 25, they were sentenced to eight years in prison for entering the country illegally. The men, employees of U.S. defense contractors in Kuwait, say they strayed across the border inadvertently.
The wives met with their husbands in a prison meeting room.
Asked how her husband was doing, Kathy Daliberti, whose husband has a heart condition, told CNN: ``Considering the circumstances, he looked OK."
Linda Barloon said that her husband ``has lost a lot of weight. [He's] a little bit pale, but I think that this would be expected under the circumstances. Overall their health seemed fairly good today.''
Asked if she had any messages for her family, Linda Barloon said: ``To our three children who I hope will be able to see us, Daddy sends his love.''
``He thinks about you all the time,'' she said, her voice cracking.
Barloon's 13-year-old son, Bill, said he and his brother Brian, 11, and sister Becky, 9, watched the CNN broadcast late Monday from their home in Kuwait.
"A sense of relief came over me that Mom has gotten to see him,'' the teen-ager said.
by CNB