Benjamin Weir’s Secret Passage

Freed by his captors 16 months after he was abducted by terrorists on a Beirut street, the Rev. Benjamin Weir reappeared last week, in church. “I hardly need to say that I’m glad to be here,” he told a press conference in Washington’s National Presbyterian Church and Center, his wife Carol by his side. As relatives of the six Americans still held hostage in the Middle East watched, the former missionary then delivered a grim message from his erstwhile jailers: unless the Reagan Administration pressures Kuwait to release 17 terrorists convicted of seven bombings in December 1983, the remaining Americans may be executed and more U.S. citizens kidnaped.

Weir’s unexpected release seemed designed by his captors to force the hostage issue back into public attention. Yet the attempt was marred by the mystery surrounding Weir’s reappearance. Bearded, bespectacled and looking healthy, Weir, 61, said forthrightly that he had reached an understanding with his captors about what he would and would not disclose publicly. To protect the other hostages he would not identify his captors, say where he was held or provide details on his repatriation, which was kept secret for three days in the hope that more Americans would be freed quickly.

His abductors, reported Weir, “have released me as a sign of their good intentions” to free the other hostages if the terrorists’ terms are met. He urged the U.S. to take “creative action” in negotiations. His captors, said Weir, “are not willing to wait much longer.”

The U.S. took the Weir-delivered threat seriously, but both the State Department and the government of Kuwait reaffirmed their determination not to capitulate to terrorists. Release of the prisoners, said a Kuwaiti official, “has never been a condition in any negotiation.” In Washington, State Department Spokesman Bernard Kalb said the Government “will not pressure other governments to make concessions to those holding hostages.” Washington has been firm in its support of Kuwait’s punishment of the jailed terrorists, who left 60 wounded and five dead in their wake. Both countries would now find it difficult to back down.

In the meantime, the U.S. efforts on behalf of the other Americans remain shrouded in secrecy. Kalb would say only that the U.S. “is now, has been and will continue to be in touch with numerous individuals and governments in an effort to obtain their release.” President Reagan was vague too, but he indicated that the U.S. was taking what steps it could. “Unfortunately,” said he, “we can’t tell even the families (of the other hostages) all that we are doing.”

Weir had good news about some of his fellow captives. The day of his release, he said, he saw and spoke with four of them: the Rev. Lawrence Jenco, director of Beirut’s Roman Catholic Relief Services; A.P. Correspondent Terry Anderson; and David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland of Beirut’s American University. But he had not seen the other two, American University Librarian Peter Kilburn or Diplomat William Buckley.

Weir was abducted in May 1984, after more than three decades of missionary work in Lebanon. Grabbed from his wife’s side, he was forced to the floor of a car, which then sped away. Although he said he was not physically abused, he spent a year in solitary confinement and was not even allowed to see a newspaper until last July 2. He was let go on Sept. 14, after 495 days in captivity. Flown in a U.S. Government plane to Norfolk, Va., he was met by his family and State Department debriefers. Word began leaking out, first on Sunday from Reuters in Beirut, then from the family. President Reagan announced Weir’s release at the end of a Wednesday tax-reform speech in Concord, N.H., but by then it had made all the morning network news programs.

Why was Weir freed at this time? One possible reason might have been the Administration’s stepped-up efforts to gain the hostages’ freedom since the release two weeks ago of the last of 760 mostly Shi’ite prisoners from Israel’s Atlit Prison. These were the prisoners that terrorists had demanded be freed after the hijacking of TWA’s Flight 847 in June.

There were vague indications that Iran might have played a role in Weir’s sudden release. His kidnapers have been linked to al Dawa, a militant pro- Iranian party with followers in Lebanon, which has insistently demanded freedom for the prisoners in Kuwait. There was also speculation that Weir might have been held for a time in Iran. To that, U.S. spokesmen responded with a frosty “No comment.” But top Administration officials clearly indicated that Syria had no part in Weir’s release, despite the prominent role Damascus played in securing the freedom of the TWA hijack victims. A senior State Department official may also have pointed indirectly to Iran when he said the U.S. had offered to help ease the isolation of countries “now outside the pale of international behavior” if the hostages were returned.

At week’s end official Washington remained uncharacteristically closemouthed about Weir’s unexpected release. “We don’t want to do or say anything that could disrupt the active diplomatic process,” said a State Department official. “We are delighted Rev. Weir is out, but seven is the number we are looking for.” Whether that means the U.S. is close to obtaining freedom for the six Americans still held hostage remains a closely guarded secret.