Banner Graphic, Volume 21, Number 167, Greencastle, Putnam County, 20 March 1991 — Page 2

THE BANNERGRAPHIC March 20,1991

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Newspapers predict release of hostages

Iran, Syria seek closer ties to U.S. BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) A newspaper said today that Western hostages in Lebanon will be freed this week, including all six Americans believed held by proIranian factions. It said the Americans would be in Syria on Saturday. The front-page report in the conservative Ad-Diyar newspaper comes amid intensified cooperation by U.S., Iranian and Syrian officials aimed at securing the hostages’ release THE LONGEST-held hostage, Associated Press chief Middle East correspondent Terry Anderson, 43, was seized on March 16, 1985. The Ad-Diyar report said the Americans would be freed Friday at an unnamed hotel in Beirut in the presence of Interior Minister Sami Al-Khatib and the commander of Syria’s military intelligence in Lebanon, Brig. Gen. Ghazi Kenaan.

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Rumors of their release after years spent in captivity

The newspaper, which did not name its sources, said the Americans would then be taken to Damascus and handed over to the U.S. ambassador to Syria, whose army controls three-quarters of Lebanon. THE REPORT CAME just a few hours after the pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim group holding two American hostages reiterated its preconditions for their release and Israel cited new efforts to secure the hostages’ release. The group, The Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, demanded that Israel release of a Shiite cleric it kidnapped in southern Lebanon in 1989 Sheik AbdulKarim Obeid as well as other

Captured records show Iraqi officers aware of low morale

KUWAIT CITY (AP) commanders were painfully aware of low morale among their troops, lamented widespread desertions and worried about the influence of foreign radio broadcasts, captured war documents show. Kuwaiti resistance fighters said they found the secret documents,

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ALANN STEEN

Muslim prisoners. Ad-Diyar, which is based in Christian East Beirut, does not have a record of accurate reporting on the 13 Westerners missing in Lebanon, who include four Britons, two Germans and an Italian. THE PAPER SAID its sources were “close to circles interested in the release of the Western hostages,” said that the remaining hostages “would probably be released the coming Saturday in the presence of the ambassadors of their respective nations in Lebanon.” The Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, which has held Americans Jesse Turner and Alann Steen for four years, on Tuesday of-

which were made available by Kuwaiti resistance leader Jassem Abdullah, at an abandoned Iraqi military base in northern Kuwait. SOME OF THE documents were affixed with the seal of the Iraqi military. Others were on white paper. Some were typed, others handwritten. The authenticity of the documents could not be confirmed, but U.S. military officers say fleeing Iraqi troops left reams of documents behind. “The phenomenon of desertion, absence and negligence among our soldiers of different ranks is growing to alarming proportions,” read a document dated Feb. 12. “If this persists it will constitute a dire danger to battle. The imperialist enemy would capture our emplacements.” MORE THAN 60,000 Iraqis surrendered to the U.S.-led coalition after it launched a ground offensive on Feb. 24. Many of the Iraqis who surrendered sought out allied troops. Another document, undated but signed by Col. Abdel-Razzak Karim Saleh, an air defense commander based in southern Iraq, addressed the problem of foreign

Libya building second chemical weapons plant

WASHINGTON (AP) Libya is building a new plant to produce chemical weapons and also has been making large amounts of poison gas at another facility once thought to have been destroyed by fire, U.S. officials say. The new facility is near the existing poison gas factory at Rabta, a town about 60 miles southwest of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, one official said. “Large scale” produc-

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JESSE TURNER

sered to talk if Israel releases Sheik Obeid and an unspecified number of other prisoners. The typewritten Arabic message was delivered to the independent Beirut newspaper An-Nahar and a Western news agency, accompanied by a photograph of Turner, who was kidnapped on Jan. 24,1987. THE GROUP SAID it issued the statement “after the latest developments in the region, the American invasion of the Holy Land, talk about a security system for it and efforts to resolve the issue of the hostages.” The United States stepped up efforts to seek the hostages’ release after its victory in the Persian Gulf War. Syria was a key Arab ally in

radio reports. “We noticed that most officers arc adversely influenced by broadcasts of foreign radio stations,” it said. “MORALE IS low. Transistor radio sets should be taken away from them and kept at the command quarters. There must be an enlightenment campaign, to expose the objectives of the imperialist air strikes against innocent residents,” the document said. On Jan. 17, the day the war began, Iraqi Air Force Staff Gen. Mezahim Saab was worried about ammunition. “The enemy has been trying to exhaust our anti-aircraft gun ammunition by flying warplanes a little beyond the effective range of our guns,” he complained. “It is imperative that gunners heed radar indicators for opening fire.” In another document, Gen. Saab praised Iraqi troops. “WE HAVE devised plans to make the battle far longer than enemy expectations,” read the undated letter. The ground war lasted about 100 hours. U.S. tactics were the focus of another letter.

tion of poison gas has been under way at Rabta since last summer, he added. THE OFFICIAL, who spoke on condition of anonymity, declined to say how far the Libyans have come with the second plant. “There is convincing evidence that Libya is continuing its chemical weapon program and may have begun construction of a second chemical warfare agent production

the war and Secretary of State James A. Baker 111 visited Damascus last week as part of the U.S. campaign to foster a new Middle East security arrangement. The communique was the first from the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation since Aug. 24, when Irishman Brian Keenan was freed. The group has earlier demanded the release of 400 Palestinian and Lebanese prisoners held by Israel. ISRAEL IN THE past offered to exchange Sheik Obeid as well as an estimated 300 Shiites held by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army militia in exchange for all hostages and Israeli soldiers missing in Lebanon. On Tuesday, an aide to Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens said Israel was making “significant efforts’ to free both foreign hostages and secure the release of seven Israeli servicemen missing in Lebanon. But the aide, Dan Naveh, declined to comment directly on the kidnanner’s message. Naveh declined comment when asked whether the offer to release hundreds of Shiites still stands. ISRAEL WAS LAST involved in a prisoner exchange in July 1985, when it freed 331 Lebanese prisoners in return for 39 U.S. hostages taken to Beirut by Shiite Muslims after the hijacking of a TWA jet. High-level meetings in the region touching on the hostage

Imelda wants to return to Philippines as president

NEW YORK (AP) An attorney for Imelda Marcos says the former first lady of the Philippines wants to return to her homeland and run for president. “They are literally forcing her to be a position where she’s going to have to run for the presidency,” James Linn said Tuesday. “She believes the country is in dire straits.” LINN SAID Mrs. Marcos will apply for a passport at the Philippine Consulate on Thursday, despite orders from Philippine President Corazon Aquino on Tuesday that consular officials reject her application. Mrs. Aquino said Mrs. Marcos and her family members are ineligible to return “until their names have been stricken off the list of disqualified persons from obtaining travel documents.” Linn said there is no such thing as exile or banishment under Philippine law. He said lawyers will sue for permission to go home if a passport is denied. FERDINAND Marcos died in Hawaii in September 1989, three years after he was deposed in a “people’s revolution” that lifted

plant in addition to the one operating at Rabta,” said Rear Adm. Thomas A. Brooks, director of naval intelligence. Brooks, whose comments appear in testimony prepared for a closed hearing earlier this month of the House Armed Services Committee, did not elaborate. LIBYA KEEPS insisting the plant at Rabta produces medicines. Western reporters were invited to

question this week have included one Monday between Iranian President Hashemi Rafsanjani and Fathi Shaqaqi, “an official from the Islamic Jihad,” according to Iran’s official Islamic Republic News Agency. The Islamic Jihad is one of several hostage-holding factions connected under the umbrella of the pro-Iranian Shiite group Hezbollah, or Party of God. IN WASHINGTON, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Tuesday the department had “nothing to suggest a hostage release is imminent. “There have been numerous previous reports that predicted the imminent release of hostages and unfortunately many of these have turned out to be false,” Boucher said. Baker discussed the hostage crisis with Syrian and other officials during his trip to the region last week. BOTH SYRIA AND Iran are seeking closer ties to the West to improve their economies and would stand to gain from securing the release of the hostages. Turner, 43, of Boise, Idaho, was a visiting professor of mathematics and computer science when he was kidnapped from the U.S.-affiliated Beirut University College. Two other American professors were abducted with him: Steen, 51, a native of Boston, and Robert Polhill, 55, a New Yorker.

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IMELDA MARCOS Homeland In dire straits

Mrs. Aquino to power. Mrs. Marcos was acquitted in a racketeering trial last year. She and her husband had been accused of illegally transferring $l6O million from the Philippines and defrauding banks of $165 million. She is not allowed to leave Manhattan without requesting permission from the Justice Department 48 hours in advance.

tour the plant in January 1990 but were not allowed in after being taken to the complex. They reported seeing surface-to-air missiles batteries, tanks and soldiers around the complex. Libya announced last March that arsonists had set fire to the plant at Rabta, and accused Israeli, American or German agents of setting the blaze. German companies were the main contractors for the Rabta plant. THE WHITE House initially said it had concluded the plant had been rendered inoperable by the fire.

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