Terry Anderson, American journalist held hostage in Lebanon for seven years, dies at 76

American journalist Terry Anderson died on Sunday at the age of 76, his daughter said in a statement. He was held captive by Islamist militants in Lebanon for nearly seven years and became a symbol of the plight of Western hostages during the country’s 1975-1990 civil war. .

The AP’s former chief Middle East correspondent, who was the longest-held hostage of dozens of Westerners kidnapped in Lebanon, died at his home in Lake Greenwood, New York, where his daughter, Sulome Anderson, was born , she was born three months after him. was seized. No cause of death was given.

He was held for much of the so-called “hostage crisis” in a barely lit cell by a Shiite Muslim group, his hands and feet chained and mostly blindfolded. The former Marine later recalled that he was “almost crazy” and that only his Roman Catholic faith prevented him from committing suicide before his release in December 1991.

“Although my father suffered greatly while in captivity, in recent years he has found a calm, comfortable peace. I know he will choose to be remembered by his humanitarian work rather than the worst of his experiences. Along with the Vietnam Children’s Fund, CPJ, homeless veterans and so many other incredible causes,” said Sulom Anderson.

She said the family would take some time to organize a memorial.

Anderson’s ordeal began in Beirut on the morning of March 16, 1985, when he played a round of tennis. A green Mercedes sedan with the curtains on the rear window was pulled up, and three gunmen jumped out and dragged Anderson, who was still wearing shorts, into the car.

The pro-Iran Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping, saying it was part of an “ongoing campaign against Americans.” The kidnappers are demanding the release of Shia Muslims imprisoned in Kuwait for attacks on the U.S. and French embassies.

It was the beginning of a nightmare that lasted six years and nine months for Anderson, during which he was trapped in a cell under the rubble-strewn streets of Beirut and elsewhere, often without enough to eat and sleeping on thin sheets of cement flooring. Dirty mattress. .

While in captivity, both his father and brother died of cancer, and he did not meet his daughter Sulom until she was six years old.

“What keeps me going?” he asked aloud shortly after his release. “My companions. I’m lucky to have people with me most of the time. My faith, my stubbornness. You do what you have to do. You wake up every day and summon energy from somewhere. You think you haven’t Get it and you’ll get through it day after day.”

Other hostages described Anderson as strong and active in captivity, learning French and Arabic and exercising regularly.

However, they also say he banged his head against the wall until he bled from frustration from the beatings, isolation, false hope and a sense of being ignored.

“There is a limit to how long we can last, and some of us are very close to that limit,” Anderson said in a videotape released by the kidnappers in December 1987.

French diplomat Marcel Fontaine, who was released in May 1988 after three years in prison, recalled how cellmate Anderson thought freedom was imminent because he was allowed to see the sun and eat burgers .

In April 1987, Anderson was given a suit of clothing made for him by his kidnappers. “He wears it every day,” Fontaine said.

A week later, however, Anderson’s kidnappers withdrew their lawsuit, leaving him desperate and convinced he had been forgotten, Fontaine said.

Over the years, many journalist groups, governments and individuals have called for Anderson’s release, and his birthday, October 27, has become the unofficial Hostage Day in the United States.

Anderson said he considered suicide several times but refused. He relied heavily on his faith, which he said he returned to six months before his abduction.

“I must have read the Bible cover to cover 50 times,” he said. “It’s been a huge help to me.”

His sister, Peggy Say, who died in 2015, was his strongest supporter while in captivity.

She worked tirelessly for her brother’s freedom. She visited Arab and European capitals, lobbying the Pope, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and every American official and politician.

Under pressure from the media and the families of American hostages, the Reagan administration negotiated a secret and illegal agreement in the mid-1980s to facilitate arms sales to Iran in exchange for the release of the American hostages. But the deal, known as the Iran-Contra affair, failed to bring freedom to any of the hostages.

Anderson was born in Lorain, Ohio, on October 27, 1947, and grew up in Batavia, New York. He graduated from Iowa State University and served six years in the Marine Corps, primarily as a reporter.

He worked for the AP in Detroit, Louisville, New York, Tokyo, Johannesburg and Beirut, first traveling to Beirut in 1982 to cover the Israeli invasion.

In that war-torn city, he fell in love with Madeleine Basil, a Lebanese woman who was his fiancé and who was pregnant with their daughter Sulome when he was robbed.

He is survived by daughters Sulom and Gabrielle, sister Judy and brother Jack, as well as Basil, whom Sulom Anderson called “his ex-wife and best friend.”

Anderson and the other hostages developed a communication system by banging on the walls between cells. Always a journalist, Anderson passed on news of the outside world that he had learned while in captivity to the Church of England envoy Terry Waite. After years of solitary confinement, he was taken hostage in the next room in September 1990.

“Then came the news of the world: the fall of the Berlin Wall, the death of communism in Eastern Europe, free elections in the Soviet Union, the efforts of a multiracial government in South Africa. All the incredible things that had happened since he was taken away nearly three years ago. He thought I was crazy,” Anderson wrote in his 1993 book “The Lion’s Den.”

After his release from prison, Anderson taught journalism at Columbia University in New York, Ohio University, the University of Kentucky and the University of Florida until his retirement in 2015.

His investments include a horse ranch and a restaurant in Ohio. In 2004, he ran unsuccessfully for the Ohio Senate as a Democrat and sued Iran in federal court for kidnapping him, winning a multimillion-dollar settlement in 2002.