The Lebanon hostage crisis was the kidnapping in Lebanon of 104 foreign hostages between 1982 and 1992, when the Lebanese Civil War was at its height. The hostages were mostly Americans and Western Europeans, but 21 national origins were represented. At least eight hostages died in captivity; some were murdered, while others died from lack of medical attention. During the fifteen years of the civil war, an estimated 17,000 people disappeared after being abducted.
The kidnappers used different names, but the testimony of former hostages indicates that almost all of them were kidnapped by a single group of about a dozen men affiliated with the Hezbollah organization. Particularly important in the organization was Imad Mughniyah. Hezbollah publicly denied involvement. The theocratic government of Iran played a major role in the kidnappings, and may have instigated them.
The motive for the hostage-taking was to stop the United States and others from retaliating against Hezbollah for killing 241 Americans and 58 French in the Marine barracks and embassy bombings in Beirut in 1983. The kidnappings and prolonged holding of hostages was also attributed to Iranian foreign policy interests, including a desire to extract concessions from the Western countries, the hostage takers being strong allies of Iran.
The tight security measures taken by the perpetrators prevented the rescue of all but a handful of hostages. This, along with public pressure from the media and families of the hostages, led to a breakdown of the anti-terrorism principle of "no negotiations, no concessions" by American and French officials. In the United States, the Reagan administration negotiated a secret arms-for-hostage swap with Iran known as the Iran–Contra affair.
The end of the crisis in 1992 is thought to have been precipitated by the need for Western aid and investment by Syria and Iran following the end of the Iran–Iraq War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Hezbollah was promised that it could remain armed following the end of the Lebanese Civil War and that France and America would not seek revenge against it.
The kidnapped victims consisted of 25 Americans, 16 French, 12 British, 7 Swiss, 7 West Germans and 1 Irish man. The hostage takers claimed to belong to obscure organizations such as the Islamic Jihad Organization (IJO), the Organization for the Defense of Free People (ODFP), the Oppressed of the Earth Organization (OEO), the Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine (IJLP), the Revolutionary Justice Organization (RJO), the Organization of Right against Wrong (ORAW), Followers of the Prophet Muhammad (FPM), and the Holy Strugglers for Justice (HJS).
With the exception of a few hostages such as CIA Bureau Chief William Francis Buckley and Marine Colonel William Higgins (who were both killed), most were chosen not for any political activity or alleged wrongdoing, but because of the country they came from and the ease of kidnapping. Despite this, they were physically mistreated, repeatedly beaten and subjected to mock executions.
David S. Dodge. Among the first victims whose case was widely publicized was American University of Beirut president David Dodge, abducted 19 July 1982 and freed on July 21, 1983. According to Lebanese journalist Hala Jaber, "Dodge was abducted initially by pro-Palestinian Lebanese" in hopes of pressuring the Americans to pressure Israel which had invaded Lebanon to stop Lebanon-based PLO attacks. After the PLO evacuated Lebanon, Dodge was taken into Iranian custody, and moved him from Beqaa Valley to Tehran. The Iranians hoped to use Dodge to gain the release of four Iranian officials who had been kidnapped by Lebanese Christians in July 1982. The four Iranians were never found. Dodge spent the next three months in Evin Prison, and was asked for information about the kidnapped Iranians whenever he was interrogated. He was released, reportedly, because Syrian President Assad was angered by Iran's involvement in the kidnapping. Dodge was released from captivity and driven back to the airport by an official of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards. He flew to Damascus, and was handed over to the American embassy on arrival there.
Benjamin Weir. The Presbyterian minister was kidnapped in May 1984 by three armed men while strolling with his wife. Weir may have thought he was safe from harm from Muslims because he lived in Shiite West Beirut working with Muslim charities, and had lived in Lebanon since 1958. Two days after his abduction, a telephone message claimed: "Islamic Jihad organization claims it is responsible for the abduction ... in order to renew our acceptance of Reagan's challenge [to fight "state terrorism"] and to confirm our commitment of the statement ... that we will not leave any American on Lebanese soil". He was released mid-September 1985.
Terry A. Anderson, chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press, was the longest held hostage believed to be captured by Shiite Hezbollah or Islamic Jihad Organization. Anderson was seized on March 16, 1985, finally being released December 4, 1991.
Charles Glass, an American television correspondent, was seized on June 17, 1987, by a previously unknown group, the "Organization for the Defense of Free People", believed to be one of Hezbollah's aliases. He escaped 62 days later.
Rudolf Cordes and Alfred Schmidt, two citizens of West Germany, were abducted in January 1987 by an organization calling itself "Strugglers for Freedom". The West Germans were seized shortly after the West German government arrested Mohammed Ali Hamadi, a Shia terrorist leader who allegedly masterminded the 1985 TWA Flight 847 hijacking and killed diver Robert Dean Stethem. Mohammed Ali Hammadi was not released at that time, but was apparently exchanged in 2006 for a German hostage then held in Iraq. Schmidt was released in September 1987. Cordes was released in September 1988.
Thomas Sutherland, former Dean of Agriculture at the American University of Beirut in Lebanon, was kidnapped by Islamic Jihad members near his Beirut home on June 9, 1985. He was released on November 18, 1991, at the same time as Terry Waite, having been held hostage for 2,353 days.
Terry Waite, an Anglican church envoy, disappeared on January 20, 1987, while on a negotiating mission to free the other kidnap victims. He spent almost five years in captivity, nearly four years of it in solitary confinement, after he was seized by Islamic Jihad from a go-between's house in Lebanon. Before his release in November 1991 he was frequently blindfolded, as well as having been beaten early in his period of imprisonment and subjected to a mock execution. He was chained, suffered desperately from asthma, and was once transported in a refrigerator as his captors moved him about.
Joseph J. Cicippio, who was working as the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut when he was taken hostage on September 12, 1986. He spent 1,908 days in captivity, and released on December 2, 1991. He spent most of his time chained in a small room with one other hostage. Following his release, Cicippio was one of several that successfully sued Iran for damages as sponsoring Hezbollah under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, being awarded US$30 million. His children subsequently attempted to sue Iran for emotional damages Cicippio-Puleo v. Islamic Republic of Iran (2004) but which was dismissed by the courts as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not allow for foreign nations to be subject to private cause of action lawsuits, which led to Congress making a significant changes to FSIA in 2008 to enhance terrorist exceptions in sovereign immunity and assure foreign nations were responsible for actions of their officials tied to state-sponsored terrorism.
William Francis Buckley. Former CIA Bureau Chief, Beirut, taken hostage by Islamic Jihad, Mar 16, 1984. and held at the village of Ras al-Ain. On October 3, 1985, the Islamic Jihad Organization claimed to have killed him. The Islamic Jihad Organization later released to a Beirut newspaper a photograph purporting to depict his corpse. Press reports stated that Buckley had been transferred to Iran, where he was tortured and killed. Former American hostage David Jacobsen revealed that Buckley actually died of a heart attack brought on by torture, probably on June 3, 1985. His remains were found in a plastic sack on the side of the road to the Beirut airport in 1991.