Word: cicippio
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...situation for Americans in Lebanon was worsening in 1986, but Joseph Cicippio thought his low-profile position as acting comptroller of the American University of Beirut made him an unlikely target for terrorists. He was further protected, he believed, by his marriage to a Lebanese woman and his conversion to Islam in 1985. Nonetheless, as he left his campus apartment on Sept. 12, the Norristown, Pa., native was ambushed by four gunmen of the Shi'ite Revolutionary Justice Organization, pistol-whipped and loaded into the trunk of a car. He was the second American to be abducted in Lebanon that...
Since shortly after Cicippio's disappearance, his brother Thomas, 65, has kept a running tally on the front lawn of his Norristown home of the number of days Joseph has been in captivity. "I always felt the hostages were kept on the back burner," says the retired postal worker. "I had no way of knowing what was happening...
Despite the danger, Cicippio, now 58, had genuinely enjoyed Beirut since he moved there in 1984. Educated at Rutgers University and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, he gave up a 25-year banking career in the late 1970s, after the breakup of his first marriage, to work as a shipping manager in Jidda, Saudi Arabia. Following a four-year stint as an employee of an oil cartel in London, Cicippio accepted the job at the American University in June 1984. "None of us wanted him to go, but he had made up his mind," said his brother...
...Cicippio has seven children from his first marriage. In 1985 he wed Elham Ghandour, 35, a secretary at the American embassy in East Beirut. The couple had reportedly discussed leaving the war-torn city only weeks before Cicippio was kidnaped...
Nothing better illustrated the endlessness of the hostage dilemma than the threat that Joseph Cicippio would quickly succeed Higgins as the next dangling man. No sooner had the videotape of Higgins' body been released to news agencies in Beirut than a countdown began toward the execution of Cicippio, 58, kidnaped three years ago from the campus of the American University of Beirut. Cicippio's last-minute reprieve was accompanied by a threat that the clock could be set ticking again. His captors demanded that Israel free not only Obeid but also unspecified Palestinians and Lebanese guerrillas. "Acceptance should be announced...