Word: jacobsen
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...long as the deep secret was kept -- even from most of the U.S. intelligence community -- the maneuver in one sense worked. Iran apparently leaned on Lebanese terrorists to set free three American hostages, the latest of whom, David Jacobsen, flew home to the U.S. last week for a Rose Garden meeting with Ronald Reagan. But once the broad outlines of the incredible story became known, the consequences were dire. The Administration appeared to have violated at least the spirit, and possibly the letter, of a long succession of U.S. laws that are intended to stop any arms transfers, direct...
...chorus of no comments, off-the- record observations, obfuscations and pointed suggestions of self- restraint, even repression of the emerging facts. President Reagan declared that the | disclosures "are making it more difficult for us" to win the release of the Americans still held captive in Lebanon. The just-released Jacobsen, in a moving appeal at his welcoming ceremony at the White House, warned reporters that "unreasonable speculation on your part can endanger their lives." Cried Jacobsen: "In the name of God, would you please just be responsible and back...
Meanwhile, the Lebanese groups holding the hostages released a second clergyman, Father Lawrence Jenco, in July and David Jacobsen last week. Their freedom was obtained without any yielding on the captors' principal demand: release of 17 terrorists being held in Kuwait on charges of dynamiting the U.S. and French embassies. In a statement announcing that they were letting Jacobsen go, his captors, Islamic Jihad, mysteriously urged the U.S. to "proceed with current approaches that could lead, if continued, to a solution of the hostages issue." Washington at the time vehemently denied that it had made any "approaches," to Iran...
...Jacobsen's release was credited by some observers in the Middle East to Syria, which occupies the portion of Lebanon where Islamic Jihad and its companion group, Hizballah (the Party of God), operate. It is now clear that Syria played next to no role. In fact, it appears to have lost nearly all sway with the extremists, who are now heavily influenced by Iran...
...different light. Waite's activities were important, but not wholly in the way they appeared at the time. Since neither the U.S. nor Iran could let it be known that they were in contact, let alone that the U.S. was supplying Iran with arms, some cover for Jacobsen's release had to be found. Waite and his mission provided the necessary public appearance, and it is doubtful that anyone else could have done so, since Waite, as a nonpolitical man of religion, has the trust of all parties involved, including the kidnapers. One Israeli official refers to Waite...