CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450004-7

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450004-7
Quiet Stay
Likely at
West Point
Details Withheld
To Protect Privacy
€
Star Wire Services
The freed American hostages will
fly home Sunday to the United States,
State Department officials in Wies-
baden, West Germany, announced
today.
State Department spokesman Jack
Cannon said they will fly to a "pri-
vate location" where they will be
reunited with their families,
Dr. Jerome Korcak, medical direc-
for of the State Department and lead-
er of the recovery team in
Wiesbaden, said the 52 freed
Americans are expected to return
togetl. r.
Earlier, the Pentagon was quoted
as saying the 52 would be lodged
et the U.S. Military Academy at West
Point, N.Y. on their return. They
were reportedly to stay there for
up to two days for private reunions
with their families
The families have been learning
In bits and pieces what life was like
during the captivity in Iran, and
much of what they have discovered
has distressed and angered them.
Telephone conversations with the
inten and women in Wiesbaden con-
nued to include accounts of ill
Treatment by their Iranian captors,
amily members said yesterday.
Penelope Laingen, wife of L.
Bruce Laingen, the former embassy
charge d'affaires, said she had been
told by her husband of
humiliating" treatment and the
threat by his Iranian captors to
how his brains out.".
Patsy Lee said her husband, Gary,
described two mock executions and
his months in solitary confinement.
"Gary didn't see sunlight or daylight
from June 1980 until he-met the
Algerians," she said.
-Richard Kalp amended his pre-
Vous contention that his brother
·Malcolm had spent 150 days in soli-
See HOSTAGES, A-6
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450004-7

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450004-7
THE WASHINGTON STAR Friday, January 23, 1981
National and Foreign Report
Iranian Official Denies
Torture of Hostages
Negotiator Accuses
U.S. of Brainwashing
Iran yesterday vehemently denied
it tortured the former hostages, ac.
cused them of being "ungrateful"
and claimed U.S. officials are
brainwashing the 52 Americans as
a pretext for breaking the
agreements signed with Tehran.
. "Considering the mentality of this
type of comfort-seeking diplomats,
there is no doubt that they found
the duration of their detention not
desirable," Behzad Nabavi, Iran's
chief hostage negotiator, said in an
Interview with the Pars news agen-
cy, monitored in London.
Nabavi's denial of the torture
charges was the first official Iranian
reply to statements made by the re-
leased hostages after their arrival
in Wiesbaden, West Germany, which
ended 444 days in Iranian captivity,-
.... Nabavi said the United States was
"bringing up such baseless claims"
of torture in order to revoke the
release settlement and claimed the
Americans "confessed", they were
well treated.
Senate to Hold
Inquiry Into
Iran's Brutality
By Roberta Hornig
Washington Star Staff Writer
Senate Majority Leader Howard
Baker said yesterday the Senate will
conduct a full inquiry "into the bru-
tal treament of the American hos-
tages in Iran."
But Baker told a news conference
he believes the hearings should be
-put off for the time being because
"the wound is too fresh. The wound
will be even deeper as we learn
more of the atrocities" perpetrated
on the American diplomats who
were held hostage for 444 days, he
said.
"I think we should wait a little
for our wounds to heal a little before
we pass judgment on 'our policy to-
ward Iran or the nature of the
agreement" which led to the freeing
of the hostages on Tuesday, Baker
said.
He said the hearings -- which
· will be conducted by the Senate For-
eigh Relations Committee - will. .
have two purposes:
"The first will be to help determine"
American policy toward Iran in the
ture. The second will be to try to
determine how the United States and
other nations can prevent such in-
cidents of international terrorism.
Sen. Dennis Deconcini, D-Ariz.,
urged. President Reagan "to state,
clearly that the United States-is.not,
legally or morally bound to the,
agreement," that gained freedom for
the hostages since it is an "estab-
lished matter of criminal law that
agreements made under the duress
"We expected 'this kind of libel
on behalf of the American officials
who have been enemies of the Is-
lamic revolution. of Iran," Nabavi
said.
Nabavi said former President.Car-
ter and and "his colleagues who
were defeated in the diplomatic
stage of America" were deceiving
Americans for political advantage.
"All torture claims of the released
hostages emanate from
brainwashing, carried out during
their forced stay in Wiesbaden,'
Nabavi said. "The fact is their stay
in Wiesbaden is designed to prevent
their direct contact with the people
and to prevent the disclosure of
truth before Washington could
make its own disclosures."
He said America's step was com-
pletely predictable ..
"We have available video tapes
of various Interviews with the re-
leased hostages In which they all
confessed that they have been well
treated and humanely and had no
complaints." The tapes would be
fransfinted "if the hostages contra-
dict them."
"We knew that some of the re-
leased hostages were ungrateful and
do not understand the meaning of
kindness, since they were trained
for the affairs of the Foreign Min-
istry of the U.S.," Nabavi said.
Nabavi also thanked the militants
who seized the U.S. Embassy in Teh-
ran Nov. 4, 1979, which triggered
the crisis.
The released Americans accused
the militants of carrying out much
of the abuse.
"We must express our thanks to
them (the militants), because, de-
spite their profound hatred of U.S.
policy and its operators in Iran, they
treated the cause of their nation's
misfortune so magnanimously,"
Nabavi said.
United Press International
-
Jesse Helms, R.N.C., said he
agreed with Deconcini.
"I would say nur potenant L ...
Prison, to a cell whose walls were
covered with the words, "Angela,
Angela. my love."
4
United Press Joternation
Returnee Bruce Laingen of Bethesda gives victory sign at Wiesbaden.
Hostages Will Fly Home
Sunday, State Dept. Says
Continued From A-1
tary confinement. Kalp said that in
fact his brother said he spent 374
days confined alone in a cell because
he had tried to escape.
And relatives said other former
hostages described the small indig-
nities of daily life as political pris-
oners: their watches being taken
and their reading material censored,
their clothes' falling to shreds and
disintegrating in dirt and their trips
to the bathroom accompanied by
armed guards.
At the same time, some family
members began to vent their anger
at the Iranians and their enforced
separation from their loved ones.
Mrs. Laingen, who has been a For-
eign Service wife for three decades ;:
said of her own ordeal: "So much
of my life .has been sitting on the,
front lawni watching Khatak dances
or Japanese opera; upholdinghthe:
honor of the U.S,, and never a mo-
ment of peace and tranquility. I'm
tired of it. I'm not burned up, I'm
burned out."
On Tuesday night Mrs. Laingen
spoke to her husband on the tele-
phone) He told her that on Jan, 3,".
after being held: fortimore than! av
year with two other hostages'in a"
large room in the Iranian Foreign:
Ministry" furnished: with " Persian :
rugs and crystal chandeliers,' he
his eyes so he couldn't see any
thing," she said. "They slammed hin
back onto the chair - he used the
word 'slammed.""
Mrs. Lee said her husband tol
her she was certain he was abou
to die. "He said "I was dead,"" sh
recalled, adding that he said it
passed through his mind that h
hoped his wife and 11-year-old
daughter, Dana, could understand
that his life was being sacrifice
for the country.
"Three times there was a click o
rifles," she said her husband told
ber.
Mrs. Lee said her husband ha
told her that a second "execution
was held in the embassy basemen
in February 1980. "He said 'I could
feel the bullets in my Back. I didn
wet my pants. I wanted to be proud
I,wanted to stand straight and tall,'
Mrs. Lee said her husband told her.
Over and over family member
repeated the same refrain yesterday
that despite their healthy appear
ance and high spirits, the hostage
had not been treated as well as thei
families had thought.
Hazel Albin, mother of Robert 0
Elucker/Bald Her son told her "they
shoved himmaroundra lot." Susar
Cooke, mother of Donald Cooke, vic
consul at the embassy, said her sor
portes his captors were contin
propaganda" and that stories werd
cut out of magazines he read, Leland
Holland's mother, Clara, said her v;
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R00200450004-haranguing him with their

what they are = with subbass
of purpose."
"It would not bother me one bit
if the president tells them to take
a long walk on a short pier," he said.
Senate Minority Whip Alan Cran-
ston, D-Calif., agreed with Baker's
call for a Senate inquiry but said
he believes it should be broader in
scope.
"I don't see how we can avoid
going into the background - into
why so many Iranians are so deeply
hostile to the United States," said
Cranston, a Foreign Relations Com-
mittee member.
He said he believed the inquiry
would have to go back to the rela-
tions between the United States and
Iran in the 1950s when, with the
help from the CIA, the Shah of Iran
was restored to power after being
overthrown.
Baker, however, said he did not
believe the hearings should go into
past U.S .- Iranian history. "I don't
think we should dig up the past,"
he said,adding:
""What I want to know is how we
deal with a country like Iran which
treated Americans so brutally." ..
Baker predicted that "the flood
of indignation is going to grow as
Americans hear the hostages' storles
and said the Senate inquiry would
take place "in the near future."
Baker also reported that he sup-
ports Reagan and Secretary of State
Alexander M. Haig Jr. in their de-
cision to study every aspect of the
hostage agreement with Iran.
He said he did not mean to imply
that he believes this country should
renege on its agreement with Iran.
"I do not wish to welsh on any com-
mitment by the United States," he
said, adding that he only wants to
be certain - as the administration
does - of what provisions the
agreement contains.
On the House side, Rep. Gerald
Solomon, R-N.Y., said the United
States should refuse to abide by the
agreement until it is assured the
World Court and the Iranian gov-
ernment will cooperate in bringing
"those terrorists to justice."
House Republican leader Bob
Michel, R-III, said, said, "The nations
of the world should combine in ac-
tion that would damage the terrorist
regime in Iran."
Me asked President Reagan to de-
clare Iran an "outlaw" nation and
take whatever actions are appropri-
ate to show that "no one harms our
citizens with impunity."
? was
aperec
sident
te House
dos
Gray omcer, ar
so one of the other hostages, is
married to a woman named Angela.
Laingen told his wife that a first
attempt to move him and his room-
mates, Michael Howland, a security
officer, and Victor L. Tomseth, the
senior political officer, had oc-
curred about two weeks earlier.
The three men were being led to
a van when Howland saw the pil-
lowcases and the ropes that the Tran-
ians had brought to bind them and
kicked the "chief militant" in the
groin, Laingen told his wife.
They were then shoved back up-
stairs, Laingen said, while one of
the militants held a .45-caliber pistol
to his head and threatened to blow
his brains out." He told his wife
that it was the first time in more
than 30 years of diplomatic service
that a pistol had been held to his
head. .
When he was finally transferred,
Laingen said, he was told to behave
if he wanted to eat. During his stay
at the prison, he was blindfolded
whenever he went to the bathroom
he said
#It was just humiliating," Laingen
told his wife
Gary Lee's wife, Patsy, confirmed
earlier -accounts by Richard
Queen, a hostage released last year ..
when it was discovered that he had
multple sclerosis, that the fostages ..
were put before mock firing squads.
Mrs .- Lee said her husband, a general ..
service officer at the embassy, told
her that he had been involved in
two such incidents. :
"They trussed him to a chair, tied
him up tightly, and put cotton under
husband had told her that the hos
tages were abused even when free-
dom was near. "They were pelted
with mud on one of the bus trips
by some of those charming little
Iranians," Mrs. Kennedy said.
Andrew H, Appel, a lawyer and
friend of the Gillette family, said
after a two-and-a-half-hour tele-
phone call with Duane Gillette: "It
became obvious to all of us that bts:
treatment was not nearly as civil
as he had been leading us to belleve
in his letters. He said he was not
tortured, but it was no picnic. For
the first two or three months he
was not allowed to speak to any-
body."
Marjorie Moore, the wife of Bert
C. Moore, the administrative consul,
sald of conversations with her hus-
band,"He was never beaten or tor.
tured. He was threatened with a gun
to the head, And he said go ahead
and shoot, you bastards." But they
didn't get the combination of the
safe they wanted.
In addition, Mrs. Moore told of
her husband's complaints about
drawing, kitchen pattol 'and belny
unable to bathe. She said that-
-washed the pans after the Iraplar
had cooked. "They used so mu
grease to cook with," she said
husband told net "and all they"
to wash the pans was cold wat.
Mrs. Moore sald her husband
told her that his infrequent sho
were usually with cold water.
longest he went without bathin
40 days," said Mrs. Moore.