EX-HOSTAGE DISPUTES DATE OF BUCKLEY DEATH

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200049-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: December 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/31 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100200049-8
WASHINGTON POST
3 Decemk~er 1986
Ex-Hostage Disputes Date of Bucl~ley Death
Associated Press
David P. Jacobsen, who was re-
leased by his kidnapers in Lebanon
Nov. 2, says he thinks fellow hos-
tage William Buckley died on June
3, 1985, five months before his
Moslem captors said he was killed.
"He was delirious. He was regur-
gitating. He obviously was running
a very high fever," Jacobsen said of
Buckley in an interview aired last
night on the NBC-TV show "1986."
"The guards came to me because
I was a hospital director, and said,
'What can we do?' And I said, 'You
better take him to see, get a doctor
to: him.' They said, 'We can't do
that.' I made some suggestions to
what they could do."
.Jacobsen, who was administrator
of; the American University Hospi-
tal in .West Beirut at the time of his
kidnaping on May 28, 1985, said
that he was kept blindfolded and
thus never saw Buckley but that he
sensed when Buckley died. "There
was just a long, long silence," Jacob-
sen said. "When you're in a small
room ...there are certain noises
that are associated with death.
"And so I firmly believe that Wil-
liam died the evening of June the
third."
Asked if Buckley was tortured,
Jacobsen said: "I have no way .. .
that's just adding to the speculation.
I have no way of knowing what hap-
pened."
The Washington Post reported
last week that Buckley was the
Central Intelligence Agency's sta-
tion chief in Beirut and one of the
agency's leading experts on terror-
ism. The Post said Buckley was tor-
tured and died in Beirut, apparently
in June 1985.
The pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad
claimed it "executed" Buckley in
October 1985 after he "confessed"
that he worked for the CIA. His
body has never been found.
Jacobsen, who returned to Cal-
ifornia after his release, said that
the hostages' captors provided bet-
ter treatment after Buckley's
death.
"They brought us medicine. They
brought a doctor in to see us. They
even brought a dentist in," he said.
"When the shelling came close, they
moved up within the building to saf-
er locations. They didn't want us
harmed, okay. We were too valu-
able. We were precious to them."
Approved For Release 2011/08/31 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100200049-8