THE WASHINGTON STAR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450005-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: May 19, 2000
• Sequence Number: 5
• Publication Date: January 22, 1981
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RD.P96-00788R002100450005-6
Ab s;
es Tell' UnIC
Ho tag
b,a 0 1 -~~ I If
ris
Bar
Carte Decries
Ex-President.
Declares 52
True Heroes'
One CCaIIS
His 'Captors
op.;
. syc o#ic'
Tortureas'Physical,
Than He Had Known
--By Phil Galley
Washington star staff writer
WIESBADEN, West Germany,-
Former President Jimmy Carter
with the 52 freed American hostages,
embracing each and calling them
"true heroes" who had suffered
physical and mental torture, far.,
worse than he had previously be
Carter, acting as President Rea-
,,in 's emissary, came away from his
meeting with the Americans at the
U.S. Air Force hospital here "clearly
outraged," as an aide put It by the
stories of mistreatment they'told.'
"One very serious fact is becoming
evident," Carter told a news confer-
en;e, "and that to that our
much worse than has bogt1 ppre-
viously revealed..The acts of bar-,
barism which were perpetrated on
our people by Iran can never be
Eondoned."
l
s
Some of the former U.P. officia
traveling with Carter said that
placing the hostages before mock
firing squads apparently had been
a more common occurrence than
they had realized from the reports
received through diplomatic chan.
nels. But beyond that, they refused
to provide specifics.
For Carter, who was deprived of
the opportunity of greeting the lib,
erated Americans as president by a
last-minute snag in the negotiations
with Iran, the meeting was the emo?
tional climax to the 444-day crisis
that haunted the last days of his
presidency.
Ironically, one of the first sights
Carter saw upon his arrival at the
hospital was a quotation from the
inaugural address of?onald Reagan,
who took the oath as president only
33 minutes before the first planeload
of hostages left Tehran for freedom.
A large banner draped from the
Returnee Bruce Laingen of Bethesda and former President Jimmy Caner embrace at Wiesbaden.:
Reagan Holds Off on Pact
Until He Reads Fine Print
Rejection of Deal
Said to Be Unlikely'
By Walter Taylor
Washington Star Staff Writer
Last-Minute Iranian
Haig Approved
For State Post
On 93-6 Vote,
By a vote of 93 to 6, Alexander
Hitch Said Legitimate M. Haig Jr. won confirmation: from
star Wire Services. the Senate yesterday as secretary of
state.
WIESBADEN, West Germany - But there was political skirmish-
Officials said yesterday the Rea- Former officials of the Carter admin- lug between Capitol Hill and the
gan administration will review the istration yesterday said that they are White House on President Reagan's
fine print on the hostage agreement convinced Iran "had a legitimate first full day in office,
with Iran before deciding whether gripe" in raising last-minute ques- Even while they were welcoming
to honor its provisions. tions that delayed release of the 52 Vice President George Bush, the
American hostages until after Jim- new president of the Senate, sen-
Spokesmen at both the White
free.Afterall -weAmericans." my Carter was out of office.
Behind the banner er some of the House and the State Department And they publicly urged the Rea- Sen. Helms is blocking Carlucci's
er'h stn es - now referred to held out the option,of repudiating an administration to honor terms nomination, A-3.
or o
g
Mental, amities Told
By Maureen Dowd.
washingtou Star staff writers
t tagesyesterday told ofphysical and
psychological abuse at the hands of
their Iranian captors.'
Life'as`a hostage was not full of
the "luxury hotels,,and:medicalspe
cialists-that jranian officials
bragged aboutor the cordial guards
and overflowing'6owlsof fruit like
those seen in the Christmas. films,
transatlantic telephone cans from
West, Ge'rmalay to relatives and
friends; in the Uttited.States.
It was full 'of nhvsical.abuse and
Instead` 4 no ej$ there, were
' SAVAKK (former.' ran n secret po-
'`lIce) {prisons and isolation cells in
,dame asements that prisoners nick-
named "Nfushirod`m Inns."
Russian roulette with female, hos-
tages, held mock executions and
conducted midnight raids, wearing
white masks and fatigues and carry-
ing automatic rifles.
At'the US. Air Force hospital in
Wiesbaden, WeSt Germany, Freder-
ick"Rick" Kupke savored the feeling
of slipping between crisp white
sheets for the first time in 14 months
and remembered his bard cot in an
Iranian prison.
Kupke, 34, a communications spe-
cialist, is one of the 52 former hos-
tages who are recuperating from
their long Iranian ordeal at the Air
Force hospital in Wiesbaden.
"Rick had it real bad, but he's so
proud to be free that he says he's
feeling no pain now," said his father,
Arthur Kupke of Francesville, Ind.,
who talked with his son three times
yesterday in a transatlantic reunion.
Other former hostages found dif-
ferent pleasures. After a diet of
beans and rice in captivity, Bert
Moore delighted in ordering out for
an ice cold beer. And for Jimmy
Lopez, who had been forced to sleep
in a closet for several months, happi-
ness was a haircut and shave.
Keeping the phone lines buzzing
all through the night and all day
yesterday, the hostages-turned-
heroes were bright and cheery with
their relatives, chatting mostly
about the,euphoria of freedom and
the family milestones they had
missed.
But the slick surface of the chit.
See HOSTAGES, A-7
g one or more elements of the
as "returnees" - stood in sub. of the agreement with Iran. FBI unable to corroborate charges
freezing weather to greet Carter agreement hammered out by U.S. On the flight here, where Carter against Donovan, A-3.
with waves and, in the case.of one negotiators in the closing hours of held an emotional meeting with the
Marine braving the night air in a the Carter administration. released hostages, former U.S. offi- ators on both sides of the aisle were
T-shirt, a sharp salute. Privately, officials of the new ad- cials traveling with him described warning they would keep their in-
After a briefing from hospital of- ministration said it was unlikely - the last agonizing hours of the hos- dependence and exert pressure on
ficials, Carter went to a meeting that President Reagan would abro- tage negotiations. the White House when they felt it
See CARTER, A-7 See PRESIDENT, A-i See CARTER, A-8 . necessary.
M' 1. L
d Robert r
r
S
e
enate tnor y a e
Byrd of West Virginia, who voted
against the nomination, complained
See GEN. HAIG, A-6
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 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R00210045 0054.7
:Hostages,
Describe -
Dark, Side
Continued From A-i
The militants lied constantly,
their captives soon learned, telling
the hostages irinuiperable tall. tales
about their families and about why
the Great Satan,"=as they dubbed
America, was letting them languish
in.Iran.
~ r...:x
After a few months, the hostages
furniture to frozen meat.
Most of us lost everything,' Rich.
and H. Morefield, consul general at
the embassy, told his wife ln San
Diego. "I walked out with my wed.
ding ring, and t had to fight for that."
chat soon began to chip away, show.
log the pain and shock beneath.
Those guards were psychotic,"
one hostage, his voice edged with
bitterness, confided in his brother.
- e " ey'.wdre SOBs said. Col.
Lelan lland, who told his 79-year-
old mother Clara he had spent a
month in a "dungeon.-
A State Department spokesman
put it slightly more diplomatically
yesterday, accusing the militahts of
"serious mistreatment" of some of
the Americans.
The "students" stole the hostages'
personal effects and raided Hol-
land's house in Tehran, taking
everything they could carry, from
were sa confused by a eal's cradle 1 '
of lies and propoganda list they
"ended up beligvlingntrthingg," p..ooliti-
cal officer. Michael J. Metrinko; 34,
of Olyphant, Pa., told his brother,
Peter, who lives in Arlington.
Each prisoner was treated differ-
ently, according to their relative im-
portance in. the embassy; their
alleged spying activities and their
comportment.
Marine Sgt. Johnny McKeel Jr.
told his parents in Balch Springs,
Texas, that he had assumed until
yesterday that his mother was dead,
something interrogators had told
him in a vain effort to extract in-
formation.
When the Marine gave only his
name, rank and serial number, a
guard knocked out one of his teeth.
Another hostage, 49-year-old Mal-
colm Kelp of Fairfax County, told
his brother he was beaten, put in
solitary confinement for months
aild cutoff from any communication
with his family because he tried to
,escape several times.
.They knocked me around a coil
pie of times in the beginning," Rob-
ert 0. Blacker of North Little Rock,
Ark., told his mother Hazel Albin.
"But toward the end, I don't think
they wanted to beat anyone up un-
less they could help it."
Lopez, who lost 50 pounds during
the ordeal, was forced with several
others to sleep In a closet for several
months, and Metrinko, Kupke and
several others spent long solitary
stretches in Jail.
After the first few months, how-
ever, the torture was more mental
than physical.
The guards would bring in the
baskets of mail from families, open
it and hold up snapshots and letters,
and then, before the hostages' bitter
gazes, burn the coveted stacks of
mail from home.
Richard Queen, who was released
after nine months because he con-
tracted multiple sclerosis, yesterday
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 CIA-RDP96-007106 00-6
they were 54 t. line up against
? the wall and were stripped and
searched
 Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450005-6
Queen also described a mock ex-
ecution the hostages were subjected
to when the militants pulled the
triggers of empty guns. -
Another hostage who was released
early, Elizabeth Montague, now an
assistant on. the China desk at the
State Department, talked of "threats
with guns, including an "incident
when the militants played Russian
'roulette-a}1U1 her and another em-
bassy secretary tb' ryttd t informa-
tion,
William Quarles, one.of the'13
hostages released earlier, visited his
former colleagues at the hospital
yesterday afternoon. Quarles said
?
i
tl
oy '
1 that oae of them told him
had been kept separated and were
moved all over the country, some
"mown to differeht parts, :some taken
by car;
- Nearly all of the hostages were
. been. moved out
reported to have
.
of the US. Embassy -compound
shortly after the abortive rescue at-
tempt in April.
Most hostages reported being
blindfolded and moved at least four.
times, .,Rick, Kupke told his,; agtiiy
to communicate with net' codes.
Col. Thomas Schaeffer, a military z
that Jobi Jr., alone in a tell for
nine months, wrote camouflaged let-
ters home. "When he told me he
was working on knotty chess prob.
solitary confinement.-
Bruce Laingen, the charge d'af-
f faires who remained with two other
i_hostages in the relative comfort of
t the Foreign Ministry, was able to
I call home the first few months. De-
o spite the fact that the Iranians mon-
-t itored the line, Laingen and his wife
6 Penne in Bethesda were able to pass
u surreptitious messages - that were
later passed on to to Depart-
u ment - by speaking in
?i -
Washington Star Staff Writers
P Lindsay Gruson, Christopher P. Win-
p ner, Patrice Gaines-Carter and
Diane Brockett also contributed to
p this article.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R002100450005-6