LOOKING BACK AT THE ANGER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100260003-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 21, 2011
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 7, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sl Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/21 :CIA-
ARTICLE D
ON PAGE ~
WF_SHINGTON POST
7 October 1985
Looking Back at the
Anger
By Mary Battiata
Washington Poat Staff Writer
CAIRO-He was the hostage spokesman who wouldn't
clam up, but now, seated in a chair by the videocassette
player in his living room, his pajama-clad daughtdr curled
sleepily in his lap, Allyn B. Conwell is as silent as a sphinx.
His even features betray no emotion as his fingers toy
with the buttons of the remote control. Fast forward, re-
verse, play. He might be watching the latest episode of
"Dallas."
The angry voice coming from the video player, however,
belongs to Peter Hill, an ex-hostage of TWA Flight 847 and
one of many, on the plane and off, who found Allyn Conwell
a little hard to take:
"I just couldn't eonceiue of such naivete," Hill is saying to
an interviewer, his eyes wide and watery, his voice choking
with rage, "that a man of this intelligence could be so com-
pletely duped! This man walked off the plane in Damascus
with the goddam Koran under his arm, twirling his prayer
beads! I said, 'Listen, are you going to carry them into the
goddam White House?"'
Conwell straightens his legs, draws on his cigarette and
exhales: "He gets upset, doesn't he?"
~.
Sometimes he calls it the deal; other times it's "the
thing," but only rarely does Conwell refer to his ordeal as
the hijacking. Settled with his family in Cairo now, trans-
ferred by his company from Oman shortly after his release,
he has begun to review the hours of network news coverage
taped by friends, his travelogue of a 17-day journey from
anonymity to a kind of fame and back again.
He reads the English-language Egyptian Gazette for bul-
letins about the remaining American hostages. There are
six now, including U.S. Embassy employe William Buckley,
whose execution was claimed but unconfirmed this past
week. The week also saw the kidnaping of four Soviet cit-
izens, one of whom was executed early last week. Both
groups are being held by fundamentalist Moslem terrorist
factions.
"When I read about them all, I feel I'm still a hostage in
many ways," Conwell syn. "k bothers me, knowing the
fears they must have. When vVe were in Be{rut somebody
. ,asked me if I was prepared for a long siege. I was not
prepared, emotionally or financially. As it goes on, a resig-
nation sets in, you think, `I may never get out.' And then I
guess you begin to accept that you may be doomed."
The tapes bring it all back: TWA pilo~ehn 1~ ng his
leaning out the cockpit window, a gun
temple; the body of murdered Navy diver Robert Stethem
slumped on the tarmac; the bizarre press conferences. Iran
revisited: Yellow ribbons, songs about "chicken Shiites" and,
because these hostages were tourists from Harrisburg, Pa.,
and Norfolk and Algonquin, Ill., a feeling that someone had
declared open season on Americans overseas. Conwell,
thrust by his fellow hostages into the middle of the mess,
quickly and inevitably became part of the story.
"Here it is again, he says, pushing the play button, and in
the Conwell family room on Lebanon Street, as the air con-
ditioner hums and his Greek-born wife Olga clears the plat-
ters of fried chicken and green sal-
ad from the table, the hijacking
home movie rolls:
Scene 1, Conwell at the Beirut
press conference beseeching the
president: "A rescue operation
would only causer in our estimation,
additional unneeded and unwanted
deaths among innocent people."
Cut to Conwell interviewed by
ABC in Beirut: "We find that many
in our group have a profound sym-
pathy for the cause, for the reasons
the Amal people have for saying,
'Israel, free my people.' "
Conwell expressing "genuine af-
fection" for his Amal militia captors
and saying there was "absolute par-
ity" between Lebanese detainees in
Israel's Atlit prison (the last of
whom have been released) and the
hostages.
Conwell, before leaving Beirut,
urging Americans to keep their yel-
low ribbons up until Israel has re-
leased a11735 Lebanese.
And last, Conwell at Andrews Air
Force base, silent, as the hostages'
statement is read by Testrake be-
cause Conwell, by various accounts,
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~?
was asked or volunteered to step
down as hostage spokesman be-
cause of "concern" about some of
his statements.
~~ Concern is a polite way of de-
scribing the wrath that Conwell
provoked. Like a lightning rod, he
drew the public's. outrage and the
ire of armchair quarterbacks.
"An energetic collaborator,"
wrote George Will, "... a tnega-
-phone for the terrorists and a tutor
to the world on the fine points of
Israel's failings under international
law."
"Anchor of the terrorism show,"
wrote Charles Krauthammer after
Conwell was quoted as being "dis-
tressed" at the president's efforts
to link the release of the TWA hos-
tages with the other Americans
held in Beirut. "In similar circum-
stances, any of us might step over
. the body of another American to
climb out of our prison.. But is it
-1~ieroism?"
' Even George Bush, Conwell says,
was quoted as saying he had "grave
concern" about some hostage state-
ments. (A Bush spokesman says the
vice president qualified the remark
to say that no one could know the
strain under which the hostages had
'-been placed.)
He says he asked to see the other
American hostages during his own
captivity, but says the Ama! mili-
tiamen refused, insisting they had
no leverage with the fundamentalist
Islamic Jihad. The Jihad began kid-
naping Americans as much as 16
months ago to force the release of
f''7 Shiites jailed in Kuwait for
bombings there.
He didn't realize he'd offended
an one until he met with: CIA, and
State a artment o tcta s a e
os tta m tes a en, est er-
many: ey to me to eep my
mou s u e em crud y me
an ust a e c mto t o i e
st.
ambassador Oakley [Robert B.
Oakley, director of the Office of
Combating Terrorism at the State
Department) took me aside and
said, 'Son, this is going to happen
and you'd better shut your mouth
or it's going to get worse.' I was not
in a patient mood at the time, I re-
ally had just about run out of pa-
tience, but I probably would have
had a tendency to do that if I hadn't
received as much slander as I did.
"I had people imply that I make
my living selling things in the Mid-
dle East and that's why I said what I
did, which is hogwash. So I thought
about it ... and I decided the hell
with it. [decided the time I have,
I'll just tell the truth, and if people
like it great, if they don't like it
that's pretty tough, but it's the only
thing I can do, the only thing I will
do. If I get beat up, shot or tarred
and feathered, or if somebody beats
me a halo out of brass, so be it."
He felt martyred, and was so
moved by a gift from a Houston
television station-a gauzy video-
tape of scenes from the hijacking,
the funeral of slain Navy diver Rob-
ert Stethem, the homecoming-
that he "cried like a baby.
"It was tears of appreciation that
somebody realized I'm not a traitor.
,I'd begun to feel that there were
some pretty big guns out shooting
for Allytt Conwell. I felt almost like
a matt without a country for a few
days there when I first got back and
heard the things that were being
said. People said there was a vote
nn the airplane and the hostages
didn't want me as their spokesman.
That's a lie, and it distresses me.
"It still .distresses me for anyone
to even .' ~ imply that I'm un-
American, because I'm not. I'm
more American than almost anyone
else I know."
Lebanon's civil war was the last
thing on his mind as he boarded
TWA Flight 84? in Athens early
June 14, and for all he knew then,
Hezbollah, the name of the radical
Shiite Moslem group responsible
for the initial hijacking, was the
name of a board game. He'd been
up "partying and drinking" at the
Athens Hilton with friends the night
before and he was tired and eager
to rejoin his wife and children. He
found his seat quickly and fell
asleep.
"When I woke up, everyone had
their hands in the air and I leaned
over and asked the guy next to me
,.
what was going on. He spent much
of the next four days on the plane
with his head between his knees,
trying to breathe in the stifling
heat, passing in and out of con-
sciousness, the latter being prefer-
able because it made the time pass.
He was seated toward the back of
the plane when the hijackers mur-
dered Robert Stethem toward the
front. He says he didn't realize
there'd been an execution until the
next day. "I felt remorse for Robby,
and dread and great fear. They [the
hijackers] said their plan was to kill
us one by one, and I assumed that
to be true."
His fellow hostages tapped him as
spokesman in the first few days,
after he argued against a request
from a Lebanese television station
for individual interviews. He and
several other hostages say they
were angry then and remain angry
now at what they saw as the "hang-
tough" attitude of the U.S. and Is-
raeli governments:
"When we were sitting in Beirut
wondering what our fate would be,
we could see a total stalemate," he
says. "The Israelis were sitting
back and saying, this is not our deal,
and the U.S. was clearly stating
they were not going to negotiate
with terrorists. I'm convinced the
Amal had nothing to do with [the hi-
jacking), but the president was in
essence calling them terrorists and
so for a while there they had no one
to negotiate with."
The television coverage swung
the crisis, he says. "Hell, let's face
it, we as hostages did capitalize on
the media ... had there been a
news blackout I'm convinced we'd
still be sitting there or very much
dead. We made a conscious decision
to appeal to the American people so
Israel would say, 'Well, we're
screwing up ...' "
He wasn't the only hostage to ex-
press sympathy for the Shute Mos-
lems, but he continues to be the
most audible, just as he continues to
condemn the original hijackers.
"I said on television in Beirut and
I will say tomorrow that those men
..the thieves, murderers or bar-
barians who hijacked the plane,.
Hezbollah or whatever they are,
have to be caught, prosecuted aed
punished, in that order. There waa
never anll doubt in my mind about
that.
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d .
"What created the confusion was
my saying, yes I did have sympathy
for the Lebanese people, because
my God, they were in the same sit-
uation that our families were in
back in the States, members of
their families held illegally in a for-
eign country.
"You go through a whole range of
emotions that were foreign to me. I
understand now, and if someone
stole my family, and took .them to
Israel, or Washington or Mexico, I'd
take on God himself to get them
back."
The Koran Conwell carried off
the plane was a gift from his Amal
guards. About half the hostages re-
ceived them. I appreciated it, it
was a nice thought. And I carried it
with me because it was one of the
very few possessions I had at the
time."
Didn't he know carrying that
book would be like waving a red flag
at those who thought he'd been too
cooperative in Beirut? "No;' he
says, sounding puzzled, "no, not at
all. It never crossed my mind."
The only time he seems bitter is
when he tacks about how the White
House treated him on the way
home: "There was a little guy from
the White House, I can't remember
his name, but he said, 'If Conwell
has to talk, there will be no
speech.' "
It was the State Department's
Oakley, he says, who suggested
Testrake as the new spokesman.
Conwell says he went along on the
condition that it be understood he
had voluntarily stepped aside, and
says he is convinced that reports
he'd been ousted by the hostages
came from the White House.
The White House and Oakley
have no eomment, but several of
the hostages say there was no note
and no discussion of replacing Con-
well.
Was he taken in by the. Amal? "I
don't think I bought their line,' he
says. "I've stated on several occa-
sions I'm very convinced they were
capitalizing on the situation, obvi-
ously they were, and I really can't
blame them for that. I think after
the situation developed they prob-
ably did do the right thing for them-
selves and for their cause. They
certainly did get the message
across that they are part of the con-
flict in Lebanon and whether that's
good or bad [really don't know or
care."
The hijacking and the days of
captivity have receded from his
thoughts. When pressed he can re-
call the awful smell in the hostage
apartment after days with a broken
commode. He remembers Lebanese
women in the building next door
throwing flowers to the Americans,
and the young Amal guards who
wanted to know which hostages
were single. "I don't blame them,"
Conwell says. "If I had a sister in
Lebanon, I'd want to get her out of
there, too."
He never dreams about Beirut; in
fact, he can't remember having any
dreams since his release. Other
thoughts intrude: "Before it seems
like [was spending a hell of a lot of
time consumed only with my work,
trying to make money, get ahead,
be a success, all the things that can
almost become an obsession. I still
want those things, but I'm not will-
ing to sacrifice my marriage or my
family:'
And one other thing:
There was only one thing about
it that I guess I could say I enjoyed.
In a crisis people tend to gravitate
to people of their own level, and for
a few days I tended to gravitate to-
ward Father [James W.j McLau-
ghlin, and he became close to me.
We never discussed it, but I felt a
very strong need and love for that
man that you normally don't find
.. I loved him because when I felt
like crying, like panicking, and
when I felt terrified, he was there,
very serene and at peace, and we
could talk and I could tell him that I
felt like crying. There was nothing
hidden, no hidden emotions, and
you can't do that when you're out in
civilization, in business. Most peo-
ple find that very difficult to do with
spouses or children. I don't know
where else you can find that."
He has not tried to contact any of
the other hostages.
"I would like to see some of the
people again,' he says slowly, his
voice dropping until he can barely
be heard at all. "When our release
was imminent, well, people have a
tendency to go around happy, in-
cluding myself, and shake hands and
say 'Golly, I want to see you again.'
I intentionally fought that impulse
because I realized it was created
falsely, and perhaps I've been more
inhibited about contacting people I
do think a tremendous amount of.
"t guess I think friendships do
treed to be built on something more
than common hostage background.
My close friendships are very, very
few in number. Very few people re-
ally know Allyn Conwell. Including
Allyn Conwell."
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