3 U.S. Hostages in Beirut Alive, 1 Says on Tape

William Buckley, an American diplomat kidnaped in Beirut last March, appeared alive and well Monday in a videotape filmed just a week ago and said two other American hostages in Lebanon were also safe.

“Today, the 22nd of January, 1985, I am well, and my friends Benjamin Weir and Jeremy Levin are also well. We ask that our government take action for our release quickly,” Buckley said in the tape, acquired by Visnews, an international news film agency, and released Monday.

The 56-second tape was the first proof that Buckley, a political officer at the U.S. Embassy, survived his kidnaping in Beirut last March 16.

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Weir, 60, a Presbyterian minister, was kidnaped by gunmen last May 8, and Levin, 52, Beirut bureau chief of the Cable News Network, has been missing since last March 7 and was presumed to have been abducted.

There was no word about two other Americans kidnaped recently in Lebanon--Father Lawrence Jenco, head of the Catholic Relief Services office in Beirut, who was seen being kidnaped Jan. 8, and Peter Kilburn, 60, a librarian at the American University of Beirut who failed to report for work last Dec. 3.

The identity of the kidnapers is unknown. In recent weeks, Western journalists in Beirut have received calls saying that American hostages were being held by Islamic Jihad, a shadowy terrorist group whose members are believed to be loyal to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of Iran.

Islamic Jihad, whose name means Islamic Holy War, has claimed responsibility for a series of terrorist attacks on U.S., French and Kuwaiti targets in the Middle East in recent years, including the Oct. 23, 1983, suicide truck-bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut that killed 241 American servicemen.

In the London videotape, Buckley, whose hometown is Medford, Mass., was wearing a brown jacket. He looked pale but healthy and well-groomed. His mustache was neatly trimmed, and his fingernails were clean.

The tape, amateurishly shot, showed Buckley, 56, reading a Beirut newspaper published on Jan. 22, but the background gave no clues about where he was held.

President Reagan expressed relief at the news that the missing Americans were safe. Until Monday, Washington had not been able to establish “one way or another” whether Buckley and the other hostages were alive, Reagan said.

“We’ve just had to assume that they are alive,” he told reporters. “Believe me, this is very much on our minds. We haven’t forgotten they’re in captivity, but I don’t think it would be productive for us to talk about what we’re doing.”

In London, Visnews Managing Editor Kevin Hamilton said the agency could not disclose how it obtained the tape.

“We can’t say anything, obviously, about where the film came from except to say it was definitely not made by one of our crews. It is not a professionally made film at all,” he said.

No letter and no demands accompanied the film, Hamilton said, stressing that the agency was not in touch with the kidnapers.

“We do not see ourselves as intermediaries or negotiators,” he said. “We simply have the video.”

The five Americans all disappeared since last February, when Druze and Shia Muslim militias took over the largely Muslim western sector of Beirut. There was speculation in the Lebanese capital that all or some of them were held by Shia extremists.

Months ago, anonymous callers saying they represented Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for abducting Buckley, Levin and Weir.

After Kilburn and Jenco had been abducted, two more calls were received by news agencies in Beirut. In one, a caller claiming to represent Islamic Jihad said the captives would be released only if all Americans left Lebanon.

In another, a caller said the five captives would be tried as CIA agents.

There was no way to authenticate the calls.

In Washington, Cable News Network reported Monday that U.S. officials saw another videotape last summer that showed Levin and two others presumed to be captives in Beirut but that the Administration urged that the matter be kept quiet at the time.

Department spokesman Bernard Kalb, however, refused to comment on the CNN report.