Newsman Flies to Germany to See Wife

Jeremy Levin, the kidnaped American television correspondent who escaped from his chains after 11 months in captivity, flew here today for an emotional reunion with his wife.

Levin took a chartered flight from Damascus, Syria, to the U.S. Rhein-Main Air Force Base near Frankfurt. His family, flown there by a White House jet, awaited his arrival.

Early in the day, Levin had been turned over to U.S. Ambassador William Eagleton by Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Sharaa in Damascus.

Before leaving Damascus, Levin told reporters that he discovered late Wednesday night that his captors had been “careless with the chains.” He worked free, tied three blankets together and lowered himself through a window of the apartment building that had been his prison in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

Hid From Soldiers

Levin, 52, said he walked for two hours through the Bekaa, which is occupied by the Syrian army, and ran into a patrol near the ancient city of Baalbek. He said he hid from the soldiers at first, thinking they might be kidnapers trying to recapture him, then revealed himself and pleaded for help.

Levin said he could not identify his captors. The shadowy extremist group Islamic Holy War claimed responsibility for the abduction.

In an interview today with CNN, Levin said, “I was treated miserably. . . . They could have been 100% better to me and I still would have been treated miserably.

“The first six months they didn’t beat me, but they would hit me around, swat me around, slap me, pound my back, pound my shoulders. . . . “ He said the object was to teach him obedience, “and obedience for them was, ‘Don’t ever look at our faces or we’ll kill you, don’t ever look out the window or we’ll kill you, don’t even stand up or we’ll kill you.’ ”