Kidnaped Journalist Arrives in Germany for Family Reunion

Jeremy Levin, the American journalist held hostage in Lebanon for 11 months, arrived here late Friday night and held an emotional reunion with his wife and children.

“Fantastic, just fantastic!” Levin shouted as he left an executive jet chartered by Cable News Network at Rhein-Main Air Base.

Levin, 52, was Beirut bureau chief for CNN when he was kidnaped from a street in West Beirut last March 7. He was turned over to U.S. custody in Damascus, Syria, earlier Friday after fleeing his kidnapers in Lebanon on Wednesday.

Embraces and Kisses

There was applause when he stepped from the plane on a cold, clear night. Then he embraced and kissed his wife, Lucille, daughter Clare and son Clarence, and exchanged hugs with his brother-in-law, Francis Hare.

Levin, waving and smiling broadly, looked healthy and rested as he got into one of four waiting Mercedes-Benz sedans for the 20-mile trip to a U.S. Air Force hospital in Wiesbaden.

U.S. Embassy spokesman Robert Heath said Levin would undergo “routine medical checks,” and it was not immediately known when he would return to the United States.

Describing his flight from abduction as a “cliche,” Levin told reporters in Damascus that he discovered late Wednesday night that his captors had been “careless with the chains” and he worked himself free. He said that tied three blankets together and lowered himself through a window of the two-story apartment building that had been his prison in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley.

“It was a starry night. I ran fast, as fast as I could down the hill where the house was located,” Levin said.

“One hundred dogs were barking and my heart was in my mouth. I was afraid they would find out I had escaped,” he added.

Hid From Syrian Troops

Dressed in pajamas, Levin said he walked for two hours through the Bekaa, which is controlled by the occupying Syrian army, and ran into a patrol near Baalbek. He said at first he hid from the soldiers, thinking that they might be the kidnapers. Then he decided to plead for their help.

Levin said he could not identify his kidnapers. Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War), a shadowy extremist group linked to Iran, has claimed responsibility for the abduction.

“I’ve been in solitary confinement for the whole time chained to the wall or a radiator. . . . The faces of the Syrian soldiers were the first faces I saw since March 7 of last year. They were good faces,” Levin said.

In a separate interview Friday with Cable News Network, Levin said, “I was treated miserably . . . . They could have been 100% better to me and I still would have been treated miserably.”

Obedience Lessons

He said the object of such treatment 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.”

On Friday morning Syrian officials turned Levin over to U.S. Ambassador William Eagleton at the Foreign Ministry in Damascus. Levin left Syria two hours later for Frankfurt and the reunion with his family.

When Levin arrived at the Damascus ministry he appeared not to know exactly what was happening. A journalist told him where he was and that he would be turned over to the American ambassador.

“That is fantastic,” Levin responded, in tears. “The Orwellian year 1984 was not a very good one for me, but 1985 is starting out a hell of a lot better.”

“Lucille, where is Lucille?” he said in a loud voice.

When told his wife was waiting for him in Frankfurt, he gasped and responded: “I can’t wait to see her. Please tell her I missed her very much and I love her so deeply.”