U.S. Says It Won’t Be Cowed by Threats to Beirut Hostages; U.N. Official Freed

The White House declared Thursday that the United States will not be intimidated by the latest terrorist threats against American and other hostages in Lebanon, but the families of the four American hostages complained that the Reagan Administration has not done enough to gain their release.

Meanwhile, the latest kidnaping victim, a U.N. official from Ireland, was released unharmed. And a letter from one of the four American hostages showed that he fears for his life.

Islamic Jihad, one of the organizations suspected of the suicide bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and U.S. Embassy compound in Beirut in 1983, released pictures Wednesday of four Americans and two Frenchmen seized since March, 1984.

An accompanying message threatened them “for the last time” unless 10 members of Islamic Jihad, held in Kuwaiti jails for participating in bombings against U.S. and French diplomatic missions there, are released.

‘Close to Being Hanged’

One of the four American hostages, Father Lawrence M. Jenco, a Catholic priest, wrote to relatives in Joliet, Ill., two weeks ago that the hostages were “very close to being hanged,” according to family members who released the letter Thursday.

The families of the Americans gathered here to voice their complaints about the Administration’s efforts, and 191 members of Congress wrote to President Reagan urging him to redouble his efforts and become “personally involved” in seeking the hostages’ release.

In another development, activist Jesse Jackson said he is prepared to go to Lebanon or Kuwait “if there is any reasonable chance to have an impact or make a difference” in gaining the release of American hostages. Jackson spoke to reporters at a news conference at National Airport, where he greeted the relatives of two hostages.

Jackson, a Chicago civil rights leader and unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination last year, won the release of a U.S. Navy aviator shot down in Lebanon in December, 1983, after a controversial visit to the region.

Jackson to Consult Families

He said he would consult with as many family members as possible in an attempt to fashion a new humanitarian appeal for release of the hostages. But he complained that Secretary of State George P. Shultz has turned aside requests for a meeting over the issue.

Earlier in the day, White House spokesman Larry Speakes said: “We will not allow ourselves to be intimidated by terrorist threats or permit such threats to compromise our fundamental policies and values. We are determined to obtain the release of the kidnaped Americans.

“This is an issue of the highest priority for the Administration. We believe that we are presently following the best-designed course to obtain this result in a quiet, non-public manner.”

Speakes refused to comment directly on charges from the hostages’ families that the Administration has not made contact with the terrorists or asked Kuwait to release the terrorists there. But he later said, “We have not negotiated with terrorists before and that is our policy.”

Would ‘Support Any Effort’

But Robert Oakley, director of the State Department’s counterterrorism office, told reporters after meeting with Jackson and relatives of the hostages at Jackson’s headquarters here: “We didn’t say we weren’t going to deal with them (the terrorists). We said we were not going to be intimidated by them.”

Asked if the government would approve a rescue mission by Jackson to Lebanon or Kuwait, Oakley said: “We’re willing to support any effort. He has had some success in the past, but it doesn’t mean he is going to have success again.”

Jackson welcomed Oakley’s interpretation of Administration policy, saying, “We would hope that’s an indication of more flexibility.”

Family members have met with Shultz and other high Administration officials, according to State Department spokesman Edward P. Djerejian.

“Their concerns are fully taken into account,” he said, “and we have explained to the best of our ability what we are trying to do to secure the safe release of all the hostages.”

Irish U.N. Official Freed

The released Irishman, Aidan Walsh, 49, deputy director of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, was kidnaped Wednesday in Muslim West Beirut hours after the Islamic Jihad terrorists sent the photographs of the six other hostages to a Beirut newspaper.

Patrick O’Connor, Ireland’s deputy permanent U.N. representative, said Walsh was dropped off by car somewhere in Beirut.

“He was released safe and well and was not ill-treated,” O’Connor said after speaking with Jeremy Craig, the Irish ambassador in Beirut.

It was not immediately known which of the many terrorist groups operating in Beirut had kidnaped Walsh.

In addition to Jenco, the American hostages are U.S. Embassy political officer William Buckley, Presbyterian minister Benjamin Weir and Associated Press reporter Terry A. Anderson. The two others are French diplomats Marcel Fontaine and Marcel Carton.