Terrorists Will Be Held Accountable--Reagan

President Reagan met today with some Midwest families of American hostages in Lebanon and told a cheering crowd minutes later that terrorists and those who support them “must and will be held to account.”

Opening a tax reform speech in this industrial suburb south of Chicago, Reagan spoke of “the outrage of international terrorism. When terrorism strikes, civilization itself is under attack,” he said.

“No nation is immune. There’s no safety in silence or neutrality. If we permit terrorism to succeed anywhere, it will spread like a cancer eating away at civilized society and sowing fear and chaos.

“This barbarism is abhorrent and all those who support and encourage and profit by it are abhorrent. They are barbarians.”

Meeting With Families

Before his speech, Reagan met privately for 33 minutes with the families of nine hostages from TWA Flight 847 and the relatives of Father Laurence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest kidnaped in January. Among the 29 who met Reagan were six people who had been aboard TWA Flight 847 and later released.

“We’re doing everything we can to secure the safe and early return of those being held,” he was quoted by White House aides as saying at the meeting. “We’re constantly looking for ways to do more. We’re praying every day.”

No photographs of the session were allowed.

Earlier, at a meeting with community leaders, Reagan rejected criticism of U.S. attempts to free seven previously kidnaped Americans along with the 39 remaining TWA hostages in Beirut.

‘A Terrible Mistake’

Lebanese Shia leader Nabih Berri had said it was “a terrible mistake” to link the hostages with those kidnaped.

“I don’t think that anything that attempts to get people back who have been kidnaped by thugs, murderers and barbarians is wrong to do,” Reagan said. “We are going to do everything we can to get all Americans back that are held in that way.”

Reagan was having lunch with community leaders in Chicago Heights, trying to munch some spaghetti when reporters questioned him on the hostage crisis. At one point he asked Illinois Gov. James R. Thompson, seated near him, if he could talk with his mouth full.

Reagan said, “No, we won’t” make a deal for the hostages’ return and he would not speculate on developments.

‘Never Talk of No-Hitter’

“You know I am superstitious. I never talk about a no-hitter,” he said, referring to the sportscasters’ taboo against mentioning a no-hit baseball game in progress.

Asked about another Berri remark that Americans should “raise hell” so that Israel would release the more than 700 Lebanese prisoners as a price for the hostages’ return, Reagan said, “I only know that none of us, any country, can afford to pay off the crimes of terrorism.”