Reagan Could Have Us Freed, Hostage Writes

The family of David P. Jacobsen of Huntington Beach, the hospital director kidnaped in Beirut six months ago, Thursday received a letter from Jacobsen in which he said he and the other hostages were no longer kept “in chains” and said President Reagan has the power to negotiate their safe release “immediately.”

In the handwritten letter, dated Nov. 8 and scribbled haphazardly on three small sheets of white paper, Jacobsen, 54, also told his family, “I shall survive.”

The letter of about 1,000 words was one of nine messages delivered by the Americans’ captors last week to the Beirut office of the Associated Press. One of the letters, signed by all the hostages and addressed to President Reagan, was released to the media at the same time.

‘My Situation Is Difficult’

This was the first communication from Jacobsen that the family has made public. It was addressed to Jacobsen’s sons, Eric and Paul, daughter Diane and his sons’ wives. The family made the letter available to The Times Thursday night.

“There is so much to say and so little time to say it. You are constantly in my thoughts and my prayers. Trust in the Lord, we will be together soon. My situation is difficult, but you know of my strength and determination and I shall survive,” Jacobsen told his family.

Eric Jacobsen, in an interview at his Huntington Beach apartment Thursday night, said the letter “was definitely” written by his father.

“I don’t think it appears dictated, like someone told him what to write. It is definitely his handwriting. It really seems to reflect his 4way of thinking,” the son said.

The elder Jacobsen told his family he was being held in a small room with three other Americans--Father Lawrence Jenco, head of Catholic relief services in Beirut, AP correspondent Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland, dean of American University’s agricultural school in Beirut. Jacobsen said in the letter that the four hostages no longer were kept “in chains” and had time to pray together twice a day.

This was the first indication the hostages might have been held in chains, although the letter did not elaborate.

Jacobsen, the director of the American University Hospital in Beirut, was kidnaped as he walked to work last May 28. The group Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) originally claimed responsibility for his abduction but later denied it.

In the letter to his family, Jacobsen criticized Reagan for not negotiating with the captors of the four Americans for their release.

“The release of the four of us is within the power of President Reagan and can be accomplished immediately (which he underlined for emphasis),” Jacobsen wrote. “Our captors want to talk, but my government apparently refuses.”

Cites TWA Negotiations

Jacobsen also told his family that if Reagan could negotiate for the safe release of the American passengers aboard a TWA plane in Athens and taken to Beirut, the President could have done the same for him and the other three Americans held in Beirut.

“If President Reagan could authorize negotiations for the TWA hostages, why not for us? America and Russia exchange spies (criminals) all the time. Why can’t we be exchanged?” he asked.

In his letter, Jacobsen also said that William Buckley, another American kidnaped in Beirut, was “presumed dead.”

The letter was the second communication the family has received from Jacobsen. A letter dated Sept. 14 was mailed to them from the Rev. Benjamin Wier, who was released by his captors in Beirut two months ago. But Eric Jacobsen said that letter “did not contain much detail. It seemed like he did not have time to compose his thoughts.”

The family did not make the contents of that letter public.

Added a Postscript

The letter received by the family Thursday apparently was written by Jacobsen the morning of Nov. 8. He included what he titled “Postscript, 1 p.m.” and told his children “I cry for the hurt that the false report has given all of you.”

Apparently, Jacobsen was referring to an anonymous announcement made in Beirut almost two weeks ago that all the hostages had been executed.

Jacobsen ended the letter with: “Please keep the faith. I shall survive! All my love, Dad,” followed by his signature.

Eric Jacobsen said the family was praying that Terry Waite, a representative of the Archbishop of Canterbury engaging in secret negotiations with the Americans’ captors, would succeed in freeing the four kidnaped victims.

“This is the most optimistic sign that we’ve had. The envoy at least has made contact. And it does give us cause for excitement,” the younger Jacobsen said. “But he is not a representative of the U.S. government, and the U.S. government knows as little of what he’s doing as we do.”

Jacobsen spent Thursday evening sharing the letter with his brother and sister, and also calling other relatives to read it to them. He said the family would be anxious the next several days for good news that their father would be released unharmed.

“I have a lot of hope. But I still believe that it (a release) will happen when I least expect it,” he said.