Text of Beirut Hostage’s Videotaped Message

Here are excerpts from a videotaped message from David P. Jacobsen, one of three American hostages still held by terrorists in Beirut, Lebanon. The tape was carried to Damascus on Saturday by a freed captive, Father Lawrence M. Jenco.

This video has been recorded on the 25th day of July, 1986. I am David Jacobsen, the hospital director of the American University Medical Center. At least I was until Tuesday, May 28, 1985, on which day I was taken a political hostage. . . .

I want to send my love and my greetings and my best wishes to my family, my lady and to the families of Father Martin Jenco, Terry Anderson and Tom Sutherland.

To our families and friends: I want you to know that we are alive, that we are reasonably well, that we are provided with the basic necessities of life, that we remain faithful to God, to our moral and ethical principles, and we are determined to be free again. . . .

We know of the very great efforts that you . . . have made to secure our release. Please continue your efforts and redouble these efforts. Don’t let our government forget us . . . .

My captors have told me that Father Jenco, like the good Rev. Benjamin Weir, was released as a sign of good faith, but that the American government did not reciprocate when Ben Weir was released, and I pray that they will do so now.

My captors tell me that this is the very last sign of their good will, and that our release will be by death if the government doesn’t negotiate right now. . . .

To date, the American government has refused to negotiate. . .in any way.

William Buckley would be alive today if negotiations had been conducted. Several golden opportunities have been missed by the American government . . . .

There are days when I believe that the government really doesn’t care about me and that we’ve been totally abandoned.

It seems to me that my government, or least my President, might be a prisoner of an absurd subservience to the political principle position of “we will not negotiate with terrorists.”

Just remember that one person’s terrorist may actually be someone else’s freedom fighter. . . . We are no closer to release than the day we were kidnaped. So much for the effectiveness of quiet diplomacy.

Maybe it is true that our government has been less than candid and perhaps even lied to our families. I pray to God this is not so.

. . . Please forgive me if I give the impression that I feel I’m one of Gen. Custer’s men. Or one of the men at the Alamo waiting for help to arrive. You know the end of their stories. Pray that ours will be happier. And you know, perhaps there’s something you can do that will help us be released.

I am very tired and I’m frustrated and to tell you the truth, I’m very angry. Why won’t the government negotiate for our release? They have negotiated for other Americans, why not us?

It took them 440 days to secure the freedom of the Iranian Embassy hostages. It took them about three weeks to free the TWA passenger hostages. Negotiations in both cases. Our government even negotiates to free citizens of Russia and South Africa, so why not us?

We already have lost our man, William Buckley. May he rest in peace. . . .

What are the conditions for our release? I don’t know. But Father Martin has been given the instructions to be relayed to the American government.

I ask our government to listen to Father Martin. I ask the American public to listen to Father Martin. He speaks the truth. He is an honorable man of God.

It is now time that the American Congress perhaps exercised its responsibility to serve as the watchdog of the Administration. I am asking that they investigate the handling of this, my hostage crisis. . . .

I ask my family, my friends, the American public and congressmen to join me in this request.

I ask also that the American public contact the White House and ask the President and the State Department to negotiate for our release. . . .