American Kidnaped in Lebanon : Vermont Man Kidnaped by Beirut Muslims

Another American was reported kidnaped today by an underground group that charged he worked for the CIA and Mossad, the Israeli secret service, bringing to six the number of Americans missing in Lebanon.

The United States denied the charges and demanded his release.

The Revolutionary Justice Organization, a group believed made up of Shia Muslims loyal to Iran, said it abducted Edward Austin Tracy, 55, of Vermont, known in Beirut as “the Koran salesman” for selling the Islamic bible.

The same group claims to hold one of the previous American kidnap victims.

The group made its claim in a note delivered to a Western news agency. The statement was accompanied by a photograph of Tracy and a photocopy of his passport.

The underground group did not say when or where Tracy was abducted.

The white-haired Tracy has said he wrote illustrated children’s books, although his mother said she did not think he had ever sold any.

Few Remain

Tracy was one of the fewer than a dozen Americans who remained in West Beirut after the latest exodus of foreigners in April that was prompted by a series of politically motivated kidnapings.

Tracy’s mother, Doris, 78, said in South Burlington, Vt., that her son has lived abroad all his adult life. She said she had not seen him for more than 20 years, “and I didn’t hear from him for about 10 years, but then he began writing to me about a year ago.”

She said she had been worried about her son being in Beirut, “and the fact that I don’t know what he’s doing. He never says what he’s doing.”

She said her son was married to a woman from West Germany, Ingeberg Tracy, but they divorced in 1974. He has three children, Lawrence, 24; Margaret Ann, 23, and Monica, 15, who live with their mother in Tenerife, in the Canary Islands.

A U.S. Embassy official said Tracy had been living in West Beirut for a long time.

“But we have not heard of him lately. This guy had not had any contact with the embassy in recent months,” the official said.

Convert to Islam

Tracy often was seen sitting in sidewalk cafes in West Beirut’s Hamra commercial thoroughfare. Lebanese waiters who know him said they had not seen him in two months.

He is a convert to Islam who speaks some Arabic and frequently visited U.S. news agency offices in Beirut to seek help in marketing his books. Sometimes he carried copies of the Bible and the Koran, which he said were for sale.

One journalist said Tracy stood out in a crowd. “I’ve seen him walking around (West) Beirut many times and wondered when someone would pick him up,” he said.