Waite Travels to Beirut, Reports Progress in Effort to Free U.S. Hostages

After a surprise visit to Beirut, Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite flew here Friday night by U.S. military helicopter where he reported progress in efforts to free the American hostages.

Two Christian radio stations in the Lebanese capital said a hostage release was in the works, starting with the transfer to Syrian hands of two French captives. The report could not be verified and France said there was no basis for it.

At least six Americans kidnaped in Lebanon still are captives. A seventh missing American has been reported killed.

Has Fingers Crossed

President Reagan, questioned by reporters while campaigning in Washington state, said of the reports: “I’ve got my fingers crossed.” John M. Poindexter, Reagan’s national security adviser, said the Administration had only seen reports that Waite was in Beirut and told reporters, “Be cautious.”

In Washington, the State Department said it had reduced an already scaled-down embassy staff in Beirut for what department spokesman Art Berger called “security reasons.” He refused to say how many people were involved or to elaborate.

Department officials, who also demanded anonymity, said the evacuations were completed Saturday but kept secret in line with a policy of not describing American movements in Lebanon.

Gradual Reduction

An Administration source said the reduction was carried out gradually and was decided on after Britain broke relations with Syria and the United States recalled its ambassador from Syria, the major power broker in Lebanon.

A State Department official said, “Somehow the hostage stories and the embassy reduction stories were intertwined.”

Waite, the special envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Robert A.K. Runcie, made three previous trips to Beirut seeking the hostages’ release.

The special envoy was whisked away in a U.S. Embassy car after landing in Cyprus, reporters and airport officials said.

Expected to Return

An immigration official, who did not give his name, said Waite was expected to return to Lebanon today.

Throughout the more than two years that foreigners have been held hostage in Lebanon, there have been repeated erroneous reports of an impending release. In other cases, some hostages were freed with no advance word.

Earlier Friday, Waite announced his presence in the Lebanese capital in a telephone call to a Western news agency.

“Simply, I’m here,” he said. “Something might happen. Nothing hard yet, but it’s moving.”

But he declined to say where he was or when he arrived in Beirut.

‘Just Keep an Eye’

“I’ve been here quietly,” he said. “It appears to be moving. You keep an eye, just keep an eye. Bye-bye for now.”

Two Lebanese radio stations reported that two French hostages were turned over to Syria’s military intelligence chief in Lebanon, Col. Ghazi Kenaan, at the Bekaa Valley town of Anjar in preparation for their release with the six Americans.

The report could not be confirmed independently.

“Marcel Carton and Marcel Fontaine have been moved to Anjar. They are in Ghazi Kenaan’s custody within the frame of a plan to release them along with six American hostages,” said the Voice of Lebanon, which is anti-Syrian and affiliated with Christian President Amin Gemayel’s rightist Falangist Party.

Carton, 63, the French Embassy protocol officer, and Fontaine, 46, the vice consul, were kidnaped March 22, 1985.

The Voice of Free Lebanon, which speaks for the Lebanese Forces, a Christian militia, carried the same report and attributed it to unidentified “security authorities.”

Voice of Lebanon said without elaboration that the eight were being freed “in return for releasing Georges Ibrahim Abdallah,” a Lebanese Christian jailed in France on terrorism charges.

Reports Discounted

In Paris, a Foreign Ministry official, speaking anonymously in accordance with custom, said the report that the hostages had been turned over to Syrians and were about to be freed was “without foundation.”

A State Department official in Washington, who spoke on condition of anonymity, also was skeptical of the radio reports. “They’ve been very unreliable in the past,” the official said.

Last Sunday, Waite said he thought Britain’s break in diplomatic relations with Syria would make his mission more difficult. Syria has 25,000 soldiers in northern and eastern Lebanon.

Islamic Jihad holds Terry A. Anderson, 39, chief Middle East correspondent for the AP; David P. Jacobsen, 55, of Huntington Beach, Calif., director of the American University Hospital in Beirut; and Thomas Sutherland, 55, the university’s dean of agriculture. All were abducted in 1985.

Three Recently Seized

Three other Americans were seized recently: Frank H. Reed, 53; Joseph J. Cicippio, 56, and Edward A. Tracy, 56.

Reed, manager of a private school, was kidnaped Sept. 9, and a pro-Libyan group called Arab Revolutionary Cells-Omar Moukhtar Forces claimed responsibility.

Cicippio, the American University’s acting controller, was abducted Sept. 12. The Revolutionary Justice Organization said it was responsible, and also said on Oct. 21 that it had kidnaped Tracy, a writer.

Islamic Holy War said in October, 1985, that it had killed William Buckley, 58, the kidnaped political officer at the U.S. Embassy, in retaliation for alleged U.S. complicity in Israel’s air raid on the Tunis headquarters of the Palestine Liberation Organization.

Sources in the Lebanese Shia community and Western intelligence have said Buckley might have died earlier, possibly after being tortured. No body was found.