Ex-Hostage Jacobsen Calls New Victims in Beirut ‘Foolish’
A former hostage in Lebanon said the three Americans and an Indian holding U.S. residency who were captured Saturday were foolish for being in Beirut.
“I’m in a state of shock,” said David P. Jacobsen, who was freed Nov. 2 after 17 months in captivity. “I thought that all of the Americans in West Beirut were out and the news came to me like a bolt out of the blue.”
Jacobsen, 55, interviewed in his home in Huntington Beach, Calif., said the victims should not have been in Lebanon. “It was foolish on their part at this time with all the kidnapings that are going on,” he said.
Jacobsen was the administrator of the American University Hospital in Beirut at the time of his kidnaping on May 28, 1985.
The Rev. Benjamin Weir, who was also a hostage in Beirut, said it is hard to predict how Saturday’s abductions will affect negotiations to free other American hostages there.
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