Death Threat for Hostage Delayed : Appeals to Islamic Captors Gain Reprieve for American Cicippio

A death threat against American hostage Joseph J. Cicippio was suspended for 48 hours Tuesday night in response to “friendly appeals” and an emotional plea by his Lebanese wife, Cicippio’s kidnapers announced in Beirut.

The terrorists holding the 58-year-old university controller, who has been a hostage for nearly three years, had threatened to set an execution date for him if an Israeli-held fundamentalist Muslim leader was not set free by 6 p.m. Tuesday.

On Monday, under the same conditions, another group of kidnapers announced the execution of hostage U.S. Marine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins and released a videotape of what they said was his body hanging from a gallows.

The Israelis refused to release their captive, Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid, in response to the execution threats, and the deadline for Cicippio’s death sentence passed with no immediate word of his fate.

But two hours later his abductors sent a statement to a Lebanese newspaper saying that because of “friendly appeals and sincere calls and because of some special reasons and the plea by Cicippio’s wife, the Revolutionary Justice Organization declares it has postponed the execution deadline for 48 hours.”

“Those concerned should realize that any other attempts to wrest a new postponement will be futile. They should take advantage of this last opportunity to move in the opposite direction,” declared the statement, which was accompanied by an authenticating photograph of Edward A. Tracy, another American hostage held by the same group.

Death threats under identical conditions, telephoned to a Muslim radio station in Beirut and to a news agency, were placed against Terry Waite, 50, the captive envoy of the Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. But no word was received on Waite as the two deadlines passed.

The callers said they represented the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth, the same group that claimed responsibility for the kidnaping and killing of Higgins. But late Tuesday, in a statement sent to a Beirut newspaper, the group denied saying that Waite would be killed.

No group had previously claimed to be holding Waite, and there was no way to authenticate the reported threats against his life.

Israeli Offer Rejected

Earlier, Lebanon’s fundamentalist Hezbollah organization, accused by Western intelligence agencies of comprising various Shiite factions engaged in kidnaping, rejected an Israeli offer to swap Obeid and other captive Shiites for the hostages and a handful of captive Israeli soldiers.

While denying that Hezbollah had any connection with the hostages, a statement released by the pro-Iranian group called the Israeli proposal “a stupid move . . . that deserves only ridicule and disdain.” It concluded, “The only thing acceptable to us is that Sheik Abdel Karim Obeid and his two colleagues be released.”

Obeid and two of his associates were seized by Israeli commandos Friday in a helicopter raid on the village of Jibchit, about 30 miles south of Beirut. Israeli officials say the 36-year-old Muslim clergyman is a key Hezbollah leader in southern Lebanon and has helped plan guerrilla attacks against Israeli positions.

They also said he was instrumental in the abduction of Higgins in February, 1988, outside the southern Lebanese city of Tyre. Higgins was serving with a U.N. truce observer unit.

Marrack Goulding, a key aide to U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar, planned to fly to Beirut today on a mission to investigate the circumstances of Higgins’ death, according to U.N. spokeswoman Nadia Younis.

She said that Goulding, the undersecretary in charge of peacekeeping, will also try to retrieve Higgins’ body. However, the statement and videotape purporting to show Higgins’ hanging, delivered to a Beirut news agency Monday night, made no mention of the Marine officer’s body.

The hanged man appeared to be Higgins, but the date of the videotape was not authenticated and there is no certainty that he died Monday night. Last year there were unconfirmed reports in the Middle East that the 44-year-old decorated Vietnam War veteran had been murdered in retaliation for the shooting down of an Iranian airliner over the Persian Gulf by a U.S. Navy cruiser that mistook the liner for an attacking warplane.

After the release of the tape, the threat against Cicippio, who was acting controller of the American University of Beirut when he was kidnaped in September, 1986, was delivered to a Beirut newspaper.

Spare No Effort

On Tuesday, his wife, Ilham, met reporters in Beirut and delivered an appeal to his captors. “In these fateful minutes,” the distraught woman said, “I appeal to all of you to spare no effort to give him a chance, so he will be able to prove to you that he is innocent of all guilt. I appeal to the whole world. . . . If there’s any one of you who can help, please do it.”

Meanwhile, the governments of Syria and Jordan deplored Higgins’ murder. The Jordanian statement called it “a regrettable and unjustified act,” but it also criticized what it called Israeli “acts of terrorism” in southern Lebanon.

The abduction of Obeid and the apparent killing of Higgins have agitated governments and political groups across the Middle East. Adding to the tense atmosphere, Israeli jets buzzed Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon on Tuesday morning.

Meanwhile, the U.S. aircraft carrier Coral Sea and the cruisers Virginia and San Jacinto broke off a port call to Alexandria, Egypt, a day early Tuesday and headed for what U.S. military spokesmen called routine maneuvers in the Mediterranean.

AMERICANS STILL CAPTIVE

The eight Americans who are believed to remain captives of terrorists in Lebanon: Terry A. Anderson, 41, chief Middle East correspondent of the Associated Press, kidnaped March 16, 1985. A Shiite Muslim group, the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad, claims to hold him.

Thomas Sutherland, 58, Scottish-born acting dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut, kidnaped June 9, 1985. Islamic Jihad claims to hold him.

Frank H. Reed, 58, director of the private Lebanon International School in Beirut, kidnaped Sept. 9, 1986. A pro-Libyan group called Arab Revolutionary Cells-Omar Moukhtar Forces claimed responsibility.

Joseph J. Cicippio, 58, acting controller of the American University of Beirut, kidnaped Sept. 12, 1986. The pro-Iranian Revolutionary Justice Organization, a Shiite group, claimed responsibility.

Edward A. Tracy, 58, author of children’s books. Date of kidnaping unclear, but Revolutionary Justice Organization claimed responsibility Oct. 21, 1986.

Jesse Turner, 42, visiting professor of mathematics and computer science at Beirut University College, kidnaped Jan. 24, 1987, from university campus along with Robert Polhill, Alann Steen and Mithileshwar Singh, by gunmen posing as policemen. Singh eventually was freed. Pro-Iranian Shiite faction, Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, claimed responsibility.

Alann Steen, 50, journalism professor at Beirut University College, kidnaped Jan. 24, 1987.

Robert Polhill, 55, assistant professor of business and lecturer in accounting at Beirut University College, kidnaped Jan. 24, 1987.

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