Anderson’s Silent Beirut Office Awaits His Return

In the hubbub of telex, telephones and news deadlines, the Associated Press office once assigned to Terry A. Anderson, the agency’s Beirut bureau chief, is a quiet, almost shrine-like room.

The metal desk, its drawers locked, and the leather-upholstered swivel chair reveal little about the man whose name is linked with the term “the longest-held Western hostage.”

Anderson left the office March 16, 1985, five years ago Friday, to play tennis just a couple of blocks away. Kidnapers using the then-little-known title of Islamic Jihad abducted Anderson, leaving his tennis partner, Don Mell, standing in shock.

Along one side of his office runs a bulletin board, now dedicated to the accumulation of photos and news stories generated by the kidnaping.

Tacked to the board is a copy of each photo released by Islamic Jihad, a pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim group whose name is believed to be an umbrella for a number of Lebanese terrorist factions. Islamic Jihad (Islamic Holy War) and related Shiite groups now hold eight Americans and a number of other Western hostages.

Islamic Jihad delivers its messages, photos and threats to a Western news agency some distance from AP.

“AP is too close to the Syrian checkpoint,” pointed out one journalist.

After kidnaping hit spree levels in 1986 and then again in 1987, Syrian troops were called in to re-establish order in the western half of the Lebanese capital.

A gentleman’s agreement between the news agencies allows them to copy from each other any hostage message that is delivered.

The photos, some in color, show the change in the handsome man who came to Beirut from an AP position in Tokyo. Changes are also reflected in Sulome Theresa, Anderson’s daughter, now 4 years old, whom he has never seen. One photo shows her hugging her father’s picture, another smelling a flower; others show her blowing out birthday candles.

Clippings from Anderson’s first year in captivity are also pinned to the board. One headline, from November, 1985, reads, “If Jihad Is Just, This Man Will Go Free.”

“Terry was a very just man,” remarked an AP journalist, who then corrected himself. “I should say he is a just man.”