American Hostage Is Freed as Hopes Rise for Other Captives : Mideast: Edward Tracy is released in Beirut almost five years after being kidnaped. ‘I’m surprised the world is still here,’ the 60-year-old says.

Islamic fundamentalist kidnapers released wan and white-haired American hostage Edward A. Tracy on Sunday amid a host of hopeful hints that the long and infuriating hostage nightmare in Lebanon may be moving toward a conclusion.

“I’m surprised the world is still here,” said 60-year-old Tracy, a bookseller and writer in Beirut when he was kidnaped almost five years ago. “I thought that it had powdered off somewhere. I’m really happy to see a tree and hear an airplane and hear an automobile. I am amazed and baffled.”

Tracy, hollow-eyed but wise-cracking, was quickly flown to the U.S. air base in Frankfurt, Germany, and then transferred by helicopter to the American military hospital in Wiesbaden.

Workers and patients at the hospital lined the balconies to cheer him as he entered the courtyard at nightfall. The former hostage thrust his frail arms into the balmy summer night, making a V-for-victory sign, then pulled a miniature American flag out of his shirt pocket and waved it to his admirers.

“We’ve got a Big Mac and a Coke ready,” said Cmdr. John Woodhouse, a hospital spokesman. “That’s what he requested.”

The release of Tracy, the first American hostage freed in 15 months, came only a few hours after another set of kidnapers released French hostage Jerome Leyraud. The 26-year-old Leyraud, a volunteer medical worker, had been abducted in Beirut only three days earlier by a group of dissidents intent on undermining any plan to end the hostage crisis. They had threatened to kill Leyraud if any other hostages were released.

But, faced with the wrath of the Iranian, Syrian and Lebanese governments and of Islamic fundamentalist clerics within Lebanon, the kidnapers backed down and let Leyraud go.

The swift reversal of this escapade may be the surest sign yet that momentum in the Middle East is moving toward freedom for the remaining 10 Western hostages, including five Americans, still in the hands of Islamic fundamentalists allied to Iran.

But there were other signs in a day of varied developments in the hostage crisis:

* U.N. Secretary General Javier Perez de Cuellar received a sealed Islamic Jihad letter from the hands of former hostage John McCarthy in a televised ceremony in Britain. Islamic Jihad, one of the bands of kidnapers, had released McCarthy on Thursday with instructions to deliver the letter to the secretary general. Perez de Cuellar, who has been trying to mediate an overall agreement, described the letter as important because “they give me a kind of a power to continue my efforts, in a way on their behalf.”

* President Bush, vacationing in Kennebunkport, Me., told reporters that the latest developments reflect a “new-found cooperation.” But he repeated his usual admonition. “We are grateful for the release of this one hostage,” he said, “but there’s much left to be done, unfortunately.” Bush also indirectly linked the latest hostage releases to an improvement in the general peace process in the Middle East.

* Despite an upsurge of optimism, the nearly implacable nature of the problem was underscored in the latest comments by Iranian and Israeli officials. They made clear that the nature of the impasse has still not changed: The kidnapers evidently are willing to release the hostages in exchange for 375 Arab captives and a fundamentalist Islamic clergyman held by Israel. But Israel will not make the trade unless seven Israeli prisoners are surrendered or accounted for. So far no one will meet the Israeli demand.

* While Tracy’s mother talked happily with reporters in Vermont, the families of other American hostages had to continue their vigil. But Peggy Say, sister of Terry A. Anderson, who has been held longer than any other captive, refused to dwell on her disappointment. “We’re all content and happy to get anyone we can,” she said. “I think the other families feel as I do. Terry’s life and freedom is worth neither more nor less than any other hostage’s.”

The Freed Hostage

Tracy, a Vermont native who had converted to Islam and set up a business in Beirut selling Arabic translations of foreign works, was released shortly after noon local time at the seaside Beau Rivage Hotel in Beirut. His captors handed him over to representatives of Iran, Syria and the United Nations. After driving him by car to Damascus, Syrian officials presented him to John Craig, the charge d’affaires of the American Embassy.

Despite the dark circles under his eyes, Tracy told a Syrian television interviewer: “I’m in perfect health. I’m ready to go outside and do the 100-yard dash.”

Asked what he thought of his captors, the freed hostage seemed to tweak his interviewer. “Some of them can really cook good,” Tracy said. “They even do cordon bleu, you know.”

Tracy could not resist joking with reporters and photographers in the hallway of the Syrian Foreign Ministry. “I pay a hundred dollars for each magazine cover,” he told the photographers.

The kidnapers--a group known as the Revolutionary Justice Organization--released Tracy after French hostage Leyraud was dumped from a car in front of a hospital in the Beirut suburb of Ramlet al Baidi with a T-shirt tied around his eyes and his hands bound behind his back.

Freedom for Leyraud came after a massive security crackdown by Syrian and Lebanese forces in Beirut and a reported series of meetings in Damascus between Iranian Interior Minister Abdullah Nouri and leaders of Hezbollah, a group widely regarded as encompassing the various bands of fundamentalist kidnapers in Lebanon. Leyraud’s kidnapers had provoked a swirl of fury in high circles because of their attempt to sabotage the release of more hostages.

Hezbollah, or Party of God, is an umbrella group devoted to spreading the Iranian revolution of the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The Revolutionary Justice Organization, which also holds Joseph J. Cicippio, who was controller of American University in Beirut when he was taken captive in 1986, had issued a communique Saturday promising to free an American hostage within 72 hours.

But as soon as the blindfolded Leyraud was found unharmed in Beirut, a new communique was issued. It promised an immediate release “in light of the speedy developments and the positive, encouraging atmosphere regarding ongoing negotiations to resolve the issue of our brothers detained in the prisons of the world headed by Sheik Abdul Karim Obeid.”

Sheik Obeid, a Hezbollah clergyman, was abducted by Israeli commandos two years ago to be used as a pawn in any future exchange of hostages and prisoners.

Soon after his release, Tracy, accompanied by a medical team, was flown to the Rhine-Main Air Base in Germany and then transferred to the Air Force hospital in Weisbaden by helicopter. As he stepped awkwardly from the Black Hawk helicopter, he could see a “Welcome Home” banner hanging over the entrance.

More poignant, in its innocence, was a fluorescent-green Bart Simpson banner reading “Welcome Home, Dude,” a joke too new for a man gone so long.

Tracy was expected to begin a battery of medical examinations and State Department interviews today. He is free to leave the hospital at any time. Most other hostages have stayed an average of three days before flying back to the United States.

Islamic Jihad’s Letter

After receiving the Islamic Jihad letter from former British hostage McCarthy, U.N. Secretary General Perez de Cuellar flew to Geneva, where he planned to meet with aides to discuss the humanitarian relief program in Iraq.

Perez de Cuellar said that the letter, six pages of closely typed Arabic, would be translated and released to the press today. Although the secretary general does not read Arabic, he received a summary of its contents from his Egyptian spokeswoman, Nadia Younes.

“It is not a letter that contains very precise details,” he told reporters in Geneva. But he added, according to the Reuters news agency, “they give me a kind of power to continue my efforts, in a way on their behalf.” Asked if the letter focused on an exchange of prisoners, the secretary general replied: “The letter doesn’t refer to that.”

Perez de Cuellar, however, characterized the entire hostage situation as encouraging. “I am hopeful,” he said, “because I think we have evidence of goodwill from those who had the hostages.”

After handing the letter to Perez de Cuellar at the Royal Air Force base at Lyneham west of London, 34-year-old McCarthy, a television journalist, said: “It’s my belief that the kidnapers do want to end the situation, and with the help of the good offices of the secretary general, it will come to an end.”

McCarthy then added a message to the hostages: “Keep the faith. It won’t be too long, I’m sure.”

White House Reaction

In Kennebunkport, President Bush welcomed the release of Tracy but told a news conference, “We call upon the governments with influence on this issue to build on this positive move and work for the release of all hostages, regardless of their nationality, and for an accounting of those who may have died in captivity.”

That remark appeared to support the Israeli demand that seven captured Israeli soldiers either be released or accounted for. Asked if the Israelis should release Islamic fundamentalist captives in southern Lebanon, the President replied: “I’m saying everybody that is held as a hostage should be released by every country, whichever it is.”

Bush also focused on the importance of the release of Leyraud, the young French medical relief worker. “I think the release of this Frenchman shows that when countries and different factions come together, something can happen,” he said. “In other words, a real cry went up to get this man released, and sure enough, he was.”

In an indirect way, the President linked the release of the last two hostages and the bargaining for the release of all hostages and captives to the movement in the Middle East toward an Israeli-Arab peace conference under American and Soviet sponsorship.

“I do think that there’s an overall climate, internationally now, that permits--or put it this way--that would encourage hostage holders to set aside some of their alleged . . . grievances in order to permit them to release them,” Bush said.

“And by that, I’m talking about I hope that this peace process will go forward. There’s some connection here; there’s no question about that. You talk to some of the hostages that came out in the past and they will tell you that that’s what was on the mind of many of their captors--the long-standing question of the Palestinian people and all of this.

“So I think if there’s any overall kind of blanket reason to be optimistic,” he went on, “it might be that people around the world see that there’s a good chance that ancient enemies will sit down and talk peace.”

Continuing Impasse

While it was difficult for outsiders to follow the maze of secret contacts believed to be in progress in the Middle East, the public statements suggested no break in the original impasse. No Islamic government or organization has expressed a willingness to account for the seven Israeli soldiers, and the Israelis continue to insist that they will not let any of their 375 captives go without such an accounting.

Nevertheless, Iranian officials sounded optimistic that a deal could be worked out. After his meetings in Damascus, Iranian Interior Minister Nouri told reporters that Iran is opposed to any hostage-taking and is hopeful that “the issue of hostages, whether Western hostages or non-Western hostages, can be solved totally.”

Interviewed on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” Kamal Kharazi, the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, described himself as optimistic and said, “It all depends if the international community will put enough pressure on the Israelis to release the Lebanese kept in Israel, because we have the momentum now, and I think we all have to help put the speed on this process.”

But the Israeli Defense Ministry, in a communique issued after Tracy’s release, stuck to its position. “Israel again calls on all countries, primarily Iran and Syria, and to all organizations holding Israeli missing or captives, to allow access to them or provide proof about them,” the communique said.

“This would permit negotiations for the release of all the hostages, including Israeli soldiers who are captured or missing.”

Ex-Hostage’s Family

In South Burlington, Vt., Doris Tracy, the 83-year-old mother of the released hostage, watched her son on television and said that he looked older and thinner than she remembered him. But she had not seen him for 26 years.

Edward Tracy, whom his mother regarded as a kind of adventurer, had written her only twice since he last paid a visit to Vermont in 1965. His sister, Maria Lambert, who lives in the same house as her mother, avoided reporters all day.

Times staff writers William Tuohy in London; Tamara Jones in Wiesbaden, Germany; Beth Hawkins in South Burlington, Vt., and James Gerstenzang in Kennebunkport, Me., contributed to this report.

More on Hostages

* TIME WARP--After five years of isolation, a shock is in store for Edward Tracy as he discovers the world’s transformation. A6

* ENIGMATIC CAPTIVE--Tracy, a world wanderer and convert to Islam, is the most enigmatic of the American hostages. A7

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