TV Review : What Role Did North Play in Waite’s Ordeal?

Terry Waite was always a special hostage. Now, with the broadcast on “Frontline” tonight of BBC reporter Gavin Hewitt’s “The Secret Story of Terry Waite” (10 p.m. on KCET Channel 28 and KPBS Channel 15), we may be discovering just how special he was.

It seemed a cruel irony that the Anglican emissary, so dogged and often successful in his pursuit of freeing hostages in Beirut, himself became a hostage of Shiite Muslims in early 1987. But what had appeared to have been a simple case of Waite stepping in harm’s way once too often is, according to Hewitt, a far more Byzantine maze. And as with almost everything involving hostages, the Middle East and arms in the mid-1980s, the maze begins with Lt. Col. Oliver North.

Hewitt chronologically tracks the separate and ultimately joining paths of Waite and North: How the Anglicans were able to develop the trust of the Lebanese acolytes of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini as no other Westerners had, how North in the White House basement constructed his arms-for-hostages network. Waite’s humanitarian mission, Hewitt reports, proved a very effective and convenient cover for North’s project, just as Israel’s sale of missiles to Iran concealed U.S. involvement.

When “Nightline” broke its own story on the Waite-North connection hours after Waite’s release Nov. 18, host Ted Koppel stated that he and his guest--North’s key deal-maker, Richard Secord--had just watched Hewitt’s program. Secord denied Hewitt’s claim that Waite had become so integral to U.S. operations that he was given an electronic tracking device--presumably to track down the hostage-takers.

The unresolved question in Hewitt’s story is whether Waite was a witting or unwitting cover for North’s machinations. Hewitt clearly feels that Waite knew his role in North’s plans and lines up several White House aides who say as much. Images of Waite boarding U.S. helicopters raise suspicions and likely convinced the Shiites that Waite wasn’t to be trusted.

What’s most disturbing in the end isn’t so much Waite’s position in all this, but Oliver North facing Hewitt’s camera and claiming no responsibility for Waite’s capture. The chill that comes off the screen is cutting.