A Former Hostage Feels Relief--and Bitterness : Reaction: David Jacobsen of Huntington Beach cries on hearing of release, but expresses anger at Iran.

David Jacobsen, himself a former hostage in Lebanon, woke at 1:30 a.m. Wednesday. He tuned in CNN for an update on the remaining hostages.

The TV screen carried big news. Terry Anderson, the last remaining American hostage, had just been freed.

“I cried,” Jacobsen said. “And I don’t cry very often.”

Jacobsen said the release of Anderson means that he and all the other former hostages are now truly free themselves.

“When you’ve been held (as a hostage) with other people, you still are there with them as long as they are there,” Jacobsen said. “So when I heard the news early this morning, I thought to myself: ‘We are now, all of us, free at last.’ ”

Jacobsen, now 60, had been a hospital administrator in Beirut. He was kidnaped there on May 28, 1985, and freed Nov. 2, 1986. He now lives in an apartment here and works as a writer and lecturer.

On Wednesday morning, Jacobsen’s telephone rang nonstop. TV networks, radio stations, magazines and newspapers called for his reaction. The universal question was: “What do you feel now that all American hostages have been released?”

In an interview with The Times, Jacobsen said he feels vast relief that all his countrymen are now freed. But he said he feels anger and bitterness toward Iran, the nation that he said has been behind all of the kidnapings in the Middle East.

“Iran is the great Satan,” Jacobsen said. “Just think of how many times Iran has taken acts of war against the United States.”

Jacobsen also expressed bitterness toward U.S. politicians of both major parties, accusing them of foot-dragging on the hostage issue. He said that Anderson and other recently released U.S. hostages “could have been released five years ago.”

Jacobsen said American politicians had said repeatedly that “you should not negotiate with terrorists.” He added: “Bull! You have to negotiate with your enemies. Let me tell you: There has not been one hostage released in the Middle East in the last decade that has not come out as the result of a deal. There is nothing inherently wrong with a deal. A deal is either acceptable or not acceptable.”

Jacobsen repeated those sentiments later in the day at a press conference. He also predicted that terrorism will continue throughout the world. He said the United States needs to revamp its anti-terrorism unit and move it from the State Department to “an agency more concerned about law enforcement, such as the Justice Department.”

At the press conference, Jacobsen also said that he and other hostages in Lebanon could have been rescued by a small, well-trained military unit, such as the Navy’s SEALS.

“In hostage situations, I don’t think we should ever arbitrarily eliminate the possibility of rescue operations,” Jacobsen said.

Five years after gaining his own freedom, Jacobsen said he is in good health and enjoying life with his three children and seven grandchildren. But he said he will never forget the horrors of having been a hostage. He also said he has strongly etched memories of Anderson, Thomas Sutherland and other recently released American hostages.

“I was with them, and you have a bond with people who have suffered through the same things you have,” Jacobsen said.

Jacobsen said that Anderson, who was the Associated Press’ Middle East bureau chief in Beirut when he was kidnaped in 1985, is a very bright person.

“Terry has a great memory--like a sponge,” Jacobsen said. “And he has an insatiable appetite for reading. He would read so much that I used to kid him; I’d tell him he was like a Boy Scout working on his merit badge.

“I suspect he was a good journalist. He has an aggressive nature, and he could even be belligerent,” Jacobsen said. “He has all the characteristics of a good war correspondent.”

Asked to recall the last time he saw Anderson, Jacobsen looked pained.

“I was held with Terry and Tom (Sutherland) in the same horrible little cubicle,” Jacobsen said. “And shortly before I was freed, I was taken from that cubicle and accused of being a CIA agent by my captors. I was taken to the beating room and left there about a week. Then one day they brought in a TV and a VCR, and they brought Tom and Terry in to watch the tape of a news conference with me. I remember saying ‘hi’ to Tom and Terry, and that Terry reached over and patted me, and that was the last I saw him.” Jacobsen said he was freed about 45 days later.

Jacobsen said the tape that his captors permitted them to see that day was about a news conference by their relatives in the United States, who were working to secure their release.

“Terry and I knew that our families were not just quietly accepting our captivity,” Jacobsen said. “I know that the real reason I am a free man today is that my son Eric gave 17 months out of his life, working--with grace and wisdom and maturity far beyond his years--to get me free.”

Eric Jacobsen, 35, formerly lived in Huntington Beach but now lives in the Lake Arrowhead area. Another son, Paul, 33, lives in Crestline, and his daughter, Diane, 30, lives in Huntington Beach.

Christmas, he said, will be all the more joyous this year because this will be the first time that all of his fellow American hostages are free.

“When you’ve been in a situation like that, you have extreme empathy for all who still remain hostage,” Jacobsen said. “So this morning I sobbed with joy. I kept thinking that all of us, finally, were free.”