Tracking Number: 138067
Title: The Iranian and Syrian regimes have unceasingly exploited the American hostages as a political commodity. US Press Opinion: Hostages. (900502)
Title: Americans are grateful for the influence the Syrian and Iranian governments brought to bear to bring about the hostage release, but will not forget the complicity of these two countries in the whole hostage-taking business. US
Press Opinion: Hostages. (900502)
Title: There was a point in the mid-1980s, around the time that the Iran-Contra scandal broke, that the American public hardened its attitude on Americans taken hostage; now the question is
whether the President should make a reciprocal gesture to Iran and Syria. US Press Opinion: Hostages. (900502)
Title: Release of a second hostage in Damascus puts those holding the 15 others a step closer to closing out this grim
chapter of terrorism. US Press Opinion: Hostages. (900502)
Title: The President knows what anguished families may find difficult to accept: that the interests of the hostages must take second place to the interests of America. US
Press Opinion: Hostages. (900502)
Title: Mr Polhill and Mr Reed are, like all other hostages, a declining commodity so long as this country will not pay ransom for them. US Press Opinion: Hostages. (900502)
Author: GREENBERG, PAUL
Source: WASHINGTON TIMES (NEWSPAPER)
Date: 19900502
Text:
*NEA305
05/02/90 * U.S. PRESS OPINION: HOSTAGES (1800)
U.S. newspapers and columnists have commented on the release of hostages Robert Polhill and Frank Reed. The following are excerpts:
THE BOSTON GLOBE:
The successors to Ayatollah Khomeini are releasing American hostages one at a time and sharing credit for their "humanitarian gesture" with Syrian ruler Hafez Assad. Though all Americans will rejoice at the release of Frank Reed, sympathy for him should not be mistaken as gratitude to his captors.
The Iranian and Syrian regimes have unceasingly exploited the American hostages in Lebanon as a political commodity to be bought and sold for the highest price, and the motives and methods in Reed's release are consistent with that practice.
The regime in Tehran, having used the hostages to procure U.S. missiles from former President Reagan during its war with Iraq, now finds that holding the hostages is more costly than freeing them. There is nothing humanitarian in the Iranian calculation of costs and benefits....
So the Iranian proxies in Lebanon have begun releasing hostages one by one, to maximize the value of each release. The use of Syria as an intermediary allows Assad to bank the credit for his role and consolidate his relations with Washington at a time when his Soviet armorers are complaining about the 15 billion dollars he owes. In return for Tehran's generosity in this matter, the Iranians expect Syrian tolerance for their friends and interests in Syrian-occupied Lebanon.
The Bush administration must continue to insist that all the hostages be released. It has taken this long to undo the damage caused by Reagan's ransoming folly.
THE BALTIMORE SUN:
Americans are grateful for the influence the Syrian and Iranian governments brought to bear to bring about the release of Frank Reed from 43 months of unspeakable captivity in Lebanon. As President Bush has said more than once, "Goodwill begets goodwill."
GE 2 nea305 That does not mean the United States will forget the complicity of these two countries in the whole hostage- taking business. Nor does it mean that U.S. should lean on Israel to release captives it holds. To do so would confirm the notion that the way to get Israel to move on something is to kidnap an American and hold or torture him until Israel moves. Then that would happen more often.
Few if any Americans would agree with a commentary in the Tehran Times, being taken in some quarters as a semi- authoritative message from the Iran government, that this second release "was an extreme gesture of goodwill and self-sacrifice by Lebanese Moslem groups." Most Americans would bristle at the suggestion that "the ball is in the court of the U.S. and the Western countries...."
As long as there is an authoritative suggestion that Iran influences those who kidnap Americans, no improvement in relations should begin until all six of the remaining hostages in Lebanon are released. After that has happened there should be no barrier on the U.S. side to unfreezing frozen Iranian assets and resuming correct diplomatic and commercial contact....
In the long run, the interest of the United States is good relations with the government that controls Iran. Iran will always be one of the strongest countries in the Middle East, a barrier to historic Russian-Soviet expansion and a force for good or ill in the Persian Gulf and the oil trade. But that interest is not served by catering to the worst instincts of those who currently hold power in Tehran. Reciprocity of favors should not be required for the end of an illegal kidnapping. In the long run, the interest of a government in Iran is for good relations with the United States. That can be pursued after all the hostages are released.
THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER:
Until last week, neither Frank Reed nor Robert Polhill was a household name. Now that both are receiving enormous amounts of attention and affection, it's easy to forget that few of us lost much sleep while they were in captivity. Does that make us all hypocrites? Or just realists? And what should our attitude be toward the six remaining American hostages?
There was a point in the mid-1980s, around the time that the Iran-contra scandal broke, that the American public hardened its attitude on Americans taken hostage in Lebanon....
But now the hostages are very much back in the news, emotions are again running high and the old questions are
GE 3 nea305 again coming up. Should the President make some kind of reciprocal gesture?....
To which we respond: No. He should not "reciprocate." And we should all stay cool.
There may be ways that the White House can quietly show its appreciation toward Iran and Syria, but their need to improve relations with the West will be powerful in any case. And even if Iran, which has the strongest ties to the hostage-takers, continues to be helpful, there's no guarantee that it can get all its terrorist clients to comply....
President Bush's understated style seems particularly suited for this situation. He has politely thanked Iran and Syria for their help, while insisting that all hostages be released before there can be a real change in relations. The record so far would indicate that the best course of action is to make the hostages as worthless to their captors as possible. Coolness has worked a lot better than heat up until now.
THE WASHINGTON POST:
Release of a second hostage in Damascus puts those holding the 15 others a step closer to closing out this grim chapter of terrorism. Like Robert Polhill, educator Frank Reed was held for more than three years in conditions of abuse and humiliation. The two men, along with the remaining six American and nine other Western hostages -- all innocent victims chosen at random -- have suffered an ordeal that will leave a permanent stain on the perpetrators and the governments that sustained them.
For Mr. Reed's liberty, President Bush thanked Iran for prompting the captors who physically held him. He thanked Syria for mediating between Washington and Tehran. These words reflect a measure of encouragement and a hint -- but only a hint -- of more substantial approbation to come. With an eye on the last administration's Iran-contra follies, this administration rejects bargaining for hostages. But this does not mean the United States has no leverage. The political plates are shifting in the Middle East....
On the day Mr. Bush was expressing thanks to Iran and Syria, the State Department cited both countries (and four others) under terms of a law compelling annual designation, and at this time, of governments responsible for state- supported terrorism. The apparent awkwardness of citing those who are expected to deliver more hostages has to be set against the much larger value of underlining the United States' seriousness about combating terrorism. In fact, there is less of a contradiction here than meets the eye.
GE 4 nea305 The two governments were cited for activities in 1989. Only now are they taking the sort of steps requisite to working themselves off the list. Bazaar bargainers, Iran and Syria ask Washington for what Iran terms "reciprocal positive steps" right now. There will be time and reason to consider returning American relations with those states to normal when the 15 remaining hostages come home.
WILLIAM RASPBERRY IN THE WASHINGTON POST:
How can President Bush look at Robert Polhill and Frank Reed -- sallow, emaciated and brutalized from three years' imprisonment in a Lebanese dungeon -- and seemingly not do anything he can to secure the release of the remaining hostages?
How can he listen to the anguish of the families of the half-dozen still-imprisoned Americans -- how can he contemplate the thought that the hostages themselves must be wondering what their government is doing to secure their freedom -- and still refuse to cut a deal with Iran's "moderates," who demonstrably have the influence to bring them home?
The answer is that the president knows what the anguished families may find difficult to accept: that the interests of the hostages must take second place to the interests of America.
To begin with, paying off participants in international terrorism only encourages more terrorism and creates a basis for most hostage-taking, whether the payoff is warmer relations between our government and theirs, intensification of pressure on Israel to hand over Moslem terrorists or the release of confiscated money to the hard- pressed Iranian government.
Furthermore, Bush recognizes what his predecessor didn't: that there are no moderates in the Tehran regime. As Alireza Jafarzadeh of the People's Mojahedin (the principal Iranian opposition organization) put it yesterday (May 1), Iranian President Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani is merely "a terrorist who has run out of ammunition...."
In fact, Bush's steadfastness may offer the best guarantee against future hostage-taking and the best hope that all the hostages now being held will be released: not one by one in some macabre traffic in human souls -- but all at once, and soon.
The message from the White House is correct: the easiest way for Iran and Syria to gain the international respect they covet is to act respectably.
GE 5 nea305 PAUL GREENBURG IN THE WASHINGTON TIMES:
The wife of a just-freed American hostage sounds hopeful -- and foolish. To quote Feryal Polhill: "The mood seems to be as if the hostage issue, the hostage file, will be finally closed." And then she makes her big mistake: "I would like President Bush not to spare any effort to free all the hostages."
Her husband is free today precisely because an American president finally learned to spare some effort on the hostage issue....
Mr. Polhill, and soon Mr. Reed, are most welcome home. They are also, like all other hostages, a declining commodity so long as this country will not pay ransom for them. Let's face it: The bottom has dropped out of the hostage market -- which makes more releases all the more likely. Syria now cooperates in returning hostages rather than seizing them. The Palestine Liquidation (sic) Organization has come out against the practice. Even Libya's Moammar Gadhafi has asked that the hostages be freed. There's nothing much to be gained any more by taking hostages except moral obloquy....
The Tehran Times speaks oh-so-delicately, saying things like "the release process must be expedited by acts of good will by the concerned party on the other side," and must be "a two-way street." It's as if we were talking about a normal diplomatic procedure here -- which, in Iran, kidnapping may be.
The only honest, self-respecting, and, yes, effective, policy would be to tell Tehran what it can do with its Release Process. And that is pretty much what the White House finally has learned to do.... NNNN
File Identification: 05/02/90, NE-305; 05/03/90, NA-404
Product Name: Wireless File
Product Code: WF
Languages: Arabic
Keywords: IRAN-US
RELATIONS; SYRIA-US RELATIONS; HOSTAGES; POLHILL, ROBERT; REED, FRANK; TERRORISM
Document Type: EXC; EDI
Thematic Codes: 160; 2TE
Target Areas: NE
PDQ Text Link:
138067
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