Terry Anderson, an intrepid American journalist who endured as the longest-held Western hostage in Lebanon when he was abducted in 1985 and held captive for over six years, has died at age 76.
Anderson’s daughter Sulome confirmed that he passed away Saturday at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, apparently from complications following recent heart surgery. She told Newsweek that,
“Though my father’s life was marked by extreme suffering during his time as a hostage in captivity, he found a quiet, comfortable peace in recent years. I know he would choose to be remembered not by his very worst experience, but through his humanitarian work…”
Terry Anderson’s perseverance through those 2,454 harrowing days as a prisoner of Islamic militants became a symbolic struggle for the world’s free press.
“Terry was deeply committed to on-the-ground eyewitness reporting and demonstrated great bravery and resolve, both in his journalism and during his years held hostage,” said AP executive editor Julie Pace. “We are so appreciative of the sacrifices he and his family made as the result of his work.”
The Beirut bureau chief for The Associated Press was snatched off the streets on March 16, 1985 by Shiite Hezbollah militants just after playing tennis. The brazen kidnapping saw Anderson beaten, blindfolded and shuttled between two dozen hideouts while chained by his extremist captors.
Identified as a hostage of the Islamic Jihad Organization, the militants indicated they were retaliating against U.S. weapons sales to Israel involved in strikes against Muslim targets in Lebanon. The crisis ultimately entangled Anderson in the Iran-Contra affair, with his captors hoping to covertly facilitate illegal arms sales.
After his freedom on December 4, 1991, Terry Anderson reunited with the fiancée who was pregnant when he was taken, meeting his daughter for the first time at age 6.
