Chains to Roses: The Joseph Cicippio Story

24 cm. [12], 202, [2] pages. illustrations. Red ink mark on fep. Some DJ wear and soiling. Foreword by Dan Rather. The author recounts how he survived a five-year ordeal as a hostage of Beirut terrorists. In September 1986, American Joseph Cicippio was abducted in Beirut by captors thought to be linked to Hezbollah. Held until his release in December 1991, Joe was moved to more than 20 locations and chained to another American hostage for four of those years. Joseph J. Cicippio, who was working as the acting comptroller at the American University in Beirut when he was taken hostage on September 12, 1986. He spent 1,908 days in captivity, and released on December 2, 1991. He spent most of his time chained in a small room with one other hostage. Following his release, Cicippio was one of several that successfully sued Iran for damages as sponsoring Hezbollah under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, being awarded US$30 million. His children subsequently attempted to sue Iran for emotional damages, Cicippio-Puleo v. Islamic Republic of Iran (2004), but which was dismissed by the courts as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act did not allow for foreign nations to be subject to private cause of action lawsuits, which led to Congress making a significant changes to FSIA in 2008 to enhance terrorist exceptions in sovereign immunity and assure foreign nations were responsible for actions of their officials tied to state-sponsored terrorism. The Lebanon hostage crisis was the kidnapping in Lebanon of 104 foreign hostages between 1982 and 1992, when the Lebanese Civil War was at its height. The hostages were mostly Americans and Western Europeans, but 21 national origins were represented. At least eight hostages died in captivity; some were murdered, while others died from lack of adequate medical attention to illnesses. During the fifteen years of the Lebanese civil war an estimated 17,000 people disappeared after being abducted. Those taking responsibility for the kidnapping used different names, but the testimony of former hostages indicates that almost all the kidnappings were done by a single group of about a dozen men, coming from various clans within the Hezbollah organization. Particularly important in the organization was Imad Mughniyah. Hezbollah has publicly denied involvement. The theocratic government of Iran is thought to have played a major role in the kidnappings, and may have instigated them. The Ba'athist government of Syria is also believed to have had some involvement. The original motive for the hostage-taking is thought to have been to discourage retaliation by the United States, Syria, or other powers against Hezbollah, which is credited with the killing of 241 Americans and 58 French in both the Marine barracks and embassy bombings in Beirut in 1983. Other explanations for the kidnappings or the prolonged holding of hostages are Iranian foreign policy interests, including a desire to extract concessions from the Western countries, the hostage takers being strong allies of Iran. The tight security measures taken by the hostage-keepers succeeded in preventing the rescue of all but a handful of hostages, and this along with public pressure from the media and families of the hostages led to a breakdown of the anti-terrorism principle of "no negotiations, no concessions" by American and French officials. In the United States, the Reagan administration negotiated a secret and illegal arms-for-hostage swap with Iran known as the Iran-Contra affair. The end of the crisis in 1992 is thought to have been precipitated by the need for Western aid and investment by Syria and Iran following the end of the Iran-Iraq War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and with promises to Hezbollah that it could remain armed following the end of the Lebanese Civil War and that France and America would not seek revenge against it.…