Son Renews Fight for Beirut Captive’s Freedom

Eric Jacobsen, son of the Huntington Beach hospital administrator still being held captive in Beirut, left Sunday for Washington to renew efforts to have his father and other American hostages released unharmed by their Moslem kidnapers.

Jacobsen was to join nine other family members of hostages held in Lebanon. A meeting with President Reagan was not scheduled, but he said a request had been made for the President to grant the families an audience on Tuesday.

This is the fourth Washington trip for Jacobsen, whose father, David P. Jacobsen, has been held captive in Beirut since May 26. The elder Jacobsen was the administrator of American University Hospital in Beirut.

The son said the families plan to travel to Washington monthly until the hostages are released.

“Our priority is to continue to try to create a sense of urgency so it remains a priority issue in the eyes of the Administration and in the eyes of the people,” Jacobsen said before departing.

“It’s a reminder that we have no intention of going away.”

The family members are scheduled to meet today with Addallah Bouhabib, the Lebanese ambassador to the United States, and possibly other Middle East ambassadors. The Jesuit University in Georgetown also will honor the hostage family members at a luncheon.

On Tuesday, the group will meet with John M. Pointdexter, Reagan’s national security adviser. Jacobsen said that if a meeting with Reagan does not materialize that day, the families will probably talk to Vice President George Bush.

“Usually, we don’t know about a meeting with the President until we get there. But a meeting with Bush is most likely,” Jacobsen said, adding that the State Department has been involved in scheduling the group’s itinerary.

The elder Jacobsen is being held captive by the Islamic Jihad (Holy War) group. He reportedly is being held along with Terry Anderson, Middle East correspondent for Associated Press; Father Lawrence Jenco, a Roman Catholic priest, and Thomas Sutherland, American University’s dean of agriculture.

Sutherland’s daughter, Joan Sutherland, and four members of Jenco’s family and two from Anderson’s family will be in Washington. Patty Little, niece of Peter Kilburn, will also attend the meetings. Kilburn, the university’s librarian, was kidnaped 13 months ago but no recent official reports of his whereabouts or condition have circulated.

Elaine Collett, the American wife of Alec Collett, a British citizen also being held hostage in Beirut, will be in Washington. She currently lives in New York.

Jacobsen, who in the next few weeks will release a recorded song in honor of the hostages, said the family members would also spend time during their Washington stay trying to explore other avenues in hopes of freeing the hostages.

“We will try and get a little bit more organized among ourselves,” he said. “I’m sure we want to take the opportunity to come up with some new ideas of what we can do to help the situation.”

Terry Waite, the British envoy of the Anglican Church, has made direct contact in Beirut with the four American hostages’ captors three times during the past three months. His final attempt, however, failed on Christmas Eve and he returned to London.

This past week Waite said he was still working to free the hostages unharmed. However, the captors want to free the Americans in exchange for the release of 17 Moslems serving jail sentences in Kuwait for the bombing of the U.S. and French embassies in December, 1983.

The Kuwaiti government has said it will not accede to that demand and has also refused to grant Waite a visa to travel to Kuwait to discuss his negotiations with the captors.

Jacobsen said he was aware of Waite’s latest efforts.

“He feels he’s still making progress, but his negotiations are still kind of slow right now,” Jacobsen said.