Syracuse Herald Journal (Newspaper) - December 8, 1991, Syracuse, New York I Syracuse Herald December 8, 1991 Anderson's biggest fear was loss of his mind invented sign wrote The Associated Press Germany Terry Anderson desperately feared the chains and dark cells of captivity would kill the one thing he had his Tedium and isolation compelled the former hostage to bully and badger both cellmates arid captors into turning their bleak ings into an eerie oasis of was desperate to keep my brain chief Mid- dle East correspondent for The Associated said in ah inter- view conducted when he made a telephone call to the AP staff was deadly scared that I would lapse into some kind of mental 44, was freed Wednesday after days in the last of 13 U.S. tages to go free in He is resting and undergoing medical tests at the U.S. military hospital in: Military authorities have not allowed journalists to in- freed hostages in person at the Anderson was blunt and confident in the 40-minute interview THE STOCKY says he regrets that he initially saw fellow such as American Thomas Sutherland and Irishman Brian as tial learning tools instead of human said to me once that felt like I was just kind of sucking everything out of his Anderson He says he got Sutherland teach him he became He badgered his captors for books until they brought them by the He bullied Sutherland to learn the sign language son He argued long and passionately with his cellmates about selected then baffled them by abruptly pursuing the opposite an exercise to keep his mind limber and LAST ANDERSON taught a tedious language of taps against the wall to a hostage chained in the next Anglican Church envoy Terry when Waite could under- stand the makeshift Anderson unloaded in a one-hour burst the news that Waite had missed during four years of solitary Communism fell in Eastern Eu- Germany was Free elections were being held in the Soviet Apartheid was ending in South War had broken out in the Persian at once boom all through the Anderson told me later it all kind of numbed his Anderson described the agony of a life in chains and food flung on the a prison for the a sentence of unknown empty days evolving into It was a life of rigid rules en- forced by brutal a life in a small cell devoid of HE WAS ALLOWED to go to the bathroom only once a Anderson says he de- manded better and that the captors gradually improved the living con- are assaults on your as a human that you just can't he man throws you food on the throws a sandwich oh the I I'm not a I'm not going to eat off the he said are the kinds of arguments we His captors finally least that I was going to mand to be treated with least a amount of dignity arid ANDERSON AND OTHER Western hostages were moved 15 to 20 times during times they were in solitary con- finement and sometimes they were sometimes in small cells and sometimes in a fortified Some guards were relatively de- cent and some were slapping or ing hostages if they violated the strict rules of The Associated JUBILANT TERRY ANDERSON is greeted by his daughter Sulome on his arrival at Meln air base outside Frankfurt somebody came through the you put your blindfold Anderson ever allowed your blindfold to slip or to not be put into place ately upon the first sound from the That rule continued up to the day I The hostages were not allowed see their but knew their Anderson said the hostages gave them rough for the bad British journalist John whom Anderson called a devastatingly accurate skewered the worst guards with THE BOOKS THAT Anderson steadfastly demanded showed up about years a period when markedly got boxes of bad cheap bara political science textbooks We must have got over a thousand of them over a riod of a said can imagine the difference it makes in your life when you're locked in a room 24 a This was nirvana for who claimed routinely read 300 to 400 each year before he was But the books and occasional dios also became powerful tools of punishment for the Shiite Muslims holding the we got in an argument the they would take the the books and we be left in the bare room he Anderson and other hostages had a radio during the first year of It was taken then another one arrived a they took it away he finally got the radio back after much much many re- I would ask every single they would tell me IN THE LAST the books stopped coming but the azines regular deliveries of The U.S. News and World Report and the occasional Anderson was kept at various times with several in- American Presbyterian Rev. Benjamin American University of Beirut hospital ad- ministrator David ican Frank Roman Catholic priest Lawrence Jenco and liam the former CIA station chief in Anderson believes Buckley died in the room they was son interpreted what happened by He was at the time extremely could hear him talking to the guards he was delirious and I could hear him moaning and saying Anderson spent most of his time with sometimes chained Seizure sends to hospital The Associated Press hostage Alann Steen suffered a seizure and was shortly after in Michigan from Germany He suffered a immediately after leaving Detroit Metropolitan Airport and brought to polis said Wayne County Sheriff's Lt. Robert Dr. a at the Steen was in stable Steen said Thursday an unprovoked attack by kidnapper in 1987 left him with permanent forcing him to take drugs to control seizures DURING ONE Anderson said he suddenly called the rudiments of sign guage he learned in high He approximated what he not remember to re-create and felt teach Then the two were put tary Anderson he was able to see hostage thy and Keenan and taught the sign For the four each other from their cells continued long ORDER For the past the has been running a series of stories on the bombing of Pearl Harbor full of and dramatic testimony of that fateful of fifty years For you can have a 14-page reprint of the Just come down to The Company between 12 noon and p.m. Monday through The Company is located in the lobby of the at 1 Clinton Square in downtown Or if you out the coupon below and send a check for the postage and handling toI The Company Syracuse P.O. 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