Christian AP Journalist Terry Anderson, Held Hostage In Lebanon, Dies At 76

By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News

NEW YORK (Worthy News) – Terry Anderson, the Middle East correspondent for The Associated Press (AP) agency who said his “Christian faith” helped him deal with being held hostage for nearly seven years in Lebanon, has died at age 76, Worthy News learned Monday.

The globe-trotting journalist passed away at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, on Sunday, confirmed his daughter Sulome Anderson.

The cause of death was unknown, though his daughter told the AP he had recently had heart surgery.

Anderson is survived by his daughters Sulome and Gabrielle and their mother—”his ex-wife and best friend”—Madeleine Bassil, and his sister Judy and brother Jack, the family said.

He will be remembered by many for recounting his abduction and years-long captivity by Iran-backed Islamic fighters in his best-selling 1993 memoir “Den of Lions.”

Yet his daughter said, “I know he would choose to be remembered not by his very worst experience, but through his humanitarian work with the Vietnam Children’s Fund, the Committee to Protect Journalists, homeless veterans, and many other incredible causes.”

‘EXTREME SUFFERING’

Sulome Anderson added that although her “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.”

His journalism career was launched after his military service when he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant and completed two tours during the Vietnam War.

His experiences apparently prompted him to study at Iowa State University, where he graduated with a double major in journalism and political science.

He was soon hired by the AP and reported from various locations across the globe, including Japan and South Africa. Anderson went to Lebanon in 1982, just as civil war began erupting in the troubled Middle East nation.

“Actually, it was the most fascinating job I’ve ever had in my life,” he said in an interview. “It was intense. War’s going on — it was very dangerous in Beirut. Vicious civil war and I lasted about three years before I got kidnapped.”

Anderson was working as the AP’s Beirut bureau chief and had just dropped off his tennis partner, a photographer for the news agency, when the kidnapping occurred on March 16, 1985.

HEZBOLLAH FIGHTERS

A group of men, later identified as Hezbollah fighters of the Islamic Jihad Organization in Lebanon, forced him into another vehicle.

The militants reportedly beat the journalist, blindfolded him and kept him chained up in various hideaways for almost seven years.
He was released in 1991, as the 16-year civil war ended.

Wearing a sweatshirt printed with his picture, former hostage Anderson greeted happy colleagues on December 10, 1991, at The Associated Press headquarters in New York.

He walked with his arm around fiancee Madeleine Bassil, who became his wife.

Anderson said his faith as a Christian helped him let go of his anger. And something his wife later told him also enabled him to move on: “If you keep the hatred, you can’t have the joy.”

At the time of his abduction, Anderson was engaged to be married, and his future wife was six months pregnant with their daughter, Sulome.

MARRIAGE, DIVORCE

The couple married soon after his release but divorced a few years later, and although they remained on friendly terms, Anderson and his daughter were estranged for years.

“I love my dad very much. My dad has always loved me. I just didn’t know that because he wasn’t able to show it to me,” Sulome Anderson told the AP in 2017.

Father and daughter reconciled after the publication of her critically acclaimed 2017 book, “The Hostage’s Daughter,” in which she told of traveling to Lebanon to confront and eventually forgive one of her father’s kidnappers.

“I think she did some extraordinary things, went on a very difficult personal journey, but also accomplished a pretty important piece of journalism doing it,” Anderson said. “She’s now a better journalist than I ever was.”

After returning to the United States in 1991, Anderson led a peripatetic life, giving public speeches, teaching journalism at several prominent universities, and, at various times, operating a blues bar, Cajun restaurant, horse ranch, and gourmet restaurant.

Yet he also struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder, won millions of dollars in frozen Iranian assets after a federal court concluded that the country played a role in his capture, and then lost most of it to bad investments. He filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

RURAL LIFE

Upon retiring from the University of Florida in 2015, Anderson settled on a small horse farm in a quiet, rural section of northern Virginia he had discovered while camping with friends.

“I live in the country, and it’s reasonably good weather and quiet out here and a nice place, so I’m doing all right,” he said with a chuckle during a 2018 interview with The Associated Press.

Numerous tributes honoring Anderson poured in, with many praising the late journalist’s bravery and courage.

Julie Pace, senior vice president and executive editor of the AP, responded to the news of the former correspondent’s death.

“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,” Pace said. “We are so appreciative of the sacrifices he and his family made as the result of his work.”

AP reporter Farnoush Amiri posted about Anderson’s passing on on X, formerly Twitter, writing, “May we all feel this way in the end: Terry Anderson’s daughter said, ‘I saw him a week ago, and my partner asked him if he had anything on his bucket list, anything that he wanted to do. He said, ‘I’ve lived so much, and I’ve done so much. I’m content.'”

“My family is obviously deeply grieving right now, and we need some time to process our loss and organize a memorial,” Sulome Anderson said. “We will announce one in time. Many thanks for all the heartfelt condolences we have received.”

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