Shiite Kidnappers Free American Hostage

BEIRUT, Lebanon--Shiite Moslem kidnappers freed American hospital administrator David Jacobsen yesterday after holding him 17 months, and said recent U.S. moves might lead to the release of two other American captives in Lebanon.

Jacobsen, 55, of Huntington Beach, Calif., was turned over to U.S. officials on a street in Moslem west Beirut. A U.S. Embassy official, who insisted on anonymity, said Jacobsen was in good health and was at the embassy compound in Christian east Beirut.

Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite flew in from Cyprus, met with Jacobsen, then told The Associated Press in a telephone interview, "David is well. He and I had a conversation together for some hours. He is looking forward to seeing his family and friends."

Waite would not say where he saw Jacobsen, but said, "We hope very much with the help of some friends here we can secure the release of other hostages. Our main hope now is to secure the rapid release of U.S. and other hostages."

Waite, an emissary of Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Runcie, reportedly has been shuttling between Lebanon, Syria and Cyprus since Thursday in an effort to free foreign hostages in Lebanon. It was not clear what role, if any, he had in Jacobsen's release.

Waite was seen yesterday boarding a U.S. military helicopter in Larnaca, Cyprus, in his first public appearance since Friday.

Islamic Jihad, the extremist group that held Jacobsen, still holds two Americans, journalist Terry A. Anderson and educator Thomas Sutherland. It said last year it killed U.S. diplomat William Buckley, 57, but no body was found. Lebanese Shiite and Western intelligence sources have said Buckley may have died earlier.

Three other Americans were kidnapped--Frank Herbert Reed, Joseph James Cicippio and Edward Austin Tracy--and other groups claimed to be holding them. Christian radio stations and television reported the previous two days that six kidnapped Americans and two of eight French hostages would be freed.

But in Washington, a State Department source said U.S. officials expected only one hostage to be released.

Islamic Jihad said in a statement issued after Jacobsen's release: "We hold the American government fully responsible for the consequences of any failure to take advantage of this opportunity and proceed with current approaches that could lead, if continued, to a solution of the hostages."

The typed statement, written in Arabic and delivered to a Western news agency in Beirut, did not say what approaches the United States had made. It said if they were not continued, "We shall take a totally different attitude."

In Santa Barbara, Calif., President Reagan said he could not divulge details of what led to the release, but that, "We have been working through a number of sensitive channels for a long time."

White House spokesman Larry Speakes said in Santa Barbara that there was no change in the U.S. policy against "giving in to the demands of terrorists."

He said Jacobsen appeared in good health but would be taken to the U.S. military hospital in Wiesbaden, West Germany, for an extensive medical examination.

In Frankfurt, a U.S. diplomat who is kept informed on the arrivals of freed hostages said an Air Force C-9 jetliner would be sent to Beirut to fly Jacobsen to West Germany.

The diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, said he expected Jacobsen to leave Beirut sometime today for the four-hour flight to Frankfurt, arriving in the afternoon. He discounted reports that Jacobsen had left Beirut, saying the plane that will be dispatched for him still was in Frankfurt at midnight.

White House Chief of Staff Donald T. Regan '40, meanwhile, told ABC-TV's "This Week with David Brinkley" that Syria's role in obtaining Jacobsen's release was "minimal" and that France had no part in it at all.

Jacobsen was director of the American University Hospital in west Beirut when he was kidnapped off the street by six men on May 28, 1985. In recent months, Islamic Jihad released several videotapes in which he appealed to the U.S. government to work for the hostages' release.