Hostage Holders Deliver New Ultimatum

BEIRUT--An American hostage said in a videotape dropped off by his kidnappers yesterday that he had three other men, including two Americans, will be killed if Israel fails to release 400 Arab prisoners within 24 hours.

A six-minute videotape showing Boston native Alann Steen, 47, was delivered to a Western news agency in the name of Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of Palestine, which kidnapped Steen and three others from the campus of Beirut University College on January 24.

The group's other hostage are Robert Polhill, 53, of New York City; Jesse Turner, 39, of Boise, Idaho; and Mithileshwar Singh, 60, a native of India and resident alien in the United States.

Israel indicate yesterday it was willing to discuss the swap of an Israeli airman missing in Lebanon for the release of the 400 Arab prisoner, a proposal advanced Saturday by Nabih Berri, head of the main Shiite Amal militia and Lebanon's justice minister.

However Israeli officials said in Jerusalem they would not respond to an ultimatum and would not conduct such talks in public.

Under Berri's proposal, all foreign Hostages also would be released in Lebanon b the various extremist groups holding them.

Berri, meanwhile, backed away yesterday from an earlier weekend statement that Anglican Church hostage-negotiator Terry Waite would be freed by today, now saying the release would take more time. Waite has been missing since January 20.

A weary-looking Steen, reading from a statement in a monotone, said on yesterday's videotape: "If our lives are important to America, it must order Israel to release the 400 Palestinians as soon as possible--that is, Monday as a maximum."

"We also tell America that if it commits any stupidity, we will be prone to be killed," Steen continued. "Besides, Americans in the whole world will be the victim of our administration's stupidity."

"They [the captors] to not fear death because they perceive it as the start of their life, in other words, America can't scare them through its military actions," the statement said.

Steen wore eyeglasses and a small beard grown in captivity. A text of the statement in his own handwriting was delivered along with the tape.