Waite, Terry (1939–)

While secretary for Anglican communion affairs for the archbishop of Canterbury, Terry Waite negotiated the release of several British hostages in Tehran, Iran, and Libya before being taken hostage himself during the Lebanon hostage crisis.

The archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Robert Runcie, recruited Waite to be his adviser in 1980. The Anglican Church had no history of intervening in international political affairs, and Waite's role as a hostage negotiator in the Middle East was not part of the job description. Within a year of Waite's appointment, however, three British missionaries were taken hostage in Tehran. The archbishop appealed to the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini as a fellow religious man, and sent Waite as his envoy to negotiate the release of the hostages. Waite's success transformed him from a relatively unknown religious representative to a British personality. On Christmas 1984, Waite was received by Colonel Muammar el-Qaddafi to negotiate for the release of four more British hostages held in Libya. The hostages were freed the following January.

Nearly a year later, on November 4, 1985, Waite made his first trip to Beirut on behalf of American captives, who had written an open letter to the archbishop asking for assistance. In Waite's first meeting with a representative of Hezbollah, Waite brought a Polaroid camera and a copy of the London Times, his signature across the front page, and asked that each of the captives be photographed holding the newspaper. The hostages posed for the photographs and interpreted the newspaper with Waite's signature as a sign that they might soon be released. When the intermediary returned with the photos less than an hour later, Waite was whisked off to the first-ever meeting between a Western emissary and representatives of Hezbollah.

On November 26, Waite met with U.S. vice president George Bush to discuss his progress with Hezbollah. The meeting was largely symbolic, as the United States already knew that the price for the American hostages was the release of 17 Muslim prisoners held in Kuwait for two embassy bombings. However, the meeting, and the following interview on the White House lawn, established Waite as the public cover for the Reagan administration's covert arms-for-hostages deal with Iran.

Over the next year, Waite continued his efforts to free the American hostages, even after news of the arms-for-hostages deal leaked into the press. He traveled to Lebanon in January 1987, though he had previously been threatened with death if he returned.

On January 27, Waite went to the apartment of Dr. Mroueh, an intermediary in the hostage negotiations. Waite believed he was being taken to see Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland, who were, according to their captors, depressed and ill. Waite was taken, instead, to a 7-by-10-foot tiled cell. He was [Page 399]held hostage for the next 1,763 days, most of which he spent alone.

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In 1990, Waite was moved to an apartment filled with cells that held many of Hezbollah's hostages. That fall, Anderson established contact with Waite by tapping out the numerical equivalent of letters of the alphabet on the wall between their two cells. A week later, Waite was allowed to meet other hostages for 15 minutes. He was subsequently moved into their quarters permanently, marking the end of four years of solitary confinement. His condition improved considerably in their company, especially after fellow hostages lobbied for an inhaler to treat Waite's asthma.

Waite was released on November 18, 1991, along with Thomas Sutherland. The remaining American hostages were freed in December 1991.

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