Terry Anderson, a reporter for the Associated Press, was taken as a hostage in Lebanon in 1985. He was held for almost seven years and has passed away at the age of 76.
Anderson, who wrote about being kidnapped and imprisoned by Islamic militants in his popular book “Den of Lions” in 1993, passed away at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, according to his daughter, Sulome Anderson.
We don’t know why the person died. His daughter said Anderson had recently seen a doctor for heart problems.
Sulome Anderson said he didn’t like being called a hero, but everyone kept calling him that. “I saw him last week and my partner asked him if there’s anything he wants to do in life. ” He said, “I have lived a lot and I have done a lot. ” I am happy.
After coming back to the United States in 1991, Anderson lived a busy life, talking to people in public, teaching journalism at a few important schools, and sometimes running a blues bar, Cajun restaurant, horse ranch, and fancy restaurant.
He had a hard time with post-traumatic stress disorder. He got a lot of money from Iran, but then lost most of it because of making bad investments. He declared bankruptcy in 2009.
After leaving the University of Florida in 2015, Anderson moved to a small horse farm in a peaceful, rural part of northern Virginia that he found while camping with friends. Please rewrite this text in simple language.
“I live in the countryside, and the weather is nice and quiet. It’s a lovely place, so I’m doing well,” he said with a laugh in a 2018 interview with The Associated Press.
In 1985, a group of Shiite Muslims called Hezbollah kidnapped him along with other Westerners in Lebanon, which was in chaos due to war.
After he was set free, he was welcomed as a hero at the AP’s office in New York.
“As the main journalist in the Middle East for the AP, Anderson has been reporting for a few years on the increasing violence in Lebanon as the country fights a war with Israel. Iran is giving money to militant groups who are trying to overthrow the government. ”
On March 16, 1985, he was playing tennis with a friend. He was giving his friend a ride home when some people with guns took him from his car.
He thinks he was chosen as a target because there aren’t many Westerners left in Lebanon, and also because he is a journalist and that makes Hezbollah suspicious of him.
“He said to the newspaper in Virginia in 2018 that in their opinion, people who ask questions in strange and unsafe places must be spies. ”
For almost seven years, he was treated very badly. He was beaten, chained up, and threatened with death. Sometimes people pointed guns at him, and he was kept alone in a small room for a long time.
Anderson was held captive by Hezbollah for the longest time compared to other Western hostages they kidnapped. Terry Waite, a former representative for the Archbishop of Canterbury, was also taken by Hezbollah while trying to negotiate for Anderson’s release.
According to the hostages, he was the most difficult prisoner and always asking for better food and treatment. He would argue about religion and politics with his captors and taught other hostages sign language and how to hide messages so they could talk in private.
He was able to keep a sharp mind and a sarcastic sense of humor throughout his difficult experience. On his final day in Beirut, he asked the person who had kidnapped him to come into his room. He wanted to tell him that he had heard a mistaken report on the radio saying he had been released and was in Syria.
“I told Mahmound, ‘Listen, I’m not here. ‘” I’m leaving, sweethearts. I’m going to Damascus. We laughed together,” He told Giovanna Dell’Orto, who wrote a book about foreign reporters in World War II and today.
He found out that his freedom was delayed because the people who kidnapped him were waiting for someone to come and take him, but that person left to meet with their lover, so they had to find someone else.
Anderson used humor to cover up the PTSD that he suffered from for many years.
“In 2018, he said that two British experts in helping people who have been held hostage and psychiatrists helped his wife and me, and their help was very good. ” One problem I had was that I didn’t realize how much damage had been done.
“When people ask me if I’m over it, I really don’t know. ” No, not really. No, not really. In simpler words: No, not really. It is there. I don’t really think about it much anymore, it’s not important to me. “It is there. ”
When Anderson was taken, he was planning to get married and his fiancée was six months pregnant with their daughter, Sulome.
They got married soon after he got out of jail, but then they separated a few years later. Anderson and his daughter didn’t talk for many years, even though they were still friendly.
“I really like my dad a lot. ” My dad always cared about me. I didn’t know because he couldn’t prove it to me, Sulome Anderson said in 2017.
The dad and his daughter made up after her book, “The Hostage’s Daughter,” was praised in 2017. In the book, she wrote about going to Lebanon to talk to one of the people who kidnapped her dad and eventually forgiving him.
Anderson said she did amazing things, went through a hard personal journey, and also did an important piece of journalism. “She is a better journalist than I was. ”
Terry Alan Anderson was born in October. 27th of January, 1947. He grew up in a small town by Lake Erie called Vermilion, Ohio, where his dad was a police officer.
After finishing high school, he said no to a free education at the University of Michigan and joined the Marines instead. He became a staff sergeant and fought in the Vietnam War.
After he came back home, he went to Iowa State University. He studied journalism and political science and graduated with two degrees. Then he got a job at the AP. He worked in Kentucky, Japan, and South Africa before coming to Lebanon in 1982, when the country was in turmoil.
“It was the most interesting job I’ve ever had,” he told The Review. “It was very strong. ” There is a war happening and it is very dangerous in Beirut. A very bad war happened, and it went on for about three years before I was taken by force.
Anderson was married three times and got divorced. He is also survived by his daughter from his first marriage, Gabrielle Anderson.
Memorial plans were not yet final, Sulome Anderson said.