Like other communiques from the shadowy Islamic Jihad, the chilling message arrived in a brown paper envelope at the offices of the Beirut newspaper An- Nahar. American Hostage William Buckley, said a long typewritten statement, had been "tried and executed" to avenge the Palestinians and Tunisians killed in the Israeli raid on Palestine Liberation Organization headquarters in Tunis. Buckley, 57, was a political officer at the U.S. embassy when he was kidnaped on his way to work on March 16, 1984.
The report of Buckley's death was still unconfirmed at week's end, but it dashed any hopes that he and five...