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Meanwhile, the Lebanese groups holding the hostages released a second clergyman, Father Lawrence Jenco, in July and David Jacobsen last week. Their freedom was obtained without any yielding on the captors' principal demand: release of 17 terrorists being held in Kuwait on charges of dynamiting the U.S. and French embassies. In a statement announcing that they were letting Jacobsen go, his captors, Islamic Jihad, mysteriously urged the U.S. to "proceed with current approaches that could lead, if continued, to a solution of the hostages issue." Washington at the time vehemently denied that it had made any "approaches," to Iran or anyone else.
Jacobsen's release was credited by some observers in the Middle East to Syria, which occupies the portion of Lebanon where Islamic Jihad and its companion group, Hizballah (the Party of God), operate. It is now clear that Syria played next to no role. In fact, it appears to have lost nearly all sway with the extremists, who are now heavily influenced by Iran.
The patient and untiring negotiating efforts of Terry Waite, the personal envoy of the Archbishop of Canterbury, also appear in a different light. Waite's activities were important, but not wholly in the way they appeared at the time. Since neither the U.S. nor Iran could let it be known that they were in contact, let alone that the U.S. was supplying Iran with arms, some cover for Jacobsen's release had to be found. Waite and his mission provided the necessary public appearance, and it is doubtful that anyone else could have done so, since Waite, as a nonpolitical man of religion, has the trust of all parties involved, including the kidnapers. One Israeli official refers to Waite as the "cellophane wrapping" around hostage releases. Says he: "You cannot deliver a gift package unwrapped. That is why there will be no more hostage releases until he returns to the region."
It should have been obvious, though, that the U.S. dealings with Iran would continue to bear fruit only so long as they were kept secret -- and that no maneuvers so momentous could be held under cover very long. In retrospect it is astonishing that so few people knew anything for a period as long as 14 months. But an essential part of the planning of intelligence operations is, or should be, what will be done and said when their covers are blown. And nobody in either Washington or Tehran seems to have given that much thought.
The cover began coming off first in Iran, when supporters of Khomeini's chosen successor, Ayatullah Hussein Ali Montazeri, started clandestinely distributing pamphlets accusing the regime of surreptitious contacts with the U.S. Specifically, they claimed that Rafsanjani had met with nameless American emissaries in Iran. Last week several members of the group were reportedly arrested in Iran, charged with distributing leaflets that were "in line with the vicious attempts of the counterrevolutionaries."