By Cliff Radel
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Terry Anderson

Shocked and dismayed.

That's how Terry Anderson felt this week as he sat in his Athens, Ohio, campaign headquarters, sorting through the day's bleak headlines.

He said his heart goes out to the family of Nick Berg. And to Pfc. Matt Maupin and his terribly worried Clermont County family.

Moments earlier, Anderson, the Democratic candidate for Ohio's 20th Senate district deep in the state's southeast corner, had read the story of the beheading of Berg. Like Maupin, the American civilian Berg had been held hostage in Iraq since April 9.

"It's a lot more vicious than when I was held hostage," Anderson said.

Anderson is America's most famous hostage. March 16, 1985, after a game of tennis and before going to work as the Associated Press' chief Middle East correspondent, he was kidnapped at gunpoint by four pro-Iranian Islamic militants in Beirut, Lebanon. They held him captive for 2,454 days in unspeakable conditions before releasing him Dec. 4, 1991.

During his years in captivity, Anderson never saw the light of day. He was moved in secret from apartments to cells to underground pens. Most of the time, he was chained and blindfolded. Beatings were administered regularly, and he was repeatedly threatened with death.

The militants even put him through the trauma of a mock execution. They put a gun to his head. But he got lucky. They didn't shoot him. And he finally came home. To see the daughter born just after he was abducted. To write a book about his ordeal. To teach at Columbia and Ohio universities. And, now, to run for public office.

"They killed hostages in Lebanon," Anderson said. "Most didn't make it home. But they didn't behead anybody."

That was another time, another place, another war.

Today, Anderson speaks with great reluctance and on rare occasions about the war in Iraq.

"I don't want to become a talking head, commenting just to comment," he said. "People assume I am an expert on terrorism and hostages. I can't see myself as that."

He admits, however, that he has way too much hands-on experience on the topic.

WCPO VIDEO

• Video of Terry Anderson interview

He also admits that he has "some knowledge of the Middle East. Not to be arrogant, but it seems to me there are a lot of people in Washington who don't."

That lack of knowledge tests Anderson's patience when it comes to the controversy over American troops abusing Iraqi prisoners in the Abu Ghraib prison. Berg's captors claimed they executed him to avenge the abuses at the prison.

"From the beginning, I have never believed that it is a matter of a few soldiers or intelligence agents going rogue," Anderson said.

"This is systematic. It's deliberate. And it's on orders from on high."

Anderson has some experience following a chain of command.

"I spent six years in the U.S. Marine Corps," the Vietnam veteran said. From Anderson's experience, military organizations are tightly run outfits based on rules and regulations. There's no room for individuals torturing prisoners on their own.

"We already have clear and uncontrovertible evidence that people in the highest levels of the White House were told what was going on (at the prison) more than a year ago and did nothing about it.

"How can they blame that on a few low-level soldiers?"

Anderson turned his thoughts to an honorable GI, Pfc. Maupin. He thought about what must be going through the minds of the 20-year-old's relatives as they gather at the family home on a Union Township street lined with yellow ribbons.

News of Berg's execution, he assumed, must have Maupin's family "worried beyond handling." Still, Anderson sees signs of hope.

The tape that was released one week after Maupin's capture "shows he was being treated relatively well."

Nothing has been heard from Maupin since the tape's April 16 release. No news, in his case, beats bad news.

From seeing the tape, Anderson made some assumptions. Maupin's captors appear to be better organized than other Iraqi hostage-taking insurgents.

He based his thoughts on the high quality of the video, the captors' weapons, their uniforms and their statement.

"They went out of their way to say they were treating him as a prisoner of war.

"Within that context of a terrible situation, Matt is better off than the poor guy who got his head cut off," Anderson said. "That's small comfort. But it's a comfort."

Asked to give a message to Maupin's parents, Anderson paused and sighed deeply. Then, he uttered two words: "Keep praying."

E-mail cradel@enquirer.com