Terry Anderson, a journalist who was kidnapped by Hezbollah militants in Beirut in 1985 and spent nearly seven years in captivity, has passed away at his home in Greenwood Lake, New York, at the age of 76.
Born on October 27, 1947, in Lorain, Ohio, USA, Terry Anderson graduated from the University of Iowa. He worked as a chief Middle East correspondent for the Associated Press in Beirut, where he was abducted by three Hezbollah terrorists in March 1985. He spent 2,454 days in captivity.
After his release, Anderson taught journalism at several academic institutions, including Columbia University, until his retirement in 2015.
US Federal Judge Thomas Jackson ruled in Anderson's lawsuit against the Iranian government, stating that there was ample evidence of Iranian authorities' involvement in the kidnapping of American citizens in Beirut. According to the judge's verdict, Tehran was ordered to compensate the journalist with $324 million in damages, along with an additional $10 million for his wife, Madeleine Bassil, and $6.7 million for his daughter, Sulome, who was born three and a half months after her father was taken hostage. However, Terry Anderson and his family never received the millions owed to them.
Anderson chronicled his abduction and torturous imprisonment by the Islamist terror group in his best-selling 1993 memoir "Den of Lions: Memoirs of Seven Years."
Anderson died of complications from recent heart surgery, his daughter says.
