- Thomas Sutherland
"See also
Thomas Sutherland (banker) ."Thomas Sutherland, former Dean of Agriculture at the American University of
Beirut inLebanon was kidnapped byIslamic Jihad members near his Beirut home onJune 9 ,1985 .Sutherland taught animal science at
Colorado State University for 26 years and moved to Beirut for a three year term as dean of the faculty of agriculture and food science. Despite the assassination of University PresidentMalcolm Kerr and the kidnapping of ProfessorFrank Reiger in 1984, and despite being warned repeatedly by the state department to leave, Sutherland remained at the University. Two weeks afterDavid P. Jacobsen was abducted, Sutherland was also kidnapped while using thelimousine of University PresidentCalvin Plimpton . Sutherland believes Plimpton was the true target.He was the second-longest held captive after Terry Anderson. By the time of his release on
November 18 ,1991 at the same time asTerry Waite , he had been held hostage for 2354 days. His memories of the experience have been published through his book entitled "At Your Own Risk" which was co-authored by his wife Jean. He claims to have attempted suicide a number of times and to have spent a substantial amount of time in solitary confinement.In June 2001, the Sutherland family won a $353 million verdict in a lawsuit against the frozen assets of the government of
Iran (Sutherland v. Islamic Republic of Iran, 151 F.Supp.2d 27 (D.D.C. 2001) ).In accordance with Section 2002 of the
Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000 ("VTVPA") , USPL|106|385, Sutherland and his family received $35,041,877.36 (including interest) and the lein for the rest of the original settlement is now held by the US Government.ee also
*
William Francis Buckley External links
* [http://www.newsweek.com/id/112771 The Death of Terror's Pioneer]
Newsweek February 25 2008
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