Hostage Steen Dying, U.S. Captive Says on Videotape

BEIRUT — Hostage Jesse Turner said on a videotape released Thursday that his fellow American captive Alann Steen is dying, and he urged the United States and Israel to agree to a prisoner exchange for Steen’s release.

The kidnapers, who said Monday that the 47-year-old Steen was near death, want to trade him for 100 Arab prisoners held in Israel and demand that the United States persuade the Israelis to act. Both governments have refused the deal.

“You all know that our fellow Alann Steen is dying,” Turner said in a five-minute videotape delivered to the offices of the leftist newspaper As Safir in Muslim West Beirut.

‘Blood Pressure Crisis’

“The doctor says in his report that: ‘After checking the patient Alann Steen I found out that he had a crisis in his blood pressure 23-18. The symptoms he had were headache . . . anxiety and difficulty in breathing,’ ” added Turner, who was apparently reading from a prepared text.

Normal adult blood pressure is about 120 over 80, and a reading of 23 over 18 would indicate a life-threatening low blood pressure.

American doctors said Thursday, however, that the hostage’s reading may have been expressed in European measurement. That would correspond to 230 over 180, a very high blood pressure.

A typewritten English text of Turner’s statement accompanied the videotape.

Turner, who wore a beard and a yellow T-shirt and appeared tired in the videotape, said: “We urge our wives and families to go to America and Israel and press there, because the keys of the issues are there. Moving in Lebanon is useless.

“You must press on America for the sake of Alann Steen, at least because he spent a part of his life fighting in Vietnam and he was wounded there.”

Immediate confirmation from the Pentagon of Steen’s military record was unavailable. However, Steen’s wife, Virginia, who is in West Beirut, said that her husband served in Vietnam.

Turner said a videotape of Steen “will be taped soon. If he is in good condition, Alann will be talking.”

Steen, Turner and two other teachers--Robert Polhill, 53, of New York City, and Mithileshwar Singh, 60, an Indian who is a legal resident alien of the United States--were abducted Jan. 24 from the Beirut University College campus in West Beirut. Turner, 39, is from Boise, Ida.