Waite: Raid Put Captives in More Danger

LONDON —  Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite, who made three trips to Lebanon last year in an effort to free Western hostages, said today the U.S. air raid on Libya put the captives in far greater danger.

“The fact that America took the action that it did in relationship to Libya has made it even more difficult now for me to ask for restraint by the terrorists,” Waite said in a radio interview with the London Broadcasting Co.

The envoy said he hoped to return to Beirut soon to resume his efforts to free the hostages, and said: “If there is any way in which the situation can be defused and can be cooled and I can play a part in that, then I will try and do it.

“But at the moment it is a very very bleak outlook.”