Two Rooms By Lee Blessing Study Guide Compiled by Justine Lawton with help from Kevin Seime Who is Lee Blessing? Lee Blessing is a famous playwright who has written several successful shows (see complete list of work below). His most notable plays include A Walk in the Woods (1988), dealing with the friendship that develops between an American and a Russian diplomat; Eleemosynary (1988), about three generations of independent women; and Cobb (2000), which explored the many facets of baseball legend Ty Cobb. Blessing was born in 1949 in Minneapolis, MN. He attended Reed College in Oregon and later the University of Iowa. Blessing’s work was first produced at the Actor’s Theatre of Louisville in 1982 and many of his subsequent scripts would premiere and find success regionally. His most famous play, A Walk in the Woods, is about an American arms negotiator and his friendship with his Soviet counterpart. The play follows the walks they take together in the woods over many months. Their countries are trying to avoid a nuclear war while economic and political problems make the war seem inevitable. List of works: o The Authentic Life Of Billy the o Chesapeake (1999) Kid (1979) o The Winning Streak (2000) . Formerly "The Real Billy o Thief River (2000) The Kid" (1975) o Black Sheep (2001) o Oldtimers Game (1981) o The Roads That Lead Here (2002) o Nice People Dancing To Good o Snapshot (2002) Country Music (1982) o Tyler Poked Taylor (2002) o Independence (1983) o Whores (2002) o Riches (aka War Of The Roses) o Flag Day (2004) (1984) o The Scottish Play (2005) o Eleemosynary (1985) o A Body of Water (2005) o A Walk In The Woods (1986) o Lonesome Hollow (2006) o Two Rooms (1988) o Moderation (2007) o Cobb (1989) o Great Falls (2008) o Down The Road (1989) o Perilous Night (2008) o Fortinbras (1991) o Into You (2009) o Lake Street Extension (1992) o Heaven's My Destination (2009) o Patient A (1993) o Going To St. Ives (1996) Lebanon Hostage Crisis From 1982-1992, 96 hostages were taken in Beirut, Lebanon. Ten of the hostages died in captivity, while many of the others were let go or escaped from their kidnappers. Most were not killed directly, but died from neglect, medical issues, or malnutrition. It is believed that captives were taken by various members and factions of Hezbollah, a political group of extremist Shi’ia Muslims. While some support Hezbollah for opening schools and providing social services, many other governments have regarded it as a terrorist organization. Hezbollah has been linked to countless numbers of suicide attacks since the 1980s and are suspected of numerous other terrorist attacks. Of the 96 hostages were taken, most were American or Western European. With the exception of two hostages, none of them were taken for any particular reason besides their country of origin. Some of the hostages were: David Dodge-An American; president of American University of Beirut, Dodge was released 367 days after his capture. While on campus, July 19, 1982, he was abducted by pro-Iranian Shiite Muslim extremists. He was later released July 21, 1983. Benjamin Weir - A Presbyterian minister from the United States, kidnapped by a fundamentalist group called Islamic Jihad in May of 1984. He was released 488 days later in September of 1985. His abduction was surprising, since he worked in a Shi’ite part of Beirut and was working with Muslim- oriented charities and relief groups. Terry Anderson - An American and a correspondent for the Associated Press. He was captured by Hezbollah Shi’ite Muslims on March 16th, 1985. He spent 2471 days being held captive and was released on December 4th, 1991. Of all the hostages, he was held the longest. Charles Glass - An American TV correspondent who was kidnapped by Shi'ite militants. He was held hostage for 62 days in 1987. Rudolf Cordes & Alfred Schmidt - Originally from Germany, they were kidnapped after West Germany arrested a Shi'ite terrorist who had supposedly planned the hijacking of TWA Flight 847 which resulted in the killing of Navy diver Robert Stethem. Kidnapped by an organization called "Strugglers for Freedom," they were released in exchange for the terrorist. They were held from January 1987 until September 12, 1988, spending a total of 601 days being held captive. Terry Waite - A British humanitarian who was kidnapped while trying to negotiate the release of other hostages. He was abducted on January 20, 1987 by the Islamic Jihad Organization and spent about 1763 days in captivity. The first four years of his captivity were spent solely in solitary confinement and he spent most of his last days being frequently blindfolded. Whenever he was transported to a new location, he was put inside a refrigerator. During his captivity he was put through a mock execution and suffered from severe asthma. He was finally released on November 18, 1991. Some hostages who were killed include: William Francis Buckley - Buckley was a former CIA Chief from the United States who was kidnapped on March 16th, 1985 by Hezbollah. He was treated very poorly and died of an illness that resembled pneumonia. It is believed he died on June 3rd, 1985 but his remains were not found until 1991. That would mean he spent about 444 days in captivity. Alec Collett - A British worker for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Collett was kidnapped on March 25th, 1985 by the “Revolutionary Council”, an Abu Nidal terrorist group. A video that supposedly showed his hanging was released in April 1986. His body was recently found in November of 2009 in the Beqaa Valley. Arkady Katkov - A Soviet diplomat, kidnapped on September 30, 1985 along with four other people by Hezbollah. Katkov was the only one who was never released. Peter Kilburn, John Douglas and Phillip Padfield - All employees of the American University of Beirut, they were kidnapped on April 15, 1986 and supposedly killed three days later on April 18th. They were kidnapped and killed by “The Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims.” It is suspected that they were executed as a retaliation against an air raid of Libya on April 15, 1986. Col. William R. Higgins - Kidnapped on February 17, 1988. Higgins had been driving along the coast when he was kidnapped by Iranian-backed terrorists. A year later they released a video of him supposedly dead. The Pentagon declared his death to be July 6, 1990. He had been serving in a UN peacekeeping mission. Possible perpetrators: Hezbollah is widely believed to have been the organization to instigate this decade-long hostage crisis. They have denied any accusations repeatedly, while other groups have insisted that they, themselves, had done it. There were two terrorist leaders who were suspected of planning the hostage-taking operations: o Imad Mughniyah - Known as a “master terrorist” and a senior member of the Hezbollah group. o Husayn Al-Musawi - Suspected to have perpetrated most of the kidnappings in Ras al- Ein and the Beqaa Valley. Possible reasons for the hostage crisis: After the bombings of Marine barracks and embassies, it is believed that hostages were taken to reduce retaliation from the United States, Syria and other various countries. Some Lebanese believed that taking hostages would pressure American to intervene in the Israeli invasion of Lebanon. Imad Mughinyah supposedly wanted to free his cousin, Mustafa Badreddin, from imprisonment. He was later captured and put in prison. Resolution: Many events factored into the resolution of this hostage crisis. o In 1991, Shia radical operatives had been freed from Europe. o In Kuwait, Dawa party members had been freed by Iraq’s invasion. The members had been convicted of terrorism. o Pressuring the Western countries who supported Iraq was futile; the Iran-Iraq war had already ceased. o Iran needed money to rebuild their economy and infrastructure after the war left 1 million of its people dead or wounded. Because Iraq used chemical weapons, Iranians continue to die today from the after-effects. Timeline of Lebanon’s Civil War and Conflicts 1975 – 1977 First Phase of the Civil War 1975 - Lebanon erupted in a civil war between the Christian, Muslim and Palestinian populations. Most historians regard the PLO as the catalyst for the outbreak. The PLO began its campaign against Israel from southern Lebanon, it also began to kidnap and torture Lebanese Christians and then dumping their mutilated bodies on roadsides. Eventually this lead to the Christians retaliating by also kidnapping and killing Muslims, which result in all-out fighting between the militias. 1976 - With fighting throughout the country and the Maronite Christian government on the verge of defeat, Syria sent troops into Lebanon to aid the Phalanges. This technically put Syria on the same side as Israel, as Israel had already begun to supply Maronite forces with arms, tanks, and military advisers. With the Syrian occupation there came an uneasy quiet to the end of the first phase of the civil war, but with this “peace” the nation was now effectively divided into several religious and political factions. 1978-1982 Second Phase of the Civil War 1978 - The first Israeli invasion is executed in response to PLO (Palestinian Liberation Organization) attacks. An attack called the Coastal Road Massacre may have been the catalyst for Israeli forces to invade. The massacre had killed 38 Israeli people and wounded 71. A team of “Fedayeen,” or “freedom fighters” as they are known in Palestine, hijacked and shot at several cars along a coastal road. They later hijacked a bus and it caught fire. This could have been caused by a grenade or a fuel tank explosion.