Freed Irish hostage Brian Keenan said Thursday he believed he was kidnapped in Beirut because the pro-Iranian extremists who seized him thought he was British.
Still pale and visibly shaken by his ordeal of more than four years, Keenan said at an emotional news conference at Dublin Castle that he had tried to learn why he was taken hostage in April 1986."I demanded to know why they had taken me," he said. "I refused to eat for six days, and they showed me a copy of The (London) Times," which included coverage of the bombing of Libya by the United States with British support.
"They told me that that (Libyan bombing) was the reason, and I didn't believe them. They thought that I was British," said the Belfast-born Keenan, who holds both Irish and British passports.
Keenan, 39, broke down several times during the news conference when asked about fellow hostages Terry Anderson and Thomas Sutherland, both Americans, and especially Briton John McCarthy, with whom he was held.
"I will do anything, anything, without reservation, that the friends of John McCarthy or the parents of John McCarthy ask of me," he said in a voice choked with emotion.
Keenan described his captors as being about 30 years old, with a mental age of 12.
"Some of them were reasonable, but with limited knowledge of the world. Some of them would not participate in the beatings," he said.
"The top leadership never spoke to me directly, and they never spoke about themselves," he said. "We did speak about Iran quite frequently, but they never tried to brainwash me."
Despite being held in a small, dark, mosquito-filled basement room, often chained to a wall and blindfolded for most of his captivity, Keenan said he held no desire for vengeance.
Keenan said he and other hostages had had their lives threatened because of adverse publicity in the American press.
Keenan refused to offer details on what he had earlier told his doctors were frequent beatings during his first months in captivity, saying he would not permit the press to engage in "voyeurism," especially since the lives of other hostages were still at risk.
Instead, he talked of the hostages' daily routine.
"Every day was the same. They gave us a rind of bread, a slice of processed cheese and a cup of tea. For lunch there would be `dogshead' soup," he said, using a disparaging Irish expression. "Some of the food in the middle period was very bad."
For the last nine months of his captivity, until he was released late Aug. 24, Keenan was held in a south Beirut suburb under vastly improved conditions, including daily rations of fruit and meat.
"We had excellent cuisine. The room was frequently cleaned," he said.
Keenan said he never lost hope that he would one day be freed.
"I never allowed myself to think that they would shoot me. I kept telling myself and telling them, `You have taken away from me my liberty. You do not take my freedom. That you can never take,"' he said.