Joseph Cicippio

Video recording of a communication dating from August 1989. On September 12th, 1986, Joseph Cicippio, an American citizen, deputy controller of the American University in Beirut, was kidnapped by the terrorist group known as the Organization for Revolutionary Justice. On Tuesday, August 3rd, 1989, the kidnappers threatened to execute their hostage the following afternoon  unless  the  Israeli  government  released Sheikh Abdel Karim Obeid, leading figure of the Hezbollah, as well as Lebanese and Palestinian citizens held by Israel. A two-minute video recording in which J. Cicippio addresses the American public and his family was then sent to the media. This document, dense and unsettling in its slightest details, is the one we are screening.