The Seven Left Behind

For long months they have lived in a no-man's-land: no glare of TV cameras, no transcontinental phone calls from network anchormen and no publicized negotiations. It is not clear exactly who seized them, or where they are being held, or even whether all are still alive. Only because of the attention focused on the TWA hijacking was the U.S. public reminded of the plight of the seven other Americans who have been taken hostage in Lebanon, one by one, since March 16, 1984.

That was the day when William Buckley, 57, political officer of the U.S. embassy in Beirut, was abducted...