{"id":137568,"date":"2021-09-02T10:28:07","date_gmt":"2021-09-02T10:28:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=137568"},"modified":"2021-09-02T10:28:07","modified_gmt":"2021-09-02T10:28:07","slug":"the-bbcs-john-simpson-was-tortured-by-militants-in-lebanon-in-1982","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/the-bbcs-john-simpson-was-tortured-by-militants-in-lebanon-in-1982\/","title":{"rendered":"The BBC&apos;s John Simpson was tortured by militants in Lebanon in 1982"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>John Simpson reveals he was tortured and subjected to a mock execution by Christian militants while reporting for the BBC in Lebanon in 1982<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Mr Simpson was arrested and tortured while covering 1982 Lebanon war<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>A pistol was then pressed to the back of his head in a mock execution<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>The broadcaster spoke about the ordeal to historian Dan Snow in a podcast\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Main character in Mr Simpson&#8217;s novel Our Friends in Beijing is also tortured<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>He said writing about the experience helped to &#8216;exorcise&#8217; it from his thoughts\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Veteran BBC broadcaster John Simpson has revealed that he &#8216;exorcised&#8217; his horrendous experience of being tortured in Lebanon in 1982 by writing about it in his new novel.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Simpson, 77, the BBC&#8217;s world affairs editor, opened up for only the second time about the ordeal, which he suffered at the hands of a Christian militia group.<\/p>\n<p>The journalist had been sent to the Lebanese capital Beirut by the BBC to cover the conflict between Israeli forces and militant group the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) after Israel invaded the south of the country.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to historian Dan Snow in a podcast on streaming platform History Hit, Mr Simpson said he was &#8216;tortured and beaten up&#8217; after being arrested.<\/p>\n<p>They then subjected him to a mock execution by putting a pistol to the back of his head.<\/p>\n<p>The experience is echoed by the main character in the journalist&#8217;s new novel, Our Friends in Beijing, which is set in China.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Simpson said that writing about the trauma, as well as others he suffered during his decades-long career of reporting from conflict zones around the world, was a &#8216;real therapy&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/02\/10\/47413889-9948107-image-a-8_1630575448410.jpg\" height=\"412\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Veteran BBC broadcaster John Simpson (pictured above in 1981) has revealed that he &#8216;exorcised&#8217; his horrendous experience of being tortured in Lebanon in 1982 by writing about it in his new novel\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/02\/10\/47413899-9948107-Mr_Simpson_77_the_BBC_s_world_affairs_editor_opened_up_for_only_-m-6_1630575418783.jpg\" height=\"418\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mr Simpson, 77, the BBC&#8217;s world affairs editor, opened up for only the second time about the ordeal, which he suffered at the hands of a Christian militia group while reporting on the 1982 Lebanon War. It took place after Israeli forces invaded the south of the country. Above: Israeli bombs dropping on Beirut<\/p>\n<p>The journalist said: &#8216;My chief character in the book undergoes quite a nasty torture experience which also did happen to me but not in China.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is something that happened to me in Beirut in 1982 when the Israelis invaded and there was wild civil war and really appalling stuff happened.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;One of the milder elements was that I was arrested and tied up and tortured and beaten up and then subjected to a mock execution.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;That has always worked on me and somehow or another I just wanted to get rid of it, exorcise it, by writing about it. But I presented it as though it was in China but in fact it was in Beirut years before.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>He added: &#8216;Writing more than broadcasting is a real, real therapy for me.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/02\/10\/47413895-9948107-image-m-9_1630575604127.jpg\" height=\"705\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The journalist had been sent to the Lebanese capital Beirut by the BBC to cover the conflict between Israeli forces and militant group the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) after Israel invaded the south of the country. Above: Israeli soldiers in Lebanon in 1982<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;So I&#8217;m hoping that the 1982 experience, which I always rather kept quiet about, didn&#8217;t tell anybody about it because I didn&#8217;t feel I had behaved very well and so on.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I am hoping to have kind of maybe wiped that out by now.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/02\/10\/47413883-9948107-image-a-16_1630575857931.jpg\" height=\"467\" width=\"306\"><\/p>\n<p>Mr Simpson&#8217;s novel, Our Friends in Beijing<\/p>\n<p>John Swift, the main character in Mr Simpson&#8217;s novel, also suffers a brutal beating and mock execution.<\/p>\n<p>Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 after repeated skirmishes between PLO militants and members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).<\/p>\n<p>The operation was launched after gunmen from a PLO splinter group, the Abu Nidal Organisation, attempted to assassinate Israel&#8217;s ambassador to the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Simpson, who joined the BBC as a trainee in 1966 before becoming a reporter in 1970, was asked by Mr Snow if writing about the 1982 experience helped. &#8216;Absolutely,&#8217; he replied.<\/p>\n<p>He then told how he thought he would be believed he would be mentally scarred for the rest of his life after witnessing the botched executions of three men in Afghanistan during the Taliban&#8217;s first regime in the 1990s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said that whilst the men were &#8216;awful&#8217; killers themselves, their executions were performed &#8216;so appallingly badly that I remember thinking as I was watching that &#8216;this is going to haunt my dreams for the rest of my life&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2021\/09\/02\/10\/47413891-9948107-image-m-14_1630575780677.jpg\" height=\"428\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Israel invaded Lebanon in June 1982 after repeated skirmishes between PLO militants and members of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Above: Locals watch smoke rise into the sky during the invasion<\/p>\n<p>He said that whilst he dreamed about what he saw &#8216;that night&#8217; and later had nightmares, writing about it again helped to ease the trauma.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;As a result of writing about it and talking about it and thinking about it, it was a kind of therapy,&#8217; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I have never had any [more] bad dreams about it\u2026. It doesn&#8217;t have a hold on me or harm me anymore.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9948107\/BBC-journalist-John-Simpson-reveals-tortured-Christian-militants-Lebanon-1982.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>John Simpson reveals he was tortured and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":137567,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23056],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The BBC&amp;apos;s John Simpson was tortured by militants in Lebanon in 1982 - Pre Coin News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/world-news\/the-bbcs-john-simpson-was-tortured-by-militants-in-lebanon-in-1982\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The BBC&amp;apos;s John Simpson was tortured by militants in Lebanon in 1982 - 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