CBS Evening News - 1981-03-12
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Read a transcript preview of “CBS Evening News - 1981-03-12” from malgent, uploaded on 2026-01-16.
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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:02] The season of warnings and watches this
[0:04] week at 6 on television 5.
[0:07] >> This is the CBS Evening News with Dan
[0:10] Rather.
[0:12] >> Good evening. The drama in Damascus has
[0:14] eased considerably, but the 11-day old
[0:17] hijacking of that Pakistani jet with
[0:19] more than 100 persons aboard is by no
[0:22] means over. Just moments before today's
[0:24] deadline, the Pakistani hijackers
[0:26] relented in their threat to execute the
[0:28] three Americans among the hostages. The
[0:31] three heavily armed hijackers had won
[0:32] agreement from Pakistan that political
[0:34] prisoners would be freed. According to
[0:37] reports from the Syrian capital,
[0:38] however, the hijackers made new demands.
[0:41] They now are insisting that they be paid
[0:42] a $50,000 ransom and that the freed
[0:45] political prisoners be flown to Libya.
[0:48] Larry Pentac reports from Damascus.
[0:51] The breakthrough came just minutes
[0:53] before the hijackers had threatened to
[0:55] execute the three Americans. It followed
[0:57] a major concession from the Pakistanis
[1:00] and was designed to give them more time
[1:02] to work out one problem. In a radio
[1:04] conversation with the gunman in the
[1:06] cockpit, the chief Syrian negotiator
[1:08] announced that the Zia government had
[1:10] agreed to release 55 people held in
[1:13] Pakistani jails. Those names appeared on
[1:16] a list transmitted by the hijackers
[1:18] Tuesday. But the Syrian told them there
[1:21] was a complication. Authorities in
[1:23] Islamabad had no knowledge of six of
[1:25] those on the list. The hijackers asked
[1:27] for the six names, then agreed in
[1:29] principle to the Pakistani offer. The
[1:32] announcement followed hours of tense
[1:34] waiting after the