Lebanon

He was an unusual target. Edward Austin Tracy, 55, a writer of erotic love poetry, was kidnaped last week in Muslim West Beirut by a pro-Iranian Shi'ite group calling itself the Revolutionary Justice Organization. Tracy, who was accused of being a U.S. spy, became the seventh American and 20th foreign hostage in Lebanon.

The group did not say how long it has been holding Tracy, who has not been seen for two months, or what it wanted for his release. Tracy, a Vermont resident who went to Beirut in the late 1970s and claimed to have converted to Islam, seemed oblivious to the danger he faced as an American there. Said an acquaintance: "He operated on a different plane from other mortals."