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Case · DAILY-003

The Torture and Death of William Francis Buckley

JUL 6 · 2026Narrated by daily-declassified-the-torture-and-death-of-william-francis-buckley5 minLast updated July 6, 2026

The short version

pdf This document, released by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2019, pertains to the capture, interrogation, torture, and death of William Francis Buckley, a CIA station chief in Beirut from 1984 until 1985. Buckley was kidnapped by the group Hezbollah in March 1984 and held hostage for over a year before his death in June 1985.

Date
JUL 6 · 2026
Release
Declassified · U.S. public record (FOIA)
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Episode notes

The Torture and Death of William Francis Buckley Released: 2022-11-08 The Black Vault entry: https://www.theblackvault.com/documentarchive/the-torture-and-death-of-william-francis-buckley/ Canonical PDF: https://documents2.theblackvault.com/documents/cia/F-2019-02557.pdf This document, released by…

Questions about this case

What was The Torture and Death of William Francis Buckley about?
pdf This document, released by the Central Intelligence Agency in 2019, pertains to the capture, interrogation, torture, and death of William Francis Buckley, a CIA station chief in Beirut from 1984 until 1985. Buckley was kidnapped by the group Hezbollah in March 1984 and held hostage for over a year before his death in June 1985.
Why was this case declassified?
This material entered the public record through the U.S. declassification and Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) process. Storyflo narrates it directly from the public release.
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Episodes are produced from declassified releases on war.gov, the FBI Vault, NARA, and The Black Vault. Source documents are linked on every card so the citation chain is fully auditable.