TERRORISM REVIEW 13 DECEMBER 1984[SANITIZED] - 1984/12/13

• Document Type: SPECIALCOLLECTION
• Collection: Argentina Declassification Project - The "Dirty War" (1976-83)
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 05508875
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 37
• Document Creation Date: April 3, 2019
• Document Release Date: April 12, 2019
• Publication Date: December 13, 1984

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id�-�
Directorate of
Intelligence
MASTER FILE COPY
EO NOT GIVE HT
OR MARK GM
Terrorism Review
13 December 1984
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3.5(c)
Stela
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GI TR 84-026
13 December 1984
Co" 494
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Terrorism Review
13 December 1984
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The Revolutionary Coordinating Junta: Gone But Not Forgotte
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This review is published every other week by the Directorate of Intelligence.
Appropriate articles produced by other elements of the CIA as well as by other
agencies of the US Intelligence Community will be considered for publication.
Comments and queries are welcome and may be directed to the Executive Editor
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The Revolutionary Coordinating
Junta: Gone But Not Forgotten
In some ways a terrorist group can be likened to a
living organism�it is born, it matures, it gets old, it
dies. Unlike a cow or a fish, however, which shortly
after its demise begins giving increasingly pungent
evidence of it, a terrorist group often just fades away
without our noticing. There are some well-known
exceptions: the West German 2nd of June Movement
and the Italian Prima Linea publicly announced their
own disbandment; and the West German and British
police put an end to the Kexel-Hepp Group through
the simple expedient of arresting all but one of its
members. Yet it is likely that a good number of the
terrorist groups found on most lists of such groups
really do not belong there any longer. Following is a
description of how one such group has maintained a
ghostly presence in the files of counterterrorism
organizations of several governments.
The Revolutionary Coordinating Junta (JCR) was
formed in 1974 by several like-minded South
American terrorist groups in an effort to facilitate
international cooperation.' Initially, this group seemed
to pose a formidable threat to several governments in
the region. It did in fact carry out�or was anyway
implicated in�a number of terrorist incidents. The
last known event that may have involved the JCR was
recorded in 1977.
Recently, inconsistencies in the file prompted a
thorough review of available information concerning
the JCR. One thing uncovered was a 1979 study of
the JCR that concluded the group was "moribund at
best" and should no longer be considered a terrorist
threat. Similarly, current issues of CIA publications
that list terrorist and insurgent groups no longer
' The founders of the JCR were:
� The People's Revolutionary Movement (ERP) of Argentina.
� The National Liberation Movement (Tupamaros) of Uruguay.
� The Army of National Liberation (ELN) of Bolivia.
� The Movement of the Revolutionary Left (MIR) of Chile.
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contain references to the JCR; and a recent DIA
compendium that contains a useful historical
treatment of the group notes a dearth of current
information concerning the group's leadership,
strength, weapons, equipment, and funding. At the
same time, however, a number of fairly recent reports
appeared in the aggregate to provide confirmed
information that the JCR was still functioning.
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A closer examination, however, revealed a pattern of
circular reporting that tended to provide false
verification because of time delays and variances in
details.
It is not unlikely, moreover, that some creative writing
crept into these reports. Where details were present,
they were of the sort that anyone who knew something
about terrorism and read current newspapers could
easily invent. The motivation is understandable: it is
often convenient for a security service to have a
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scapegoat that cannot respond to or refute
accusations, one that can be accused of exerting
external influence on a country's internal problems,
one which poses such a threat as to justify an increase
in the service's budget.
_
Earlier this year, an unsourced report carried in a
South American newspaper prompted a series of
intergovernmental queries, the responses to which
nearly "confirmed" the existence of a nonexistent
terrorist group. Under the pressure of short deadlines,
with information of dubious accuracy
and relevancy as if it were pertinent fact. An
assumption that the group existed caused certain
information to be interpreted as evidence the group
existed, when in fact the contrary interpretation was
more appropriate and should have led the assumption
to be challenged.
These cases suggest that it may not be uncommon for
terrorist groups to be perpetuated in reporting long
after they cease in actuality.
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