MOSCOW REBUFFS PROTEST OVER LIBYAN MISSILES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000505250015-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 18, 2011
• Sequence Number: 15
• Publication Date: December 21, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON POST
21 December 1985
Moscow Rebuffs Protest
Over Libyan Missiles
Ove
U.S. Weighed Military Response to Qacddafi
chance of success and effectively
By Bob Woodward and Lou Cannon
Wahmg oa Post Stall Writers
Soviet-made SA5 long-range an-
tiaircraft missiles are being in-
stalled in at least two locations in
Libya, and the United States has
protested the action to Moscow and
been rebuffed, Reagan administra-
tion officials said yesterday.
"This clearly exceeds any legit-
imate security requirements the
Libyans have," said State Depart-
ment spokesman Charles Redman.
"This is a significant and dangerous
escalation in the Soviet-Libyan
arms relationship.
"We have made clear (to Mos-
cowl our concern about this esca-
lation and Soviet support for an ir-
responsible and erratic regime,"
Redman said. Asked about the So-
viet reply, Redman said, "The So-
viet response did not address our
concerns."
Deployment of the missiles-
which U.S. officials expect will be
manned by Soviet troops-in-
creases the already-high tensions
between the United States and Lib-
ya, which has been a major preoc-
cupation of the Reagan administra-
tion.
Administration sources disclosed
that precautionary military planning
was initiated last summer to
counter Libya if it attacked a neigh-
boring North African state or was
shown to be responsible for a major
terrorist incident.
U.S. officials prepared military
plans that an official said were "de-
fensive" and "of a precautionary
nature." One source said the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency analyzed
military options and studied in d
tail the tents military targets in
l va. He said that a high-level U.S.
emissary was sent to the Middle
East to talk with friendly nations
about coordinating possible military
options.
But a Pentagon analysis of pos-
sible direct U.S. military action
against Libya painted a bleak
argued against it, sources said. The
Pentagon said that, in the worst
case, an American military opera-
tion could eventually require a com-
mitment of six divisions or 90,000
men.
A senior administration official
said this week that the military plan
was never completed or submitted
to the White House for action. The
plan was never approved by Rea-
gan, and subsequent discussions
with him about the proposal were
limited because the planning oc-
curred while he was recuperating
from his colon cancer surgery, of-
tjcials said.
Post
Last month The Washington
reports that Reagan had author-
ised the CIA to undermine Qad-
dafi's regime covertl another
mans estation of t e administra-
tion's concern withbya.
The SA5, though a relatively old
and slow-flying ground-to-air mis
iiile, can hit targets 95,000 feet in
the air and has a range of about 150
files, which could enable it to
knock down U.S. reconnaissance
aircraft including sophisticated
AWACS planes, but not high-per-
k rtnance fighters. The Soviets
save previously given them other
Antiaircraft missiles in the SA se-
lies, but none with a range of over
40 miles, and none that provided
the same capability to knock down
U.S. reconnaissance planes flying
over the Gulf of Sidra, which Libya
sodsiders it? territorial waters. The
United States regards the gulf as
international waters.
: In August 1981 two U.S. F14
lighters shot down two Soviet-built
Libyan fighters after a brief dog-
fight over the gulf. The SA5 mis-
'siles have the theoretical capability
to down fighter planes but are con-
;aidered by military sources to be of
relatively limited value when em-
ployed against such high-perform-
ance aircraft as the F14.
Anthony H. Cordesman, a Middle
last arms specialist, said of the So-
$riet delivery of the SA5 missiles:
;'It's a low-cost way of bugging the
hell out of Israel, Egypt and the
United States. SA5 is a museum
Qiece, a symbolic gesture. It moves
trery slowly and is jammable."
: However, administration officials
Consider the installation of the mis-
piles s caily important be-
cause they bolster Qaddafi's chal-
lenge to U.S. interests in the region
'Ind escalate the Soviet commit-
'dnent to his government.
Increasingly, U.S. analysts have
identified Libya as the persistent
source of what Secretary of State
George P.- Shultz and other officials
have called "state-supported terror-
ism." This concern became extreme
in mid-July, after an American was
killed and 39 others field hostage
for. 17 days on hijacked Trans
World Airlines Flight 847.
While Reagan and his adviser
won considerable pu is support
and praise for their handling of this
incident, the appraisal within the
government was more pessimistic.
According to ad-ministration
sources, the issue was discussed
with the president in mid-July
shortly before he underwent sur-
gery for colon cancer. Reagan re-
rtedl agreed with views of
IA Director William ].'Casey: Rob-
ert C. McFarlane, then national se-
curity affairs adviser, and other to
aides that the administration had
been fortunate in the outcome of
the crisis and needed contingency
plans to deal with possible future
incidents. hated tote drawing
up of plans for possible military ac-
tion against Qaddafi.
Qaddafi visited Moscow Oct. 10-
12 where he. spught but failed to
obtain a treaty of friendship and
cooperation with the Soviet Union,
assistance in building a nuclear re-
actor and a more favorable treat-
ment for repayment of his $4 billion
to $5 billion debt to the Soviets.
.-.,,According, to U,S. diplomatic
sources and other Middle East spe-
cialists, the visit did not go well.
One U.S. official said that discus-
sions between Qaddafi and his So-
viet hosts were "acrimonious" and
that the Soviets gave the Libyan
leader "a dressing-down" for his
support of terrorist activities.
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Despite the difficulties on this
visit, one source said Qaddafi left
with a general statement of support
from Soviet leader Mikhail Gorba-
chev. It is not clear whether the
deal for acquisition of the SA5 mis-
siles, which Libya has been seeking
since 1983, was struck at this Mos-
cow meeting.
Military sources said the missiles
began arriving at the Libyan port of
Misrata in November. A U.S. arms
specialist said that one of the sites
at which the missiles are being de-.
ployed is the old U.S. Wheelus Air
Base on the outskirts of Tripoli,
which Qaddafi took over after com-
ing to power in 1969. A second site
was said to be near Benghazi on the
Mediterranean coast in eastern Lib-
ya. A third site, which is not fully
confiSmed, was said to be at the
oasis of Kufra in southeast Libya
near the Egyptian border.
American AWACS radar planes
have operated in the past from in-
side Egypt to observe activities in
Kufra, Libya's main military staging
area near the borders of Chad,
Sudan and Egypt.
Sources said that the first SA5
missiles could become operational
within five months and would be
manned by Soviet crews. Reports
differed on the number of missiles
that would be deployed, ranging
from 36 to 54.
ABC News and columnist Jack
Anderson both reported in Novem.
ber that Libya was receiving Soviet
SASS, but yesterday's statement by
the State Department's Redman
was the first official confirmation.
State-supported terrorism has
been a persistent theme and major
frustration for the Reagan admin-
istration since 241 U.S. servicemen
were killed by a suicide truck bomb
at U.S. Marine headquarters in Bei-
rut on Oct. 23, 1983. While the ad-
ministration has often vowed swift
retribution against terrorism, it has
s'fruggled . without. success to find
effective ways in which to retaliate.
From the U.S. viewpoint, Libya
has been the most flagrant support-
er of anti-U.S. terrorist groups and
their activities. The Arab world's
foremost terrorist, Abu Nidal, is
beoeved tome living in Libya and to
be coordinating his anti-American
activities with the Libyan govern-
ment. U.S. sources have said there
was some reason to believe Abu
Nidal was responsible for the hijack-
ing of an Egyptian jetliner to Malta
last month.
The Soviet Union has already
sold to Libya about $15 billion in
arms, such as 2,800 tanks and 450
combat aircraft, including MiG23
and MiG25 fighters. But much of
the Soviet weaponry remains un-
used and in storage, making Libya
in effect a Soviet arms depot in the
Middle East and northern Africa.
The only other country in the
region that the Soviets have armed
with SAS missiles is Syria, which
has used them against Israeli air-
craft and has deployed them along
its coast as part of its air defense
system.
Staff writers David B. Ottaway and
George C. Wilson and researcher
Barbara Feinrnan contributed to
this report.
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