CIA BACKED QADDAFI ASSASSINATION TRY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120080-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 80
• Publication Date: June 12, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120080-3
!? June 1983
I JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATTA
CIA Backed Qaddaf1 Assassination Try
T he Central Intelligence Agency backed,
trained and continues to support the exile
group that tried to assassinate Libyan leader
Muammar Qaddafi last year, according to
intelligence sources.
The plot failed. Afterward, Qaddafi executed
perhaps as many as 200 dissidents and imprisoned
thousands more.
The Libyan dictator immediately beefed up his
security. He may. also have arranged Libya's
surprise "union" with Morocco partly to get at the,
leader of the assassination attempt, who was
subsequently booted out by Moroccan King Hassan
and now operates out of Iraq.
The CIA-backed assassination group goes by the
name National Front for the Salvation of Libya, or
NFSL, and is led by Qaddafi's former auditor
general, Mohammed Youssef Magarieff.
Whether the CIA was present at the NFSL's
conception is uncertain. Our sources say the
agency's search for "a surrogate organization that
would overthrow Qaddafi by whatever means
necessary" coincided with the exile group's
formation in 1981.
How did the CIA pick Magarieff and his NFSL
out of some 20 identifiable anti-Qaddafi groups?
Our sources say the Saudis recommended
Magarieff.
The Saudis have provided at least $7 million to
the NFSL. They use Mustafa bin Halim, a former
prime minister of Libya who is now an adviser to
the Saudi Arabian government, as their go-between
with Magarieff.
The boys from Langley found it easy to deal with",
Magarieff, a natty dresser and articulate talker,
who conveys the impression that he is preeminent
among Qaddafi's foes. When he served Qaddafi as
head of the Libyan comptroller's commission from
1972 to 1977, Magarieff publicly inveighed against-
official corruption. It was that act of courage that
led Qaddafi to ship him off as ambassador to India,
where he defected in 1980.
Magarieff attracted other prominent exiles to his'
banner, including former Libyan envoys to Jordan,
Guyana, India and Argentina. The exiles' first
public proclamation, on Oct. 7, 1981, called for
Qaddafi's overthrow and marked the birth of the
NFSL.
From the beginning, CIA agents advised and
encouraged NFSL leaders and trained their recruits
in Western Europe, Sudan and Morocco.
Our sources disagree over how much advance
information the CIA had about the assassination
attempt of May 8, 1984. But there's little doubt
that CIA officials knew what Magarieff was up to,
and encouraged him. In fact, CIA insiders refer
sardonically to the agents involved and their CIA
handler, who was transferred after the
assassination attempt failed.
The world learned some confused details of the
attempt, which began to unravel on May 6, when
the leader of NFSL's military wing, Ahmed Ibrahim
Ahwas, was caught and killed trying to infiltrate
Libya -from Tunisia. Two days later, a five-hour gun
battle at the Bab Aziziya barracks, where Qaddafi
often stays, ended in the death or capture of the
NFSL rebels.
I Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100120080-3