$372 MILLION FOR EMBASSIES' SECURITY SOUGHT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450003-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 4, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: September 25, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450003-8 STA1
A91-11.711A7PFITEII ---
A-1
$372 Million
For Embassies'
Security Sought
By Fred Hiatt and John M. Goshko
Washington Post Staff Writers
The State Department said yes-
terday that it will seek $372 million
in emergency funds to improve em-
bassy security throughout the
world, and new details_ernerged
from intelligence source?_about ?ap:
nrent security lapses in Beirut be-,
fore last week's terrorist bombing
there.
State Department spokesman
John Hughes said the administra-
tion will ask Congress to provide
the funds in the next two weeks to
build and strengthen barricades
around embassies, buy more
armored vehicles and accelerate
construction of new embassies in
high-risk areas.
The request is in reaction to the
suicide truck-bombing of the U.S.
Embassy annex northeast of Beirut
in which there were as many as 92
persons killed or injured, according
to the department's newest count.
The bombing was the third success-
ful attack against a U.S. installation
in Beirut in the last 17 months.
It was learned yesterday that,
just before last Thursday's attack,
the Defense Intelligence Agency
concluded that the annex was "high-
ly vulnerable to surveillance, snip-
ing, RPG Irocket-propelled gre-
nade) and vehicular bombing."
The DIA also found that a nearby
U.S. Marine residence is "an invi-
? tation to a terrorist attack due to its
total vulnerability" and that the
temporary embassy building in west
Beirut is surrounded by high-rise
buildings and "exceptionally vulner-
able."
At the United Nations, President
Reagan, calling the embassy annex
bombing "a despicable act of bar-
barism by some who are unfit to as-
sociate with humankind," hinted
WASHINGTON POST
25 September 1984
yesterday that the United States is
trying to determine if the time is
right for a new diplomatic attempt
to end the Lebanon conflict.
House Speaker Thomas P. (Tip)
O'Neill Jr. (D-Mass.) said yesterday
that the House will conduct an in-
vestigation of the bombing because
the administration has provided
"phony alibis and lame excuses."
The State Department also
alerted embassies worldwide to a
new threat by Islamic Jihad, the
group that claimed responsibility
for last week's attack. A Beirut
newspaper repotted that an anon-
ymous caller claiming to represent
the group said, "A big operation will
be carried out against American in-
terests soon."
Hughes said of the threat, "We
take this seriously."
Hughes also revealed new details
about the bombing, saying State
Department investigators believe
that the van that penetrated embas-
sy security and blew up 20 feet
from the annex contained only a
driver and not, as first thought, a
passenger.
The investigators, led by Robert
Oakley, the department's coordi-
nator for counterterrorism, re-
ported to Secretary of State George
P. Shultz yesterday.
Hughes said the investigative
team also believes that the van was
carrying the 'equivalent of 3,000
pounds of dynamite, more than ear-
lier estimates.. He said contract
guards hired by the embassy fired
at the van but Lebanese soldiers
and, perhaps, police at the scene did
not.
Asked if he were criticizing the
Lebanese, Hughes replied, "I'm not
making a judgment."
The DIA report had cited the
contract guards and the "vacillating
nature" of police, militia and Leb-
anese armed forces as among its
chief concerns, according to those
who have seen it and congressional
sources briefed about it yesterday.
The DIA said that contract
guards, from Christian militia in
east Beirut and Moslem and Druze
,militia in west Beirut, were hired
with "limited investigation" and that
their "continued loyalty and reliabil-
ity in times of trouble" is "problem-
atic."
Hughes said investigators "paid
tribute" to guards for shooting at
the van as it passed through an
open gate and approached the an-
nex. He said a British guard waiting
for his ambassador to emerge from
a meeting inside the annex also
fired.
The DIA conducted its security
review because it has responsibility
for defense attaches and their
teams in U.S. embassies. Its brief
report, "High Threat Against U.S.
Personnel and Facilities Continues,"
was completed just before the
bombing and officials stressed on
Capitol Hill that distribution of the
classified document to State De-
partment ,officials and a congres-
sional committee is not tied to the
?attack.
The report noted that terraced
hills overlook the annex, giving
eavesdroppers or attackers the high
ground. It also countered State De-
partMent arguments that the annex
is in a safe neighborhood. ?
State Department officials had
_
said they believed that the annex
would be safer than the old embassy
M west Beirut?destroyed by a car- ?
bombing in April 1983?because it
is in a Christian section. But the
DIA noted that the annex is only
about six miles west of Syrian-con-
trolled territory and that, with the
opening of the line that had divided
Moslem west Beirut and Christian
east Beirut, terrorists could move
freely.
"Recent events have shown that
such vulnerability . . . is open to
swift and brutal exploitation," the
DIA report said.
The report did not make any rec-
ommendations"for improved secu-
rity.
Reagan acknowledged Sunday
that such security improvements as
installation of a _steel gate- were in-
Continued
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/10/04: CIA-RDP90-00965R000302450003-8