I THOUGHT IT WAS TERRIFIC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000503980012-7
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 17, 2012
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: October 21, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503980012-7
\ RTICLE APP J R II ~...R TIME
INPkk.A ~ 21 October 1985
"I Thought It Was Terrific"
In an interview with State Department Correspondent
Johanna McGeary, Secretary of State George Shultz shared
his views on the U.S. action and its repercussions:
On tM Inbrceptlon. It's true that this is an important
event in the fight against terrorism, but there has been a
tremendous amount accomplished in the last year or so
that is not as visible as this. People tend to register the
things that are visible. But the fact is that through the de-
velopment of better into ce and Or-very g mte -
cans, or examp e-we have uncovered, prevented or -T. 31-1 - las
a some terrorist incidents in the, t year.
flut my point is, there has been a lot ppening, and
at the same time, this was a dramatic example of insisting
that those who engage in these criminal acts be brought to
justice. You have to get the message to
terrorists that the civilized community
is opposed to what they are doing and
prepared to take action to see that
they don't succeed, and that they are
brought to justice, so there is a cost. If
you never apprehend and deal effec-
tively with the terrorists, then they
have a cost-free shot at everything.
On possbb retaliation against d w
U.S. I haven't noticed any reluctance
to take on the U.S., so no doubt there
will be people in the terrorist ranks
who are stimulated by this, but they
don't seem to need very much stimula-
tion. I don't think that we should hesi-
tate to bring people to justice for crim-
inal acts for fear that some other
criminals may not like it and try to do
something about it.
On ph ning tM operation. I can't tell
you whose idea it was. It wasn't [mine].
But the minute I heard the idea, I
thought it was terrific. Judging how these incidents are run,
it was a good show. Maybe we're getting better at it.
On Egypt. The U.S.-Egyptian relationship is a strong one.
There are fundamental things that will endure, and we
expect and certainly want our relationship with Egypt to
continue on a strong and confident basis. We had a differ-
ence of opinion with the Egyptian government on dealing
with the hijackers, and we registered that. The Egyptians
took steps that they felt were necessary to ensure the safe-
ty of people left on the ship, let alone the ship itself;
and that apparently involved taking the hijackers off and
assuring them passage to somewhere else. They did that
before they knew that a murder had been committed. It's
not clear to me what was known by whom in the Egyp-
tian government after they knew that the murder had
been committed, so I don't want to comment on that
other than to say that we were disappointed that they
were ready to let-and did let-these criminals escape
from the hands of organized, civilized
government.
On prosecution by Italy. I have com-
plete confidence in the Italians. The
Italian record in dealing with terror-
ism is superb.
On terror ism. If you plot terrorist inci-
dents by year on a graph, it's rising.
But I think that terrorism is losing
ground in the sense that the organized,
civilized, international community is
becoming very alert to it, and more
and more determined to stop it and
isolate it. I think it takes a while for
societies like ours to register a problem
and take it in-take it into your gut as
well as your head. It is significant that
nobody wanted that ship to come into
their harbor. It's significant that no-
body wanted that plane to land on
their airfield. In other words, the idea
that terrorists deserve no sanctuary is
gaining ground.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/17: CIA-RDP90-00965R000503980012-7