TERROR IN 1985: BRUTAL ATTACKS, TOUGH RESPONSE

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504070002-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 3, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: December 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Terror in 1985:
Brutal Attacks,
Tough Response
By ROBERT D. McFADDEN
As a year of hijackings, kidnappings,
car bombings and murder draws to a
close, reports from correspondents of
The New York Times around the world
indicate that governments have hard-
ened their attitudes and toughened
their security measures against a
growing plague of terrorism.
Across Europe and the Middle East,
where terrorists in 1985 struck more
often and more brutally than in years
past, governments have adopted new
laws, ordered tighter defenses and
forged new links of international coop.
eration to exchange information, catch
and prosecute terrorists, and isolate
nations that support them.
Even Italy and Austria, which have
long been sympathetic to Palestinian
and Arab causes, found their airports
the targets of men with links to Pales-
tinians on Friday, and officials' re-
sponses showed they were embar-
rassed.
Britain's Tough Measures
Britain, which uses tough measures
to suppress Northern Ireland violence
that have led to more violence, agreed
last fall to give the Irish Republic a
voice in the affairs of Northern Ireland.
France, where violence by leftist
radicals has sharply increased in the
past year, has made little progress in
trying to track terrorists and is consid-
ering a range of tougher measures -
including more police powers to infil-
trate terrorist groups, even if these en-
croach upon traditional freedoms.
Israel. which has heavy antiterrorist
security, found it harder in 1985 to re-
taliate against Palestinian terrorists.
Some experts say Israel, which scat-
tered the Palestinians when it de-
stroyed their sanctuary in Lebanon
several years ago, may have to resume
using its tactics of the 1970's, when
Mossad hit teams sought Palestinian
terrorists.
Though many American citizens
abroad have been attacked by terror-
ists in the last year, the United States
has been spared from major violence,
partly because of its own security
measures and partly because targets
overseas have presumably been seen
by terrorists as easier marks.
After years of relative immunity, the
Soviet Union, which has long backed
Palestinian aspirations and countries
that aid terrorists, found itself a victim
in 1985 when terrorists kidnapped four,
Soviet Embassy workers in Beirut and
NEW YORK TIMES
30 December 1985
killed one of them. Moscow and other
Soviet-bloc countries, in response,
seemed to edge away from their past
tolerance toward terrorist groups, call-
ing for severe punishment for them.
Though the Soviet Union has not
backed away from Libya and Syria,
which support terrorists, or from the
Palestine Liberation Organization,
there have been reports that Soviet and
American officials have begun to share
information about terrorism in an ef-
fort to combat attacks.
Further evidence of the hardening
Soviet-bloc attitudes toward terrorism
came at the United Nations on Dec. 9,
when the General Assembly, which has
159 members, unanimously adopted a
resolution condemning all interna-
tional terrorism as criminal.
Cuba Joins in Vote
"It is an important resolution - we
%support it all the way and wholeheart-
edly," said Oleg A. Troyanovsky, the
chief Soviet delegate. Even Cuba,
which had cast the sole vote against the
resolution in the Assembly's legal com-
mittee, switched at the last minute in
the full Assembly vote.
Though the United Nations vote was
no more than a moral commitment, it
ended more than 13 years of bitter de-
bate over the issue and underscored a
growing attitude of revulsion against
terrorism in a year in which, according
to State Department figures, there
were more than 690 major terrorist at-
tacks around the world.
While there is no easy way to quan-
tify terrorism and compare it with that
in years past, interviews with govern-
ment officials and terrorism experts in
a score of countries around the world
over the weekend indicated that 1985
was one of the most active, lethal and
brutal times of terrorism in years.
Children were killed. An elderly New
York City man in a wheelchair was
shot and hurled into the Mediterra-
nean. There were murders without de-
mands by some terrorists, and some
bombings for which no group took re-
sponsibility.
Many Faces of Terror
There were acts of terrorism in Eu-
rope, the Middle East, Central and
South America and other parts of the
world in the name of various Palestin-
ian factions, the Irish Republican
Army, anti-Sandinista rebels in Nica-
ragua, Sikhs in India, Islamic funda-
mentalists, Basque separatists and
others.
In March, 80 people were killed in a
car bomb in Beirut. In June, an Amer-
ican Navy diver was slain and hostages
were held for two weeks by hijackers of
a Trans World Airlines jet that had just
left the Athens airport, and gunmen in
San Salvador killed 13 people in a cafe.
In August, a car bomb killed 50 peo-
ple in Beirut. In September, 39 people
were wounded in a grenade attack on a
cafe in Rome. In October, gunmen
seized an Italian cruise ship, the
Achille Lauro, and shot Leon Klinghoff-
er, the New York man in a wheelchair.
In November, rebels in Bogota, Co-
lombia, seized a court building and 95
people, including 11 Supreme Court
Justices, were killed; later that month,
an Egyptair plane was hijacked and 60
of the 98 people on the jet were killed
during the hijacking and the storming
of the plane.
Death Toll in Hundreds
The year's toll of hundreds killed and
thousands wounded was capped last
Friday by attacks on crowds near El Al
Israel Airlines check-in counters at air-
ports in Rome and Vienna. The attacks
seemed to symbolize much of the
year's terrorism: shocking, brutal,
with innocent people slain.
They also reflected the difficulties of
providing effective security at public
places like airports, which can hardly
prevent incursions by trained, deter-
mined terrorists willing to die for a
cause.
Nonetheless, governments around
the world have toughened security
measures and, according to experts,
terrorists have responded in the past
year with new tactics and strategies.
Instead of directly attacking security-
minded foes like Israel, for example,
Palestinians have attacked softer Is-
raeli targets in Italy, Austria and else-
where.
Terrorists also appear to have found
new ways to elude metal detectors and
slip onto aircraft with weapons. And
when airline security has been
strengthened they have struck at more
vulnerable targets, like the Achille
Lauro and airport lounges.
A Year of Growing Terror
Moreover, in 1985 terrorists also
made more lethal bombs, struck more
frequently and tried to kill larger num-
bers of people in the belief that these
tactics would more forcefully express
their own grievances and inflict
greater psychological shocks on a pub-
lic that seems to be growing inured to
minor acts of terrorism.
"With one or two people being killed
by terrorist bombs every week," said
Ariel Merari, a terrorism expert at Tel
Aviv University, "terrorists feel they
need to kill more people to get the same
amount of attention. The public is not
so easily shocked as before. Today, you
have to kill a lot of people to shock the
public."
Claus Walter Herbertz, one of West
Germany's leading academic authori-
ties on terrorism, also said he has ob-
served a growing quiescence of public
opinion in response to the rising level of
violence, as if people were becoming
hardened to the horrors of terrorism.
"I believe it is a new normality," Mr.
Herbertz said. "It is cruel and abnor-
mal, but it is normality. The German
public is very strongly used to it."
";tHiued
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Israel
Israeli officials said 1985 marked the
re-emergence of the P.L.O., which had
been destroyed as a conventional mili-
tary force and crippled as a guerrilla
movement when it was ousted from
Lebanon and scattered throughout the
Middle East in August 1982.
In the last year, at least 12 Israelis
were killed by Palestinian attackers.
Palestinian guerrillas were involved in
38 attacks in Israel or on Israelis in Eu-
rope in the first nine months of 1985,
more than double the 1984 total for the
same period, Israeli officials said.
Israeli officials say that, despite his
disavowals, Yasir Arafat, the P.L.O.
chairman, sanctioned many of these
attacks, while rival and dissident
Palestinian groups were responsible
for others, seeking to embarrass him
or destroy peace initiatives.
The policy of blaming Mr. Arafat ap-
pears to be based partly on the belief
that he is behind many of the attacks. It
is also the result of a general effort to
discredit him at a critical time in the
Middle East peace process.
Meanwhile, the Israelis have found it
increasingly difficult to retaliate for
Palestinian attacks. Experts on terror-
ism said the Israeli bombing of the
P.L.O. headquarters near Tunis last
fall was an act of desperation that had
little effect on Palestinian violence and
provoked an outcry by other nations.
Mr Merari, the Tel Aviv University
specialist, said Israel, with no more
easy-to-reach targets, might have to
return to the "underground" tactics
used a decade ago, when Israeli agents
went after individual Palestinians.
And with nations like Syria, Libya
and Iran accused of clandestinely
providing terrorists with weapons,
training and sanctuary, Israeli offi-
cials feel they will have to make it
clear that such nations will be held re-
sponsible for their clients' actions.
Britain
The Government of Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher has taken a hard
line on terrorism, warning that no pris-
oners would be released, no statements
made, no hijacked airliners allowed to
take off and no other concessions made
in response to terrorists' demands.
The Prime Minister has also ap-
pealed to news organizations to "de-
prive terrorists of the oxygen of pub-
licity," but beyond appeals for re-
straint, the Government has not tried
to invoke censorship or employ coer-
cion.
The Irish Republican Army is the
'Government's main worry. The organi-
zation says it has killed 23 policemen
this year; there have been bomb and
mortar attacks on six police stations
There is a widespread sense of anger
and frustration, and a belief that the
standard security methods are no
longer effective against terrorists.
"Is there ever among these fanatics
who fire without shame on innocent
people - on women, on children -
someone who asks himself if the strug-
gle to which he is devoted can justify in
any way this madness?" Le Monde
asked over the weekend.
And Le Figaro, in a front-page edito-
ral, called for tough new measures, in-
cluding greater powers for the police to
infiltrate terrorist groups, even if these
measures encroached on- traditional
freedoms. Apparently the government
was already considering such steps-
Francois le Mouel, head of the
French Antiterrorist Coordination
Unit, in a confidential memo to the In-
terior Ministry that found its way into
Egypt
It was an Egyptian jetliner flying out
of Athens that was hijacked to Malta on
Nov. 23. The next day, after Egyptian
commandos stormed the plane, 60 of
the 98 people who had been on the plane
were dead. It was also an Egyptian
plane, carrying the four Palestinians
accused of hijacking the Achille Lauro,
that was forced by American fighter
jets to land in Italy in October.
The Egyptian Government has
clearly been embarrassed by its ties to
Palestinians. The semi-official Egyp-
tian newspaper Al Gomhouriya, after
the shootings in Rome and Vienna on
Friday. reflected Egypt's quandary by
referring to Egyptian opposition to ter-
rorism, then criticizing Israel for
blaming the P.L.O.
"Naturally, we condemn every ter-
ronst action that victimizes innocent
civilians." the paper said Saturday,
"but what is remarkable is Israel's
rush to put the blame for yesterday's
events on the P.L.O., although the or-
ganization's attitude to this kind of
operation has been clear for years."
since Dec. 5. the press rdcently, complained that the
Britain's decision last fall to give the I police had virtually no informers or
Irish Republic a voice in Northern Ire- other sources to infiltrate terrorist
land's affairs is partly an effort to groups-
starve the I.R.A. of local support and to "For more than a year," he de-
improve security in a region where I clared, "the special services have
harsh measures have angered many lacked sufficiently reliable and well-
nationalists. placed sources."
'tough Measures Criticized He proposed greater use of telephone
The measures include the use of plas- wiretaps, the reintroduction of hotel se-
tic bullets and undercover units, trial curity cards for security checks, new
without jury, the use of uncorroborated procedures for admitting visitors from
testimony of paid informers, and the the Middle East, detention of suspects
Emergency Powers Act and the Pre- for up to four days for questioning with-
vention of Terrorism Act, under which out filing charges and more use of tech-
f t us
on s
suspects can be held for a week without
charges. All have been criticized by the
Irish Government, British civil liber-
ties groups and a range of groups in
Northern Ireland.
Britain has tight controls on Irish
flights at airports. Travelers to and
from Ireland and Northern Ireland
must file information about the pur-
pose and duration of their trips and
where they will stay; all passengers,
even children, undergo body searches;
and luggage is hand-searched as well
as X-rayed.
nology to process rn orma son
pected terrorists.
"We will certainly have to find a dif-
ficult balance," he wrote, "between
our principles of liberty and certain se-
i curity measures which could impinge
I on them."
Italy
Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini
said he believed Italy was faced with a
new generation of Mediterranean ter-
rorists, whose goal is "to strike at the
heart of countries favorable to negotia-
tions in the Middle East."
Though no stranger to terrorism -
the Red Brigades and other radical
groups created chaos for years - Italy
has long been relatively free from Arab
violence, in part because of its friendli-
ness to the P.L.O. and its understand-
ing for the Palestinian cause.
But the Government of Prime Minis-
ter Bettino Craxi has, with Western
allies, tried to involve the Palestinians,
through the P.L.O., in a new process of
trying to negotiate peace in the Middle
East.
Italy, however, has become a virtual
playground for Arab terrorists. A
Palestinian was charged in connection
with a bombing on the Via Veneto in
September. Jordanian and British air-
line offices in Italy were attacked by
terrorist, and Palestinians have been
accused of the hijacking of the Achille
Lauro. One gunman who survived the
attack at Leonardo da Vinci Airport
carried a note indicating he was a
member of a renegade Palestinian
group.
Douglas Hurd, the former Northern
Ireland Secretary who is now Home
Secretary, recently proposed a 10-point
program to combat terrorism, stress-
ing international cooperation. "Terror-
ism knows no frontiers," he said, "and
those who fight terrorism must learn to
work together across frontiers."
He called for all countries to refuse
substantive concessions to terrorist de-
mands, for exchanges of information
on terrorists, for cooperation in appre-
hending and prosecuting terrorists,
and for a variety of legal, diplomatic
and other efforts to make it difficult for
terrorists to get money, arms and help.
France
Direct Action, a fadical leftist group,
says it has conducted 20 terrorist at-
tacks this year, including the bombing
of the Marks & Spencer department-
store in Paris. Yet not a single suspect
has been arrested. There also has been
no progress in private and Government
efforts to free four French hostages
held for many months, apparently by
pro-Iranian extremists in Lebanon.
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A lively debate has developed within
the Government over what to do about
it all. Abrupt changes, at least in se-
curity, appear to be in the wind, but be-
yond that it remains to be seen what
policy changes might be wrought.
Italian officials complain that their
intelligence services are lax about ter-
rorists, and some critics contend that
in Italy there is a certain tolerance to-
ward terrorists. Italy does not harbor
terrorists, though interior Minister
Luigi Scalfaro conceded that there are
hundreds of thousands of Arab nation-
als in Italy whose movements the Gov-
ernment does not monitor.
Mr. Craxi and other Italian officials'
say the battle against terrorism needs
more involvement by the Soviet Union,
which might be able to moderate ter-
rorist groups and Soviet allies that sup-
port them.
West Germany
West Germany, which was shaken in
the late 1970's by acts of terrorism car-
ried out by the Red Army Faction, has
had fewer such incidents in recent
years. West GErman officials say this
is partly because terrorists have not
been well organized and partly because
the West Germany, with its efficient
tracking of all citizens, makes life diff i-
cult for terrorists on the run.
Mr. Herbertz, a leading authority on
terrorism, said the West German pub-
lic, like much of the world, had become
more used to terrorism.
Experts and public officials cannot
even agree on definitions of terrorism
and terrorists, he said, saying that one
man 's terrorist was another- man's
i freedom fighter.
Despite the best West German ef-
forts, terrorism continues, including
the slaying of a prominent industrialist
in Munich in February and a bombing
at the Rhein-Main Air Base in August
that killed 2 Americans and wounded
20. The Red Army Faction took respon-
sibility for both attacks. In addition, a
bombing last month at a United States
Army post in Frankfurt wounded 35
people; the Abu Nidal group, a rene-
gade Palestinian faction, is suspected
of involvement in that attack.
Austria
In 1979, Austria became the first
Western country to recongize the
P.L.O. Chancellor Bruno Kreisky
sought to play a mediating role in sev-
eral Middle East peace initiatives, as
wet! as helping to arrange a prisoner
exchange between Israel and Syria last
summer.
Despite Austria relatively sympa-
thetic position on Arab issues, though,
Arab terrorists hijacked a train carry-
ing Jewish immigrants from the Soviet
Union in 1973, forcing Austria to cut its
role as an immigration transit point. In
1975 terrorists took hostage several oil
ministers from Organization of Petro-
leum Exporting Countries nations, and
in 1981 Heinz Nittel, president of the
Austria-Israel Society, was assassi-
nated in Vienna.
Some diplomats in Vienna believe
Austria's stance on Arab issues makes
it particularly vulnerable to terrorist
attacks, as Arab factions bent on using
violence to sabotage Middle East peace
moves find it relatively easy to enter
and leave.
Spain
Spain, which has seen nearly 500 peo-
ple killed since 1968 and 36 killings this
year alone in violence related to the
Basque separatist movement, has a
tough law that allows terrorism sus-
pects to be held for 10 days without a
court appearance. Basque terrorism
does appear to be declining.
The Socialist Government of -Prime
Minister Felipe Gonzalez has sought to,
rebut charges that it is soft on terror-
ism. Mr. Gonzalez has negotiated an
agreement with France to deny Basque_
terrorists safe haven, and during the
T.W.A. hijacking last summer, Spain
refused to give in to a demand to free
two Shiite Moslem militiamen that
were being held by Spain.
Mr. Gonzalez has called for a major
international conference on fighting
terrorism,
The Government does not, however,
condemn the P.L.O., and argues that_
the best way to combat Palestinian ter-
rorism is to bring peace to the Middle
East through a negotiated settlement
involving the P.L.O., Israel and the
United States.
Soviet Union
This year, after years of relative im-
munity to terrorism, the Soviet Union
found itself a target and seemed to
edge away from its past tolerance ot. if
not outright support for, terrorist
groups. The turning point was in Sep-
tember, when terrorists kidnapped'
four Soviet Embassy employees in Bei-
rut and later killed one of them.
On Oct. 9, hundreds of Soviet Foreign
Ministry employees left work to attend.
a memorial for Arkady Katakov, the
Beirut embassy secretary who was
slain. The three others were released
unharmed on Oct. 29 after intervention;
by Syria.
Further signs of a shift came two
days after the memorial service when
the Soviet press agency Tass, reporting`
the killing of Mr. Klinghoffer aboard
the Achille Lauro, described American
anger as "understandable and just.'
The crimes of terrorists, no matter
where they are committed, must be
punished most severely, and such se
verity must be shown unfailingly to all
perpetrators of such crimes," Tass
said.
The kidnapping of the Soviet diplo-
mats also was believed to have helped
change the Soviet attitude - and that
of many of its allies - on the United
Nations resolution condemning terror--
ism.
Whether the change in the Soviet
Union's public statements about ter-
rorism will mean a change in its poli-
cies remains to be seen. It support for
Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan
leader, constitutes support for terror-
ism, as the Reagan Administration
contends, then Moscow showed little
concern when it welcomed him in Octo-
ber. Nor has the Soviet Union backed
away from the P.L.O. or Syria:
Nicaragua
Nicaragua is a center of the global
debate over terrorism. Both sides -
the Government and the United States- -
backed rebels - call their enemies ter-
rorists. -
Rebel units in Nicaragua have
burned down scores of health centers,
schools and other public buildings. .
They have been accusesd of many kid-
nappings, rapes and murders, and
President Daniel Ortega Saavedra has
denounced these at every opportunity,
blaming the United States for support-
ing the rebels.
During its 20-year struggle to gain -?
power, which finally succeeded in 1979,
the Sandinista Front staged dozens of
..
robberies, hijacked airplanes, and at.
tacked, seized or killed members of the
National Guard who were implicated in
incidents of torture. President Ortbga,?
himself served seven years in prison
for a bank-robbery in which a guard
was killed.
The Sandinista Government says it'
never commited random assaults like
those at the Rome and Vienna airports
Friday. It contends that its operations,
as a guerrilla movement before com-
ing to power, were all of an essentially
political nature, not terrorism, because
they did not victimize innocent civil-
ians.
The Reagan Administration has re-
peatedly pointed to the solidarity be-"
tween the Sandinistas and leftist rebels
in other countries as proof that Mana-
gua has become a haven for terrorists.
The Sandinistas say their Government
is the victim, not the perpetrator, of
terrorism. ?
Canada 11
Canada has always sided with the
United States .in condemning terror-..
ism, but its citizens have long believed,
themselves immune from, or at least
far distant from, terrorist strikes. That
changed this year.
In June, an Air-India flight from To-
ronto crashed in the Irish Sea, killing
all 329 people on board. While the cause
of the disaster has yet to be officially,
established, there has been consistent
speculation that Sikh extremists
planted a bomb on board.
On the same day, a bomb exploded in
the luggage of another airliner that had
originated in Canada and had just
landed at Narita International Airport
near Tokyo, killing two baggage han-
dlers.
Since June, the Canadian Govern-'
ment has tightened security at all,
major airports, and before Christmas
it issued a general warning to travelers
to look out for suspicious persons and
luggage at airports.
The Conservative Government of
Prime Minister Brian Mulroney has -
publicly concluded that such incidents
show that no nation or its citizens are
immune from terrorism.
43.
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