REAGAN RULING TO LET CIA KIDNAP TERRORISTS OVERSEAS IS DISCLOSED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000605050009-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 23, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 19, 2013
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: February 20, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I _Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/02/19 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000605050009-0
WALL STREET JOURNAL
ARTICLE APPEARED
Oti PAGL-4----?
Covert Action
Reagan Ruling to Let
CIA Kidnap Terrorists
Overseas Is Disclosed
Decision After TWA Hijack
Met Opposition of Aides
And Congressional Panels
7New Slant in Hostage Cases
By JOHN WALCOTT arid ANDY PASZTOR
....I Staff Reporter-S-67 THE WALL STREET 3O
WASHINGTON ? President Reagan
early last year secretly authorized the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency to kidnap sus-
pected terrorists overseas and bring them
to this country to stand trial.
The idea of kidnapping?described by
one law-enforcement official as a "snatch,
grab and deliver operation" ?was ap-
proved by the president in a January 1986
directive, according to administration,
law-enforcement and intelligence officials.
The directive, called a "finding," also ap-
proved other actions, including covert op-
erations to preempt terrorist plots, in some
cases by attacking the terrorists before
they could strike, the officials say.
Mr. Reagan approved the finding de-
spite fierce opposition from some officials
in his administration and in the CIA and
the Federal Bureau of Investigation. His
decision raised concern among members
of the congressional intelligence commit-
tees. particularly over the wisdom of the
kidnapping idea and the prospect of pre-
emptive U.S. attacks on terrorists.
No Actions So Far
So far, the U.S. hasn't tried to kidnap
any suspected terrorists, the officials
say.
The CIA operation established by the
finding came under the overall supervision
of an interagency group headed by Lt. Col.
-71:2 Oliver North, the since-fired Nationanecu-
-T-TY?COTiriciT aide who was also heavily in-
volved in the secret arms sales to Iran.
Those sales were authorized under another
secret directive signed the same month.
Officials say that Col. North and former
TA Director WilliamCas ere instru-
in eve oping the kidnapping
idea.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitz-
water didn't return several telephone calls
20 February 1987
seeking comment on the presidential direc-
tive.
Disclosure of the proposed kidnappings
and other covert actions is sure to add to
the controversy over the administration's
secret actions to deal with hostage-taking
and other terrorist acts, including the at-
tempt to trade arms to Iran for American
hostages.
Webster's Misgivings
FBI Director William Webster says he
has serious misgivings about the wisdom
of using force to abduct suspected terror-
ists in foreign nations. Without comment-
ing on the specific presidential directive,
Mr. Webster says, "We should weigh care-
fully the larger implications of taking any
such action without the knowledge or ap-
proval" of foreign governments. Such ac-
tion, he says, erodes the integrity of law-
enforcement agencies and "gives the ap-
pearance of having thumbed our nose at
the host country."
Some officials were worried that the au-
thorization of preemptive attacks against
suspected terrorists might be used to side-
step President Reagan's 1981 prohibition of
assassinations. But "there's been abso-
lutely no plan to conduct assassinations,"
insists a senior White House official. "One,
we're not good at it and, two, we ought to
eschew it. But preemption may mean that
if we find out at 3 o'clock that some group
is going to attack us at 5 o'clock, we'll hit
them first, at 4 o'clock."
The January 1986 directive also author-
ized the CIA to harass and interdict terror-
ists in foreign countries by sabotaging
their supplies, finances, travel, recruiting
and operations. A new counterterrorism
center in the CIA that was established by
the finding has mounted a number of ef-
forts to sabotage terrorist operations in
Lebanon and elsewhere, officials say.
The controversial policy directive had
its roots in the administration's growing
frustration with its inability to find sus-
pected terrorists and bring them to justice,
especially amid the fratricidal anarchy of
Lebanon, senior officials say. In friendlier
and less chaotic countries, administration
officials say, authorities sometimes appre-
hend suspected terrorists, drug dealers
and other criminals and hand them over to
the U.S. without any legal formalities.
"Formal extradition proceedings tend
to have a high political profile, and some
.nations prefer to handle these things qui-
etly," one State Department official
says.
Role of TWA Hijackers
The January 1986 finding was signed in
the wake of the administration's vain ef-
fort to track down the June 1985 hijackers
of TWA Flight 847. officials say.
Mr. Casey and the CIA also were eager
to locate and punish the terrorists who kid- /9
napped William Buckley, the CIA station
chief in Beirut, in March 1984 and then tor-
tured him until he died, apparently in June
1985.
Senior administration officials say that
Mr. Casey, Attorney General Edwin
Meese, Secretary of State George Shultz
and Col. North were the most vocal advo-
cates of kidnapping suspected terrorists in
order to bring them to justice.
FBI chief Webster, a former federal ap-
peals-court judge, and Oliver "Buck" Re-
vell, one of his top aides, strongly objected
to the kidnapping strategy, on the grounds
that it probably violated international law
and wouldn't succeed, according to law-en-
forcement officials. FBI spokesmen de-
cline to comment on the role of Mr. Web-
ster and Mr. Revell, citing national-secu-
rity restrictions.
At the CIA, intelligence sources say,
both former Deputy Director John 1,Mtc,a,-. A
hon and Cl ' the agency s f7
"a1T--.ector Jor operations, opposed the idea.
Mr. McMahon retired from the CIA in De-
cember 1985: Mr. George was overruled.
Mr. Meese and other top officials urged
the president to sign the directive, accord-
ing to law-enforcement officials, on the
grounds that such activities, amounting to
self-defense, were sanctioned by the United
Nations Charter and other principles of in-
ternational law. Officials say that Abra-
ham Sofaer, a State Department legal ad-
viser, also wrote a memo declaring that
forcibly apprehending terrorists overseas
wouldn't prejudice cases against them in
American courts.
During a recent seminar on terrorism
and the media produced by Columbia Uni-
versity and by two public-television sta-
tions, Mr. Sofaer said the U.S. would be
within its rights to seize a suspected ter-
rorist in a foreign country. "This is a new
game in terrorism but it's an old game in
other crime," he said. "We have people
who deliver people to us.. . . You might
just find a fellow somewhere. all tied up.
He might be sent to a country where we
have an effective extradition treaty."
Congress in 1984 passed a major anti-
terrorism law specifically expanding U.S.
criminal jurisdiction to cover hijackings,
kidnappings and other terrorist acts
against American citizens, planes, ships or
facilities anywhere in the world. The law
makes it much easier to prosecute alleged
terrorists, but it doesn't deal with the ques-
tion of how they are brought to a U.S.
courtroom.
"People volunteer to be arrested and
tried very seldom," says one administra-
tion counterterrorism expert. "The courts
generally don't object so long as there is
Continued
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no undue force or restraint used. If you get
a ring in somebody's nose and don't pull it
too tight, it's acceptable."
It is controversial," a White House of-
ficial concedes. "One judge might not be
troubled by having a suspect brought be-
fore him in this manner, but another judge
might throw the case out."
The CIA apparently was chosen to
carry out such secret missions because un-
der U.S. laws, the FBI is prohibited from
operating in any foreign country unless it
has the cooperation of that government.
The FBI, however, was ordered to share
intelligence and otherwise assist the CIA in
the program, officials say.
A. month after Mr. Reagan signed the
finding, Col. North wrote a classified "an-
nex" to a public report by Vice President
George Bush's task force on combating
terrorism. The annex created a secret in-
teragency committee called the Operations
Sub-Group, or OSG, to oversee kidnappings
and other covert operations, intelligence
sources say. Until he was dismissed last
November, Col. North was the chairman of
the group, along with Duane "Dewey"
clarxidger-the head of the CIA counterter-
rorism center.
Concerns in Congress
Meanwhile, the administration disclo-
sure of the secret directive to Senate and
House intelligence committees stirred bi-
partisan objections.
According to one intelligence source.
the major concern about the finding was
that it was generally worded but author-
ized sweeping powers. "It was very
vague," this official says. "It amounted to
let us do what we want against terrorism."
He says that lawmakers raised questions
of possible assassination attempts but were
told by the administration that this
shouldn't be a concern because the execu-
tive order remained in effect.
Another intelligence source says that
discussion in the Senate Intelligence Com-
mittee involved concern that Mr. Reagan
should maintain control over whatever was
done and not allow others to run off with-
out authority. The feeling was, he says,
that "you have to ensure the president's
thumbprint is on this."
During a public hearing, however. Re-
publican Sen. Arlen Spector of Pennsylva-
nia urged the Justice Department to go
"right up to the limits" allowed by the Su-
preme Court in grabbing terrorist sus-
pects. "You might call it an abduction, you
might even call it a kidnapping," Sen.
Spector argued. "But given the problems
of international terrorism," he said. "this
is a minimal type of force."
The January finding was amended last
April, intelligence sources say, after CIA
General Counsel David Doherty demanded
and received clarification of the agency's
presidential authority to carry out preemp-
tive and other operations against terror-
ists.
During his time as the National Secu-
rity Council's top counterterrorism official,
Col. North talked about delivering a major
terrorist suspect into U.S. hands, prefera-
bly in chains or in the trunk of a car, U.S.
officials say.
Harder Than It Looks
? The CIA, however, hasn't kidnapped
any terrorists, intelligence officials say.
because identifying them, tracking them
down, and grabbing them is even harder
than it looks. "If you go into another coun-
try and snatch someone up, you're mount-
ing a paramilitary operation," one official
says.
Administration officials say that when
the idea originally was discussed, Col.
North. Mr. Clarridge and others hoped it
might be possible to recruit members of
some warring Lebanese clans to deliver
suspected terrorists from rival groups.
"There was a thought that a competing
group might be willing to hand over some-
body we wanted," one official says.
But the administration had tried earlier
to recruit Lebanese factions into its war on
terrorism, with disastrous results. Late in
1984, President Reagan authorized the CIA
to create and train a secret counterter-
rorist force composed of Lebanese, Pales-
tinians and other .non-Americans. Mr.
McMahon, then the CIA's No. 2 official.
and other CIA officials opposed the. idea.
The Washington Post later disclosed
that four months after the unit had been
created, renegade members of it hired
other Lebanese to plant a car bomb outside
the Beirut home of radical Shiite clergy-
man Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.
Mr. Fadlallah is the leader of the mili-
tant Hezbollah (or Party of God) , which
U.S. officials believe is responsible for
bombings of U.S. installations in Lebanon
and the kidnappings of Americans there.
He survived the car bombing, but more
than 80 other people were killed in the
March 8, 1985, bombing.
The CIA publicly denied any involve-
ment in the bombing, a claim supported by
the House Intelligence Committee. which
investigated the affair. But after the bomb-
ing, the administration canceled its effort
to recruit and train a foreign counterter-
rorist force.
Unlike Col. North's secret Iranian arms
sales and aid to Nicaraguan rebels, a se-
nior U.S. official says, all counterterrorism
operations now are conducted under close
scrutiny from the CIA, the State and Jus-
tice Departments, and the congressional
intelligence committees.
"Any operation that took place would
be carefully coordinated," the senior offi-
cial says. "I might be more concerned if
Casey and 011ie were still around."
D.\ VII) IR( CEIHS ATHIBI TED
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