A SHADOW WAR AGAINST TERROR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706110024-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 24
• Publication Date: November 26, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110024-4
STAT
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706110024-4
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ARTICLEAPPf~1R~D NEW YORK TIMES
ON PAGE ~~1..._ 26 November 1985
A Shadow War Against Terror
WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 - Amer-
icans have been attacked in 72 coun-
tries since 1966, and American citizens
and property are now the targets of
about 30 to 35 percent of all inter-
national terrorist incidents, according
to State Department figures. Attacks
so far in 1965 have left 17 Americans
dead and 154 wounded.
Nevertheless, the State Department
also counts more than 90 planned at-
tacks on American citizens and sites
abroad that have been foiled in the last
12 months.
For the United States, these are the
silent victories in a shadowy war. The
international range of the battle was il-
lustrated by one of those thwarted
plots.
About a year ago a Libyan intelli-
gence o c~
Jordan met in Rome to discuss an am-
wt a"n""` """?''`~' ' "" Went factor on the international politi-
~olicy m mte igence agencies
f this cen-
f
t
d
th
scape
o
or
e res
~.1 lan
secu ~sys ems o e t "said Robert B. Oakle of the
'~"' a' ?" "'r?"'""b "'?"""' '"... - gan Administration's Interdepartmen-
tal Group on Terrorism. "A worldwide
r~ers a em'~ssies~an d~loma~c ef- system of competitive arms sales
t5-- o e s r crnm makes weapons available more easily
tle. A task force on terrorism, headed to terrorist groups.^Mass communica'
~yave rar-wena aces ~ ua~ ~~~- easier between different C011rltries.
men acTfionsT~ a em r: Border controls are diminishing.
u no y solution particularly in Europe."
to the problem, and some specialists Many governments find regular war-
?
are worried that overreaction may fare too costly, he added, and terror?
drain resources away from more im- ism is, therefore, viewed by several
portant areas of concern. F~.~g ~ countries as a cheap way to strike a
lieve that intelli ence information, ,
____~-~sm: =-r.,~?e blow at their ceemies. '
never o ad uate to the tass:.
or can rescue opera ons coon
on to succeed, as was demonstrated
Sunday by the Egyptian commando
unit that stormed the Egyptair plane in
Malta, setting off a battle and tare that
killed 57 hostages.
"We have rhetoric on terrorism, we
bitious dramatic ntot With nearly
pounds of losives a truck bomb
wo assem ed parked near the
~ United States Fm sQCV in rs?~and
set off by remote control on a busv
~y
At the Rome meeting. acco 'na to
erican and E flan mtelli ence,
e Libyan yromised X00,000 to the
Palestinian for his part in the plot.
Over the next six months the Pales-
tinian conducted surveillance on the
embassy in Cairo, went to Syria for
weapons and explosives training from
the radical Abu Nidal Palestinian
group, traveled to Lebanon to pick up
the explosives-laden truck, took it by
ship to Egypt and turned it over to
other Palestinians for the attack.
But in that period one of the plotters
also served as an informant for Egyp-
tian security, which sealed off the em-
bassy's surrounding streets and foiled
the attempted bombing on the after-
noon of May 22, 1985.
This invisible record of success
stands against a dramatic run of highly
publicized violence, including the
bombings of American Embassy build-
ings in Beirut, the destruction of the
United States Marine compound at the
Beirut airport, the hijacking of a Trans
World Airlines jetliner in June, the sei-
zure of the Italian cruise ship Achille
Lauro last month and the hi jacking last
weekend of an Egyptair jetliner.
have policy statements, we don't have
strategy," said Brian Jenkins, an ex-
pert at the Rand Corporation. "We
have a lot of terrorism in the world; we
can't eradicate it any more than we can
homicide in the United States."
A Trail of Terror
As long as people have used organ-
ized violence against each other's
tribes and nations, they have invented'
methods of magnifying small attacks
into major political assaults. The rela-
tively weak have often found the vul-
nerable points of the power[ul.
Indeed, the word "assassin" is be-
lieved by scholars to derive from
"hashish," used by a Shiite Moslem
sect, the Hashashin, to drug those
about to be sent out on suicide missions
against Crusaders and Sunni Moslems
in the 11th century.
But the strategy of terrorism has
found an especially supportive environ-
ment in an age of modern technology
and expensive weapons. Unlike com-
mon crime, it involves not only victim
and assailant, but a third party - an
audience -whose policies and politics
.are the real targets of the assault.
Complex factors now encourage it as a
means of combat.
Whlle past efforts by the United
States? against terrorism have been
spasmodic, Mr. Jenkins noted, the
Reagan Administration appears to be
maintaining steadier interest, partly
because of terrorism's recent impact
on American policy.
The truck._bombing of the Marine
garrisor,in Beirut in 1983, which killed
241 Americans, for example, was in-
strumental in driving the Udted States
military out of Lebanon. It was carried
out by a Shiite Moslem group, report-
edlywith direction or support from the
Governments of Syria a~ Iran.
The high priority given to combating
terrorism also derives from Mr. Rea-
gan's having come into office in 1981 on
a groundswell of outrage over the 444-
Idaycaptivity of American diplomats in
Iran, an event that helped weaken
President Carter and contributed to
Mr. Reagan's election on a promise of
tough retaliation.
"Let terrorists beware," the new
President said seven days after his ~
first inauguration, "that when the rules ;
of international behavior are violated,
our policy will be one of swift and effec-
five retribution."
But when it has come down to spe-
chic cases, the Reagan Administration
has ,been divided on the practicality
and wisdom of retribution, often be-
~ cause a clear military target has not
been found. Mr. Reagan said at a news
conference during the T.W.A. hijack-
ing last June, "If you just aim in the
general direction and kill some people,
well, then, you're a terrorist, too."
The most precise use of military
force against terrorists came th the
Achflle Lauro episode last month, when
Navy F-14 fighters forced down an
Egyptian airliner carrying Palestin-
ians who had hijacked the Italian pas-
senger ship. It was that same plane
that was hijacked last weekend.
COQt1AUe(i
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~ iue yucauw, v, u~u.~. ww ...........
use force has been a matter of debate
within the Government, and the ab-
sense of clear policy, military officers
say, has made the armed forces uncer-
tain about what contingencies they
should prepare tor. They say regular
forces are not trained to handle many
counterterror operations.
Assassination is ruled out under a
1981 Presidential executive order ce in-
telligence, which states, "No person
employed by or acting on behalf of the
United States Government shall en-
gage in, or conspire to engage in, assas-
sination."
Concerning use of the military, Mr.
Jenkins of Rand said, "It's not in our
interest to enter the battlerield of air
opponent, where he has all the advan-
tages."
He added: "When we use force there
ought to be a clear, unambiguous mes-
sage of who did it and why we did it. It
should have the clear support of Cce-
gress and the American people. Mili-
tary force is not something you should
throw around casually. It is a blunt in-
strument."
The Delta Force
The Delta Force has reportedly been
deployed several times: to advise
Venezuelan forces ce haw to retake a
hijacked plane: to Oman to prepare to
retake a hijacked plane in Kuwait, and
to the Mediterranean at the time of the
T.W.A. hijacking. So far as is known,
I however, those forces were not used in
any of those incidents.
Tag known responses have been
~ more measured, The Central Intelli-
v
up an erronsz o~erataons aevoti
ersonne othe- task.
ut some o an prT ex-
perts are concerned that terrorism's
spectacular nature may draw re-
.sources away from more critical areas
of nudear and conventional defense.
"We need the ca bilities because
it's ono er orm o wa are, a mtli-
tare irate Hence o cer saia'r'Su e -
The Military View
Military officers complain that Intel- ,
ligence ce terrorists and their where-
abouts is insuffident to pinpoint tar-
gets. The United States has photo-
graphic and electronic satellites that
collect much information ce the Soviet .
Union but few spies able to inriltrate a
sma:l group of highly motivated terror-
ists in the Middle East.
In addition, American counter-
terrorist forces are based in the United
States, tar from the Middle East,
where many terrorist attacks against
Americans have occurred. Getting a
force there in time has always been a
problem, the officers say.
They explain that American military
forces could be assigned at least two,
missions in countering terrorists. In
one, highly trained troops coWd be used
to rescue Americans who had been
taken hostage. In the other, those or
regular forces could be used in retalia-
tion for a terrorist attack.
In the last few years the Pentagon
has created several teams and com-
mands for these purposes.
The Joint Special Operations Agen-
cy, headed by a two-star general, is
charged with preparing doctrine and
plans to guide camterterrorist forces
in their formation, training and opera-
tions. But it has ce command authority
over the forces.
The Joint Spedal Operations Com-
mand, asecret unit stance at Fort
Bragg, N.C., is reported to have control
over units that might be used to repel
terrorists or to rescue Americans
.taken hostage. They include the Ar-
my's Delta Force of soldiers ?at Fort
Bragg and Task Force 160 of high speed
helloopters at Fort Campbell, Ky.
The Navy's Seal Team Six of frog-
men, at Little Creek, near Norfolk, Va.,
is the Navy's counterterror force. The
Air Force's Spedal operations Wing at
Eglin Air Force Base in Florida would
fly spedally equipped C-130 transports
in a counterterronst operatoce.
- e Center for
Strategic and International Studies at
Georgetown University agrees with
this assessment. "There is a tendency
to overrate the importance of terror-
ism," he said. "I don't mean there is no
problem -that would be foolish. But
the terrorist act by itself is nothing -
only publld
"
~
s irit, we did offer to talk about what'
And the blic attentice, he said, , P I
creates a serious situation during a i i we knew. But we assume they had bet- i
hostage-taking. "The President takes' I ter information than we did. They have
over, the Secretary, of State and the, more ~~ in West Beinrt."
R i w killed and
s ens as
f th
O
Government practically come to a ~
standstill," Mr. Laqueur said. "This is
a problem." i
American and some foreign ofridals
believe that progress has been made in-
ternationally in stripping terrorism of
its mantle of political immuNty, in
branding terrorism a common crime
subject to normal police work and judi-
cial procedure.
In October 1984, Interpol, the intern~-
tional police organization, began char-!
neling requests among its member
cowries for information about terror-
ists and their organizations, thereby
ending a policy of treating terrorism as
a political act.
Extraditing Terrorists
The United States has stepped up et-
torts tohave terrorists extradited from
other countries. But Stephen S. Trott,
Assistant Attorney General for the
Criminal Dlvisice o1 the Justice De-
partment, said the policy was being un-
dermined by resistance in the Senate to
a revised American-British extradition
treaty.
In four cases, Federal judges have
refused British requests for extradition
o[ members of the Provisional Irish
Republican Army on charges of killing
soldiers, ruling that the crimes were
political. The treaty revision, signed
last June, would exempt certain violent
crimes from the political protectice, in-
cluding murder, manslaughter, bomb-
ing and kidnapping.
our mouth," Mr. Trott said. "On one
side, we are standing up and demand-
ing that terrorists be returned to the
U.S. On the other side, we're unable to
limit the political offense doctrine. We ~
wouldn't sit still for five minutes it
somebody had shot President Reagan
and beat it over to England and said,
`Political offense.' "
Robert Friedlander, assistant cotut-
ael of the Senate Judidary Commit-
tee's Subcommittee ce the Constitu-
tion, said the hesitation of many sena-
tors was based partly on "political
pressure from Irish groups in this
~tt'S'." and PAY ce the sense that
since the accused had kWed soldiers,
not dvllians, they were involved in the
kind of politically motivated armed in-
surrection that such treaties have
sought to protect.
or-
matice across Do tical
w1t6' cese. a~~uing io oni-
open such channels between Moscow
and Washington. The unites States of-
fered information to the Soviet Union
after four members of the Soviet Em-
ly Oakley of the Sta~D~epartmeat
said.
"We believe that the threat is to all
csxmtries and calls for cooperation
among them," he dedared. "In that .
e
ne o us
three were released after the Soviet
Union, with Syrian help. reportedly
pinpointed their location.
Although the Soviet Union and East-
ern European cxturttries have provided
military training and weapons to
Palestinian guerrillas who have then
conducted terrorist attacks, the Rus-
sians themselves have also been via
lima of terrorism, and some American
ofridals with long experience in the
Held see room for increased Soviet-
American cooperation.
for national security and a_ veteran o
m Years
Jo a ots to assassinate hipt
- a se ce ce stns s cula-
tionthat arelative y m state ussein,
Continued
a.
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iL ra t?nTa i_n Hower here. ,
Information on terrorists is made
a a e srae v tee'
States estem
es e e sraelis;
comer m e ence
ce ono armeft
'~'~'rUnited States doesn't ve
?rau>.d in mWtarX intelligtence, box
wasnfngton aces snare extensivei
t
ness~ d, "there are no political
limitations."
American officials are ambivalent
a
agency, Dees . as a source.
f~ o ow. ~~
t ence aS~eacy. arY, dis-
Lion ~ia~ust~the policy theme tresse newspaper repor"~ on a
its tail, an Israeli military otflcial said:
This supplemented American informa-
tion and helped American let fighter
pilots fly close to one ai after an-
other over the Mediterrar>cen, picking
out the right one to force down in Sicily.
The Israelis blicized some of their
intell axeace-s nil; o [e a van'~e
wool ve em e n e tatsrs,
the o ciaTexp-1'a nel~, on~w n "fti'f'a
r~tians to a a'f-ili~tZilt+il~io
bans have been more careful in their
transmissions.
At least one senior American official
was- e~ sc scores the
Ut3te'ea,' ar g a
former . o sal "but i~Ioa- ,
~sa can som es a o dita?as teiligeeee-agencies. -
At times, the political advantages of -
collaboration can outweigh the damage .
to intelligence sources.
When the tour Palestinian hijackers
of the Achille Lauro were about to be
flown out of Egypt on an Egyptian
jetliner, for example, Israel conveyed
i crucial data to the United States, based --
muNcations
d
di
,
o com
ra
on monitore
I inctudina the plane's time of takeoff
saying " is aren't always what w~
eexxppeecctt ens, y w en~
t6eV"il-e3~ roe mom.
ome m e ence o c a s say the
stronger oppos on o e afl
Governmen comes more radical
figures w eve
vocal stepp
-up
attacks on American interests. .
Rescue Raids: A Record of Risk
July 3,1976
ISRAELI RAID AT ENTEBBE AIRPORT
Israeli commandos stage aright-time raid on airport
and break into passenger terminal where hijackers
and hostages are spending the night. Commandos
rescue 103 passengers and crew members. The dead
include 7 of 10pro-Palestinian hijackers, 20 Ugandan
troops, 3 Israeli hostages and the head of one of
Israeli rescue units.
June 13,1977
RESCUE OF SCHOOLTEACHERS FROM SOUTH MOLUCCANS
Dutch marines in armored carrier attack village school
in Bovensmilde, the Netherlands, where four
schoolteachers had been held for 20 days by 4 South
Moluccan gunmen. Kidnappers are quickly
overpowered and there are no casualties.
Oat 18,1977
HIJACKING OF LUFTHANSA PLANE
West German commandos force their way onto
hijacked airliner in Mogadishu, Somalia, ending a
5-day, 6,000-mile hijacking episode. Commandos
rescue 86 passengers and crew members. Three of
four hijackers are killed and fourth is wounded, as is
one passenger. Pilot had been killed by hijackers two
days before rescue.
Feb. 19, 1978
KILLING OF EGYPTIAN COMMANDOS IN CYPRUS
At Larnaca airport, Egyptian commandos try to rescue
a Cypriot plane held by two hijackers who killed a
prominent Egyptian editor the day before. Troops of
the Cypriot National Guard intercept commandos and
kill 15; 22 people, including 7 guardsmen and 2
reporters, are wounded. After one-hour battle,
hijackers, who say they are Palestinians, free 11 Arab
h~~o,,,,st~~ages and four crewmen and surrender.
U~IJ ~33F~lJL ATTEMPT TO FREE HOSTAGE3IN IRAN
In maneuver code-named "Operation Blue Light," 6
U.S. C-130 Hercules transport planes and 8 RH-53
A1tIIOUgt1 11Dya Has occasionally laid
plans to kill American diplomats, Intel- ,
ligence otflcials say -most rwtably in
Western Europe after the United States '
downed two Libyan planes in the Gulf ;
of Sidra in 1981-the plots were aban- ,
doped whey Colonel Qaddafl was told
that the United States knew his inten-
tions. No direct attacks have occurred, ;
the officials note.
Terrorism by Libya
Most Libyan terrorist activities have
been assassinations of Libyan dissi-
dents abroad. ? Since 1980 there have
been more than .30 such attempts, and
last summer a Libyan diplomat at the
United Nations was expelled from the
United States for purported involve-
ment in one plot.
According to a State Department of-
ficial. the Egyptians have surmised
that aerie such attempt may have been
an explanation for the hijacking last
weekend.
A year ago Egypt fooled Colonel Qad-
dafl into believing that Libyan agents
had assassinated Dormer Prime Minis-
ter Abdul Hamid Bakkush of Libya,
who lives in Egypt. Actually. the
agems bad been arrested, but Libya
took responsibllity for the. killing.
This month, the offiMal saidd, the
E arrested four more Libyan
~Bakkush. Theybllackingt='Yf~ twed. l
helicopters carrying 90 commandos enter Iranian
airspace on April 24. President Carter cancels
mission after problems with 3 helicopters. During
pullout from Iran, one helicopter collides with a C-130,
kiiing 8 men and injuring 5.
May 5,1980
STORMING OF IRANIAN EMBASSY IN LONDON
The Special Air Service regiment storms embassy and
frees 19 Iranian and British hostages held captive
since Apri130 by Iranian-Arab gunmen. Assault is
ordered after one hostage is killed and gunmen
threaten to kill one hostage every 30 minutes. Six
gunmen were killed and one was captured.
Jan. 28,1982
RESCUE OF BRIO. OEN. JAMES L. DOZIER
After 42 days in the hands of Red Brigades, special
Italian antiterrorist forces rescue him from Padua
apartment. Three men and two women are seized in
the 90-second raid, during which no shots are fired.
Nov. 7,1986
RAID AGAINST COLOMBIAN REBELS
Government troops and police storm Palace of Justice
in Bogota, Colombia, where an estimated 60 M-19
rebels held dozens of judges and Government
workers hostage. The President of the Supreme Court
and eight other judges are killed and the death toll is
reported to be more than 100. Some reports say all
rebels died but others Indicate a few escaped.
Nov. 24,1985
EGYPTIAN AIRLINER IN MALTA
Plane enroute to Cairo from Athens, hijacked day
before and diverted to Malta, is stormed by Egyptian
troops after hijackers begin to kill some of the
hostages on board. As troops rush onto plane,
hijackers lose grenades at passengers. Death toll is
put at 60, 57 of whom are said to have died in rescue
attempt, including an American. One hijacker survives
attack and is hospitalized.
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