SOVIETS FACE TERRORISM, BUT HANDLE IT DIFFERENTLY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706160007-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 7, 2011
• Sequence Number: 7
• Publication Date: July 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706160007-8
ARTICLE
TPI&M
ON PACE Q., rm r Ic
LOS ANGELES TIMES
3 July 1985
Soviets Face Terrorism, but Handle It
...Differently
By DIMITRI K. SIMES
As Americans were preoccupied with the
TWA hostage crisis, there were, behind the
fast-paced news from Beirut, lingering
questions about the Soviets: Were they
involved? How would they react if an
Aeroflot plane were targeted?
In ence experts see no evidence of
direct Soviet pa on in -either the
p ng or a execution o e actual
hiiackins. The last rov stances
KGB murder plots back decades,
and a to were Sovietlitical exiles
ere.
rather than Lo
Yet, even Moscow did not mastermind
the TWA disaster, it is hardly in a position
to claim complete innocence. The Politburo
has never shied away from supporting
terrorist nations and groups such as Libya
and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
While there is no proof of Soviet links to
the radical Hezbollah, whose members are
thought to have initiated the hijacking, the
Soviet Union's firm support of Amal and its
Syrian sponsors is on the record.
Without the Soviet Union's patronage of
Damascus, Nabih Berri's Amal would not
have become a state within the state of
Lebanon. If Berri and his associates are
flying high today, the Soviet Union cannot
deny responsibility.
The Soviet media did not condone the air
piracy in Beirut, but, as in the hostage
nightmare in Tehran, the principal propa-
ganda fire was directed against alleged U.S.
plans of massive retaliation.
The Soviet Union, like the United States,
is no stranger to hijacking and terrorism.
There was an attempt by a disgruntled
military officer to assassinate Leonid I.
Brezhnev. An explosion in the Moscow
subway resulted in the deaths of several
passengers. And there was the celebrated
airliner hijacking in Tbilisi, the capital en a
Soviet Georgia, 1h years ago,
group of alienated intellectuals from prom-
inent families attempted to commandeer a
flight in order to escape to Turkey.
Outside Soviet borders, the Kremlin's
expansionism generates hate, and Soviet
military personnel, advisers and techni-
cians are vulnerable to terrorist attacks. In
Afghanistan-including the capital. Ka-
bul-the Soviets are no safer than Ameri-
cans are in Beirut. Dozens-military and
civilians alike, including the Soviet mili-
tary faetie. There was no publicity while the
attache-have been assassinated. An
accused no p was e Only after it was
Afghan airliner, with Soviets among the all over, and was the progress.
es were interrogated
infee
nun r of Soviet shot at. And recently a and indicted, did Georgian newspapers and
number of Soviet and Afghan soldiers kept TV cover the case extensively.
were POWs at a
massacred g during a ring a base failed i s . Pakistan The outcome: Three crew members, two
were three hijackers were dead.
Afghanistan is no exception. In Masan- passengers hijackers and a priest (who
bique, rebels fighting the Moscow-allied Three more them but allegedly master-
Soviet government killed a number of was minded not thamong e operation) wersetenced to
Soviet mining technicians and kidnaped a death. Their relatives were fired from their
few dozen others. There have also been
Soviet civilian casualties in jobs and expelled from the Communist
Angola. UN1TA
fighters have a number of times taken party. Conversely, Eduard A. Shevard-
Soviet and East European prisoners. Sofrom me mdse, the Georgian party chief who was in
were returned. some never heard here charge of dealing with the incident, was
have been attacks on Soviet officers and Promote Monday to full membership of
ruling party Politburo and was named
their dependents. At one point the danger the Soviet foreign minister.
reached such magnitude that all families The message from Tbilisi si was clear:
had to be evacuated. The government of Escape through hijacking doomed to
President Hafez Assad put the blame on failure, authorities will show no
the fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood, mercy to those involved.
with which he has long been at odds. The U.S. government cannot and should
It is a myth that the Kremlin's heavy- not act with similar ruthlessness and
handed posture serves as an insurmount- contempt for the public's right to know.
able barrier against terrorism. But it is a But that right surely does not mean that
fact that while individual Soviets, including everything should be known immediately
high-ranking ones, become targets, the and completely. Otherwise
government remains unscathed. neither fight warn nor protect privacy.
The Tbilisi hijacking shows why. The And the commendable preoccupation
government's priority was to stop the with the fate of innocent victims of terror
escape rather than to protect innocent must not be allowed to turn into hedonistic
lives. Accordingly, Soviet crews are in- neglect of the responsibilities of a great
strutted not to cooperate with hijackers. state. No number of missiles and aircraft
The crews are also armed. carriers can substitute for an occasional
The Tbilisi hijacking started almost like display of brutal resolve. Most regretta-
the TWA Athens incident. The Georgians ble-except that all the alternatives are
had an airport employee as an accomplice. worse. Be" a superpower is not a piece of
She helped them smuggle handguns and cake. The Soviets appreciate that. Do we?
grenades aboard the plane. In the air, the
hijackers made a flight attendant knock in Dmitri K. Since is a senior aaociate at the
a special way at the cockpit door. The door Carnegie Endowment for International
opened, and the shooting started. A crew paw in Washington.
member and a hijacker were dead instant-
ly. The pilot managed to lock the door and
land the plane back in Tbilisi. One of the
hijackers committed suicide. Others were
captured hours later by a special anti-
terrorist squad that stormed the airliner.
More people were killed in the crossfire.
No attempt was made to negotiate. The
hijackers were faced with a choice of
unconditional surrender or being taken by
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/07: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706160007-8