IRAN TRAINS TERRORISTS TO HIJACK, KIDNAP

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940089-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 89
• Publication Date: January 6, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940089-2
WASHINGTON POST
6 January 1986
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN ATM
Iran Trains Terrorists to Hijack, Kidnap
Iran is training terrorists to hijack airliners and
kidnap hostages, with special vengeance toward
Americans. This underground warfare, directed
by the Iranian foreign ministry, has accounted for
the deaths of at least 262 Americans since 1983.
Encouraged by the absence of an effective U.S.
response, the Iranians not only remain unrepentant
but have made Americans their principal targets.
U.S. intelligence has pinpointed two
hijacker-training centers in Iran: one near
Mehrabad airport outside Tehran, the other near
the holy city of Qom. We've seen secret satellite
photos, which show commercial airliners parked at
the training camps; they are used by the recruits as
"hands-on" instruction material in the methods of
hijacking modern airliners.
The training courses include familiarization with
the instruments, fuel consumption and other
features of Boeing 727s and 747s, as well as Airbus
300s. Some of the planes are on loan from
Mehrabad airport during "down time" between
international flights.
Part of the training is in the psychology of
hijacking and hostage treatment. The Iranian
instructors teach a cynical mix of techniques that
alternate between brutality to Americans (to instill
fear in the captive passengers) and occasional small
kindnesses (to prevent any desperate resistance by
the hostages).
The Central Intelligence Agency has no clear
idea how many potential hijackers are taking the
deadly training, but a Saudi Arabian intelligence
report, which the CIA considers credible, estimates
that 55 student terrorists studied hijacking in Iran
in late 1984 alone. They included Iranians. Iraqis,
Tunisians, Moroccans and Egyptians-and at least
one Saudi. The report identified the chief instructor
as a Palestinian guerrilla who had participated in
airliner hijackings.
At present, there are about half a dozen other
terrorist training camps in Iran. Several are
reserved for foreigners recruited by the Ayatollah
Khomeini's agents from among Moslem students
and workers throughout the Middle East, Asia,
Western Europe and even the United States.
Students at the camps get three months'
indoctrination in Moslem fundamentalist ideology
as well as in the nuts and bolts of terrorist
operations, including construction and placement of
sophisticated demolition devices.
The CIA has also received detailed reports of an
estimated 30 groups of female terrorists taking
similar training at segregated camps in Tehran,
Qom, Isfahan and Behechtieh. One alumna
reportedly effused to her fellow terrorists: "Our
Imam Khomeini has authorized us to participate in
the holy war against the atheist enemies of the
Islamic Republic. We are the kamikazes of Islam.
We will each die after killing a hundred
enemies-where in the world is not important."
The terrorists trained in Iran's "boot camps"
share one trait: devotion to Khomeini, whose
scowling image glares at Iranians from every wall
poster and television set. The ayatollah refers to
the United States as "the Great Satan" and inspires
fellow fanatics with this weird call to arms: "All
Moslems must rise up and conquer their fear of
death so that they can conquer the whole world!"
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940089-2