TERRORISTS AND FREEDOM FIGHTERS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040036-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 36
• Publication Date: June 25, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040036-8
C BOSTON GLOBE
Terrorists -s aid freedom fighters
cent cif.the population of that rav- to put public pressure on Israel. If
DAVID B. WI LSOM aged land. he does, and Israel complies, the
Like all Holy Land tourists and
pilgrims, vacationers in the Greek
islands, commercial travelers, fur-
loughed military, world-class
hookers, Foreign Service person-
nel. Itinerant journalists, airline
employees. present and former
hostages and other right-thinking
Americans. President Reagan is
opposed to terrorism.
Terrorists, the president said.
on April 23, 1983, are "cowardly..
skulking barbarians." which is
certainly strong language but does
not seem to discourage the terror-
ists.
His reference was speclfcaltV
to the terrorists who, five davs,
earlier, had driven a truckload of
explosives up to the United States
Embassy in West Beirut and
blown it up. killing themselves
terns and Lebanese vital to US
intelligence operations in the Mid-
dle East.
That explosion came on the
208th anniversary of the mid-
night ride of Paul Revere, a mem-
ber of a secret society deeply in-
volved in an armed conspiracy
against the government of Mass-
achusetts and an adherent of a
confederacy of lawyers. mer-
chants, smugglers and specula-
tors who had aroused the pas-
sions of the Boston mob and poor
country folk against their lawful
king.
There are about 850 million
Moslems in the world, inhabiting
strategic. oil-rich territories from
the Philippines through Indone-
sia. Bangladesh. Iran and the
Arab world beyond Gibraltar and,
it seems, Detroit. Of these, only
around 40 million are of the Shiite
persuasion. Not all Shiites are ter-
rorists or fundamentalists and
not all are admirers of Ayatollah
Khomeini..even in Iran, where-
most Shiites live.
Outside Iran, they are, charac-
teristically, poor, powerless and
regarded as eccentric and hereti-
cal by the majority Sunni of Islam.
However, they constitute the larg-
est single ethnic-sectarian group
of the 17 recognized sects in Leba-
non. making up more than 30 per-
Lebanon is a'reglon. As a politi-- Likud Party will join the Islamic
cal state. it never has worked very fundamentalists in complaining
well. It m as invented by the Brit- that Israel is a US puppet. If the
ish and the Preneh when they cut president applies public pressure
up the carcass of the Ottoman and Ismael resists, the Shiites ex-
Empire after World War 1. Until, -pest. r~:asonabiy enough. that
1975. U. functioned as the major America will blame Israel.
center of communications. fl- Iara?k-sve are told. intended to
nance and commerce between the release Its Shiite hostages any-
Arab-Islamic world and the Euro- Way. Israel is getting $4 billion a
pean-American world. The Shiite year in aid from the United States,
fundamentalists regard "West- 'whtetrflnanced and tolerated isra-
ern" enlture as degraded and ppl- ' 19 ' search-and-destroy mis-
luting. They are cultural environs sisottl:th L anon. which cost
mentali:#ts ' They have no First 20:01itve . by Lebanese esti-
Amcndment. They don't want any,, manic., ' Israel cowld ace its way
f4k-st-f00(t - joints rosins or X- clear, o pang wlh the release of
rated mov4n :their neighbor- the A*40c4na without being
hoods, asited,.1* waould he kind of a nice
Now, to put sometof this Ih per- geshate, doWt:you think?
spective, let us return to the topic Or do- you think the United
of terrorism. ,Safes, and, Israel ought to try to
In Nicaragua, there is terror- pollee the world with battleships
ism In which indigenous dissident and SWAT. teams?
guerrillas are described by the
president of the United States as
comparable to, say, Paul Revere.
despite plausible, corroborated ac-
counts of atrocious misconduct.
There is no mystery about wheth-
er or not this activity is state-
sponsored or spontaneous. It is
state-sponsored by the govern-
ment. of the United States.
In Afghanistan. there is. also
suite a lot of terrorism. Freedom
fighters, inadequately armed by
the Amerieath Central intelligence
Agency. practice terrorism
against their lawful government
and its Soviet masters with a
ruthlessness provoked by the
genocidal cruelty of that govern-
nient and the Russians. Unlike
the Nicaraguan contras, the hero-
ic Afghan partisan warriors enjoy
the support of both parties in the
United States Congress. Some of
them you may not be quite ready
for this - areShiite Moslem funda-
mentalist teh;orists.
If atf>of,thfs perplexes you. do
not despair. It obviously perplexes
not only the president but also his
advisers and publicists. It does not
seem to perplex the Shiites.
A lot of people want President
Reagan to ask Israel to release the
rest of its Shiite hostages so that
the Shiites will free their Ameri-
can captives. They are wrong.
The Shiites want the president
David B. Wilson-Cs a Globe col-
umnist.
STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20: CIA-RDP90-00965R000707040036-8