COVERT ACTION - REAGAN RULING TO LET CIA KIDNAP TERRORISTS OVERSEAS IS DISCLOSED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000707060017-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 19, 2011
• Sequence Number: 17
• Publication Date: February 20, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved
~U
~!~TiCIE ~IPPEA~ED
o~ PAS
Covert Action
Reagan Ruling to Let
CIA Kidnap Terrorists
Overseas Is Disclosed
Decision After TWA Hijack
Met Opposition of Aides
And Congressional Panels
WALL STREET JOURNAL
20 February 1987
for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707060017-7
seeking comment on the presidential direc? Mr. Casey and the CIA also were eager
five. to locate and punish the terrorists who kid?
Disclosure of the proposed kidnappings napped Wil ' uck ,the CIA station
and other covert actions is sure to add to chief in Beirut, in arch 198 and then tor-
the controversy over the administration's Lured him until he died, apparently in Jurte
secret actions to deal with hostage-taking 1985.
and other terrorist acts, including the at- Senior administration officials say that
tempt to trade arms to Iran for American Mr. Casey, Attorney General Edu?in
hostages. Itleese, Secretary of State George Shu'~?
Webster's Misgivings and Col. North were the most vocal ad~STAT
FBI Director William Webster says he cafes of kidnapping suspected terrorists in
has serious misgrvmgs a ou t e wisdom order to bring them to justice.
of using force to abduct suspected terror- FBI chief Webster, a former federal ap?
fists in foreign nations. Without comment- Peals-court judge, and Oliver "Buck" Re-
ing on the specific presidential directive
yell, one of his top aides
strongly objected
,
,
Mr. Webster says, "We should weigh care- to the kidnapping strategy, on the grounds
fully the larger implications of taking any that it probabl
i
l
y v
o
ated international law
New Slant in Host e Cases such action without the knowledge or ap- and wouldn't succeed, according to law-e
g proval" of foreign governments. Such ac- forcement officials. FBI spokesmen dSTAT
lion, he says, erodes the integrity of law- cline to comment on the role of Mr Web-
f
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.
3Ir. 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.
Oliver North, the since-fired Natioft'~f'~ecu'
n y o`~u'nci! aide who was also heavily in-
volved in the secret arms sales to [ran.
Those sales were authorized under another
secret directive signed the same month.
Officials say that Col. North and former
CIA Director William C,~a~..^._were instru-
rn eve oprng the kidnapping
idea.
White House spokesman Marlin Fitz-
water didn't return several telephone calls
y oHx atcoTT and NDY P.ISZTOR
staJJ PPOT P THE WALL STREET Ol
~YASHINGTON - President Reagan
early Iasi 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
en orcement agencres and "gives the ap- stet and Mr. Revell, citing national-secu-
pearance of having thumbed our nose at city restrictions.
the host country." At the CIA, intelligence sources say,
Some officials were worried that the au- both former Deputy Director John Mc -
thorization of preemptive attacks against hon and ~, the a e
suspected terrorists might be used to side- aiFector or operations, o g y s eputy
step President Reagan's 1981 prohibition of Mr. McMahon retired fromP~thee CIAein De-
assassinations. But "there's been abso- cember 1985; Mr. George was overruled.
lutely no plan to conduct assassinations," Mr. Meese and other top officials urged
insists a senior White House official. "One, the president to sign the directive, accord-
we're not good at i[ and, two, we ought to trig to law?enforcement officials, on the
eschew it. But preemption may mean that grounds that such activities, amounting to
if we find out at 3 o'clock that some group self-defense, were sanctioned by the United
is going to attack us at 5 o'clock, we'll hit Nations Charter and other principles of in-
them first, at ~ o'clock." ternational law. Officials say that Abra-
The January 1986 directive also author- ham Sofaer, a State Department legal ad?
ized the CIA to harass and interdict terror- viser, also wrote a memo declaring that
fists in foreign countries by sabotaging forcibly apprehending terrorists overseas
their supplies, finances, travel, recruiting wouldn't prejudice cases against them in
and operations. A new counterterrorism American courts.
center in the CIA that was established by During a recent seminar on terrorism
the finding has mounted a number of ef- and the media produced by Columbia Uni?
forts to sabotage terrorist operations in versify and by two public-television sta-
Lebanon and elsewhere, officials say. lions, Mr. Sofaer said the U.S. would be
The controversial policy directive had within its rights to seize a suspected ter-
ns roots in the administration's growing rorist in a foreign country. "This is a new
frustration with its inability to find sus- game in terrorism but it's an old game in
peeled terrorists and bring them to justice, other crime." he said. "We have people
especially amid the fratricidal anarchy of who deliver people to us.... You might
Lebanon, senior officials say. In friendlier just find a fellow somewhere, all tied up.
and less chaotic countries, administration He might be sent to a country where we
officials say, authorities sometimes appre- have an effective extradition treaty."
hend suspected terrorists, drug dealers Congress in 1981 passed a major anti-
and other criminals and hand them over to terrorism law specifically expanding U.S.
the U.S. without any legal formalities. criminal jurisdiction to cover hijackings,
"Formal extradition proceedings tend kidnappings and other terrorist acts
to have a high political profile, and some against American citizens, planes, ships or
nations prefer to handle these things qui- facilities anywhere in the world. The law
etly," one State Department official makes it much easier to prosecute alleged
says. terrorists, but it doesn't deal with the ques-
Role of TWA Hijackers lion of how they are brought to a U.S.
courtroom.
The January 1986 finding was signed in "People volunteer to be arrested and
the wake of the administration's vain ef? tried very seldom," says one administra?
fort to track down the June 1985 hijackers lion counterterrorism expert. "The courts
of TWA Flight 84i, ~,fficials say. generally don't object so long as there is
Con6~ued
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707060017-7
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707060017-7
a,
that tt 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-
the major concern about the fmdtng was !I and other CIA officials opposed the idea.
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.
ing a paramilitary operation," one official
says.
Administration officials say that when
the idea originally was discussed, Col.
North, Mr. Clarridge and others hoped i[
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-
"
one official says.
C, larridge~tlte head of the CIA counterter- ~ ~y we wanted,
rorism center. But the administration had tried earlier
to recruit Lebanese factions into its war on
Concerns in Congress terrorism, with disastrous results. Late in
Meanwhile, the administration disclo- 1984, President Reagan authorized the CIA
sure of the secret directive to Senate and to create and train a secret counterter-
House intelligence committees stirred bi- ' rorist force composed of Lebanese, Pales?
partisan objections. tinians and other non-Americans. Mr.
According to one intelligence source. ',~ McMahon, then the CIA's No. 2 official,
finding, Col. North wrote a classified "an-
nex" to a public report by Vice President
George Bush's task force on combatin?
terrorism. The annex created a secret in-
teragencycommittee called the Operations
Sub-Group, or OSG, to oversee kidnapping
and other covert operations, intelligence
sources say. Until he was dismissed last
November, Col. North was the chairman of
the group, along with Duane "D
intelligence and otherwise assist the CIA in 'down, and grabbing them is even harder
the program, officials say. 'than it looks. "If you go into another coun-
Amonth after Mr Reagan signed the ~ try and snatch someone up, you're mount-
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," aWhite 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 ou[."
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 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 Godi which
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
Spector argued. "But given the problems I operations now are conducted under close
of international terrorism," he said, "this scrutiny from the CIA, the State and Jus-
is aminimal type of force." tice Departments, and the congressional
The January finding was amended last intelligence committees.
April, intelligence sources say, after CIA "Any operation that took place would
General Counsel David Doherty demanded be carefully coordinated," the senior offi-
and received clarification of the agency's cial says. "I might be more concerned if
Casey and Ollie were still around."
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 Pennsyh?a-
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.
tive order remained in effect. U.S. officials believe is responsible for
Another intelligence source says that bombings of U.S. installations in Lebanon ~
discussion in the Senate Intelligence Com- and the kidnappings of Americans there.
mittee involved concern that Mr. Reagan He survived the car bombing, but more
D.~~u,R~a:f:HS~rnrkini reu
rc, riits.~k n~ i.e.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/19 :CIA-RDP90-009658000707060017-7