FADLALLAH SAY HEZBOLLAH NOT TO TAKE BRIBES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540045-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 12, 2012
• Sequence Number: 45
• Publication Date: September 29, 1987
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540045-2
t ILL VDU.
29 September 1987
FADLALLAH SAYS HEZBOLLAH DID NOT TAKE BRIBES
BY RIAD KAJ
BEIRUT, LEBANON
The spiritual leader of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah Tuesday challenged world
intelligence agencies to prove a ''ridiculous'' report his group took bribes to
halt terrorist attacks and said he has no evidence Saudi Arabia platted with the
CIA to kill him.
Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah said he couldn't confirm information in
American journalist Bob Woodward's book, ''Veil: The Secret War of the CIA:
1981-1987t'' that the Saudis collaborated with the CIA to kill him in a bomb
attack March 8, 1985.
''I don't have tangible proofs that Saudi Arabia's intelligence was involved
but also I don't have information to deny this, " Fadlallah told United Press
International at his residence in Beirut's southern suburbs.
'But on the basis of the special relations between America and the gulf
countries, we think that it is possible that America can pressure these states
into financing some American terrorist actions.''
Monday, Saudi Arabia denied Woodward's allegations that the kingdom was
involved in an attempt to assassinate the spiritual leader of Lebanon's radical
Hezbollah, or Party of God, movement.
Woodward, a Washington Post reporter, said in his book CIA director William
Casey arranged for Saudi intelligence agents to undertake the assassination
attempt. Fadlallah survived but 80 people were killed and 200 others were
wounded in the blast in the Beir Al Abed neighborhood, a sanctuary for
pro-Iranian fundamentalists.
According to Woodward, Casey then endorsed a Saudi effort to persuade
Hezbollah to stop attacking American and Western targets by offering them $2
million in aid and university scholarships for party members.
Fadlallah categorically denied that either he or any of his followers were
bribed.
''We consider this report as ridiculous. If Casey was honest in this regard,
we assume that the Saudis claimed that they bribed us to impress the Americans
and make it sound that they can contain our revolution with their money.
"I challenge any intelligence network to prove any of (this) information
''he said.
l
Fadlallah, described by some observers as the Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini of
Lebanon, noted the bombing of the U.S. Embassy annex in the Christian area of
Awkar outside east Beirut occurred after the explosion in Beir Al Abed.
"Let's assume that such a deal was struck and I was responsible, but how
come that other (anti-Western) operations occurred, for example the explosion in
Awkar?" he said.
Continued
175/~
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540045-2
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540045-2
A man claiming to represent the pro-Iranian Islamic Jihad -- Holy War --
group, in a telephone call to a Western news agency had claimed responsibility
for the embassy annex bombing in September 1985 in which 1Z people died and 60
were wounded.
Fadlallah also described as an ''American fad" the capture of Fawaz Younis,
a Shiite Moslem accused of involvement in a 1985 hijacking of a Jordanian plane.
Younis was captured in international waters by FBI agents nine days ago and
brought to the United States.
''It is a fad designed to absorb anger by the American people who felt that
the American adminstration failed to free its hostages held in Lebanon,." he
said.
Fadlallah refused to talk at length on the plight of foreign hostages, but
said ''the issue was moving slowly'' toward a solution. More than 20 foreigners
are believed to be held in Lebanon.
Western intelligence sources have accused Hezbollah of having links to some
of the kidnappings but leaders of the group have denied involvement.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/12 : CIA-RDP90-00965R000807540045-2