DID 'POST' PROVOKE STETHEM'S MURDER?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580046-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 46
• Publication Date: July 6, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

I
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580046-7
ARTICLE qFLR0
ON PAGE
HUMAN EVENTS
6 July 1985
Ington
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THIS WEEK'S NEWS FROM X
Did `Post' Provoke
Stethem's Murder?
F11,.. \ti ashington post's lead story on June 15
n.~,-onrd the murder of Robert Stethem. the Nave
di,.er brutally killed by the hijackers of TWA
Flight 847 and dumped onto the tarmac at the
Beirut airport.
When the control tower operator stressed it was
"a shame" to kill an innocent passenger, a hi-
jacker replied: "Did you forget the Bir al Abed
massacre?" referring to the March 8 car bombing
in a Beirut suburb that killed more than 80 Shi'ite
Moslems. The Post then noted: "Shi'ites have ac-
cused the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency of be-
ing behind the bombing. \,hich s the CIA has
denied."
What the Post failed to remind its readers,
%%rites columnist Reed Irvine. was that on
rtes 12. 1985, it had carried a lead stor%. with
a banner headline across the top of Page 1.
claiming the March 8 car bombing had been
implemented by a counterterrorist unit train-
ed and supported by the CIA.
Written by Bob Woodward and Charles Bab-
cock, the story described the bombing as "a
runaway mission" carried out by individuals
without CIA authorization. And while not directly
blaming the bombing on the CIA, the story
described the agency ag having "an indirect con-
nection" to it.
Said Irvine: "Government officials and intelli-
gence experts were appalled by the irresponsibility
of the Post story charging the CIA with even an in-
direct connection with the bombing.
"One official said: 'The Washington Post has
put the lives of every American in Lebanon in
jeopardy.... 1 find it utterly contemptible.... It
invites retaliation against every American in Beirut,
including women and children. The Post did that
with the foreknowledge of that possibility. They
were warned.' After the story appeared, the State
Department issued an alert to U.S. diplomats
abroad warning of new terrorist threats."
George V. Lauder, public affairs director for the
CIA, furiously responded to the Post on June 23.
In a letter to the editor, Lauder replied:
"In its lead news article May 12, the Post alleged
that the CIA had 'an indirect connection' to the
March 8 car bombing in Beirut which killed more
than 80 people and wounded many others.
"Before the story was published, the CIA
categorically denied to the Post reporters any
involvement, direct or indirect, in the bombing.
Moreover, in a statement immediately after the
story appeared, the agency publicly denied any
connection with this event.
"The House Select committee on Intelligence
(HSCI) investigated the Post story and inter alia
reported to the full House on June 12 that:
" 'The committee's review has uncovered no
evidence that any U.S. intelligence agency - any
U.S. government agency-has encouraged or par-
ticipated in any terrorist activity in I ehanon. Fur-
ther, the committee was able to disco%er no
evidence that any U.S. intelligence agency had
foreknowledge of the March 8 bombing outside
the residence of Sheik Hussein Fadlallah.
" 'Without addressing the specifics of the alle-
gations raised in connection with this deplorable
terrorist event, the committee states that its review
of relevant documents and files and its interview of
appropriate government officials lead to the con-
clusion that no U.S. government complicity, direct
or indirect, can be established with respect to the
March 8 bombing in Beirut.'
"The CIA regrets that the Post ignored our
denial of any involvement in the March 8 Beirut in-
cident and that its article gave the American public
and the rest of the world the false impression that
the U.S. government was involved in terrorist ac-
tivity. This misleading theme has been picked up
by other journalists as fact and has even been cited
by the Shiite terrorists as one of the motives for the
hijacking of TWA Flight 847."
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580046-7