HOW TO STRIKE BACK?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: STARGATE
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP96-00788R001900440001-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 4, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 23, 1998
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: November 1, 1983
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2000/08/08 CIA-RDP96-00788R001900440001-4
Musa vi with Shiite militiamen in Baalbek: `I bow before the souls of the martyrs'
How to Strike Back?
SPECIAL REPORT
close links with some 350 Iranian Revolt
tionary Guards who came to Lebanon i
1982 as volunteers in the war against Israe
One intelligence source suggested that Mt
savi may have supplied the suicide driver,
Musavi denied any role in the bombings, bt
he said: "I bow before the souls of the mat
tyrs who carried out this operation."
The fact that the operation was a suicid
mission strongly suggested Iranian influ
ence. The airport attack and the car bomb
ing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut last Apri
were starkly reminiscent of the yearning fa
martyrdom displayed by Iranians in the wa
against Iraq. Furthermore, American an(
French troops were the targets in last week',-
kamikaze raids, while Italian and British
members of the multinational peacekeeping
force were not. Iran considers America the
"Great Satan." And it denounces France as
"demonic" for having pledged to supply
Iraq with Super Etendard jets capable of
firing Exocet missiles.
No Trace: Two organizations-Islamic
Jihad and Free Islamic Revolutionary
Movement-claimed they had carried out
the bombing attacks, though intelligence
officials were not convinced. Whoever they
were, the Marines' attackers covered their
tracks. "This operation was carried out by
maybe five, six or seven people, entirely in
Beirut, with only two or three people who
knew the target," said a Washington intelli-
gence source. Investigators at the sites of the
two bombings were frustrated. The explo-_
sions were so powerful that they left no trace
of the drivers and destroyed all but a few,.
The evidence suggests that Iranian-backed fanatics the witnesses are dead or severely injured.
"This may have been the perfect crime,'?
carried out the attack, but retaliation will be difficult. said Lt. Col. Hisharn Jaaber, a Lebanese
T hose who directed this atrocity must be
dealt justice, and they will be," Ronald
Reagan swore last week, but there was a
problem: the United States still lacked hard
evidence on just who carried out the truck-
bomb attack in Beirut. At best, the adminis-
tration had a strong circumstantial case
suggesting an Iranian-and possibly Syr-
ian-connection in the simultaneous as-
saults against the Marines and French
peacekeepers. In particular, U.S. and
French intelligence analysts focused their
investigation on a small group of Shiite
Muslim extremists with close ties to Iranian
militants in Baalbek, in eastern Lebanon.
The thirst for vengeance was palpable. At
the White House, the Pentagon and State
Department, officials were considering a
number of possible retaliatory measures,
including a surgical air strike against the
Muslim extremists in Baalbek and retali-
ation "in kind" by counterterrorist hit
teams. But any method of retaliation car-
ried risks. Some administration officials
feared that an air strike could cause civilian
casualties-and an anti-American outcry.
U.S. intelligence agents have pinpointed an
village of e,ebaanl, near the Lebanese bor- Syria's possible role in the bombings o
der. But even if Iranian officers were in- the American and French peacekeeper
strike against their outpost in Syrian terri- the other way. Insofar as the bombings wer
tory could have major international reper- intended to drive the peacekeepers out 0
I
cussions. Antiterrorist operations-"hav- Lebanon and to humiliate the United
ing a building collapse mysteriously in the States, the attack served Syria's interests.
would carry a clear message to the other note that Baalbek and its environs are under
side while avoiding a conspicuous use of Syrian Army control, and that both Musa
perpetrators and ordered a counterblow tacts with Syrian intelligence headquarters
that killed the wrong people, the resulting in the Bekaa Valley. Some sources believed
interests in the area. made their way to Beirut over roads that are
consider Hussein Musavi-a 40-year-old. organized or supervised the assault-the
former teacher who heads a pro-Iranian view of U.S. intelligence officials-but that
organization called Islamic Amal-to be a bellicose country may bear ultimate respon-
prime suspect in the bombing. Musavi and sibility. If so, Reagan's problem only deep-
his small band of fundamentalist followers ens: what is the appropriate retaliation for a
split on two years ago from Amal, the main remote-control attack?
militia group of Lebanon's Shiite Muslims.
Musavi setup his headquarters in Baalbek, ANGUS DEMING with JOHN rti .ql cOTT,
KIM WILLE
NSON and NICHOLAS M HORROCK
50 miles east of Beirut, where he established in Washington and THEODORE STANGER in Beirut
9() Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00788R001900440001-4