TERROR-FROM IRAN

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100110157-9
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2012
• Sequence Number: 157
• Publication Date: January 12, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100110157-9
WASHINGTON POST
12 January 1986
Jack Anderson and Dale Van. Atta
Terror From Iran
The Reagan administration's restraint in re-
taliating against international terrorists, despite
repeated bold talk, is puzzling. It has been
demonstrated unmistakably that the leaders of
Iran, the country responsible for most American
deaths by terrorism, are afraid of U.S. military
wrath.
On two separate occasions the Iranians or
their Syrian allies scrambled to end a hostage
situation when it became clear that the United
States had set military intervention in motion.
Yet each time the White House pulls back from
the Rubicon, the Shiite Moslem terror-masters
grow cockier.
The first incident, a full account of which has
remained bottled up in secret intelligence files.
occurred when Iranian-controlled Shiite gunmen
hijacked Kuwait Air Lines Flight 221 before
dawn on Dec. 4. 1984. and flew it to Tehran.
Two of the four Americans aboard were to die
before the incident ended.
?hortiv after noon that day. Western intelli-
gence services learned of a conversation between
a foreign ministry official in Tehran and Ayatollah
Ali Akbar Mohtashami, Iranian ambassador to
Syria. Two things became clear: Iran controlled
the hijackers, and Iranian officials were nervous
about a U.S. military response.
Mohtashami, who is believed by the CIA to
have been involved in several of the worst anti-
American terrorist operations in the Middle East,
recommended that the hijacked Kuwaiti airliner
be flown to Beirut. where pro-Iranian Ilezbollah
and Islamic Antal groups could protect it from a
U.S. strike
Tipped off to the hijackers' possible move and
the Iranians' intention to allow the Americans to
be killed, U.S. officials immediately put the crack,
90-man, anti-terrorist Delta Force on alert at
Fort Bragg, N.C.
The order to move out came on Dec. 7. Presi-
dent Reagan arrived in the White House situation
room at 1:11 p.m. for a detailed briefing on the
hijacking. National Security Council officials told
the president it appeared the plane would be
flown to Beirut; the command was given to send
Delta Force on its way.
The commando team flew to West Germany.
They were in position?within a two-hour flight
of Beirut airport?by mid-morning Dec. 9. The
carrier Nimitz and other Navy support forces
were off the Lebanese coast ready for action.
But the strike was forestalled by the Iranians.
Shortly before midnight on Dec. 8, the security
forces at Tehran airport suddenly came to life
and staged a "rescue" operation that injured
none of the terrorists.
The second incident occurred last June after
the hijacking of TWA Flight 847. Once Syrian'
and Lebanese Shiite officials allied with the Ira-
nians realized Delta Force was finally going to
strike, the TWA hostages were set free.
The administration's failure to wreak actual
retaliation against Iran is even more puzzling in
light of the gruesome "body count" of Americans
killed in terrorist actions.
Libya, the target of the administration's
rhetorical wrath, was probably involved in some
stage of the Rome and Vienna airport massacres,
in which five Americans happened to be among
those killed. Yet Iranians and their hirelings have
been responsible for the murders of 264 Amer-
icans?and the victims were killed because they
were Americans.
Far from being punished for their undeclared
war on American citizens, the Iranian fanatics have
been "rewarded" by tough talk from the White
[louse, which only puffs up their warped egos.
In April 1983, a suicide bomber with Iranian
connections blew up the U.S. Embassy in Beirut,
killing 17 Americans. Six months later, another
Iranian-trained terrorist blew up the Marine bar-
racks at Beirut airport, killing 241 Marines.
Two more Americans died in the 1984 bomb-
ing of the Beirut embassy: two were killed in the
Kuwaiti airliner hijacking; and a Navy diver was
murdered last June in the hijacking of TWA
Flight 847. Iranian-backed terrorists continue to
hold four American hostages in Lebanon. The
evidence of Iran's responsibility is substantial.
Yet to this day, the United States has done no-
thing to punish the Iranian terrorists and govern-
ment officials who have engineered the killings of
264 Americans and the repeated humiliation of
the United States.
41986, United Feature Syndicate, Inc.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/09/05: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100110157-9