PALESTINIAN TERRORIST LINKED TO MASSACRES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000403380003-4
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: October 3, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403380003-4
ARTICLE
ON PAGE APPAPA 0
WASHINGTON TIMES
3 October 1986
Palestinian terrorist linked to massacres
FROM COMBINED DISPATCHES
Intelligence agencies have linked
Palestinian terrorist Abu Niidaal to
Wt. hijack o a Pan mum et in
Pakistan and the massacre a day later of
11 worshippers at a r is synagogue,
to evision reporte last night.
5 Corres ndent Art Kent reported on
NBC Nightly News" intelligence
sources told him six terrorists were in-
volved in the svnaao a massacre and
seven in the Karachi hijacking, and that
seven of the 13 are still at lar?e Mr. Kent
said his sources told him both attacks had
been planned well in advance and close_
tether to confuse anti-terrorist organi-
zatins.
Abu Nidal is known to plan his attacks
in pairs - as evidenced by the Rome and
Vienna airport massacres last December
and the April 2 explosion aboard a TWA
jetliner near Athens, which was followed
three days later by the bombing of a West
Berlin discotheque.
Mr. Kent quoted the sources as saying
Abu Nidal, on the move from one Arab
capital to another since Col. Muammar
Qaddafi asked him to leave Libya follow-
ing a retaliatory U.S. air raid on that
country April 15, has sent four more
agents in the past two weeks against
Western targets "known only to them-
selves."
The sources said until last year. the
"master terrorist" made Damascus his
headquarters and the United States has
contingency plans to attack Syria in re-
taliation if it finds solid evidence that
country is linked to Abu Nidal's activi-
ties.
Western intelligence organizations
have said strong circumstantial evidence
shows links between Abu Nidal and Col.
Qaddafi's government, though it has not
been shown that Libya directs Abu
Nidal's activities, and they are certain
Abu Nidal's 200-strong terrorist group
depends on Syrian support as well. `
The U.S. State Department describes
the group led by Abu Nidal - a
Palestinian whose real name is Sabry al-
Banna - as the most experienced, le-
thal arm of Palestinian terrorism:'
By Western estimates it has been re-
sponsible for more than 60 terrorist
attacks on three continents over the past
eight years.
Britain, meanwhile, announced that
Libya's national airline would not be al-
lowed to operate in that country as of the
end of this month because it supports and
participates in international terrorism.
The measure was decided at a 45-
minute Cabinet meeting a week after a
suspected Palestinian terrorist was given
25 years in prison for plotting an attack
in Britain.
Banning of the flights to London leaves
Rome and Athens as the only WestAm
European cities accepting Libyan planes.
The airline also flies to the Mediterra-
nean island of Malta.
Last Friday, a Palestinian doctor was
convicted on charges of participating in
a plot allegedly backed by Libya to bring
grenades into London for terror attacks.
An informant said the grenades were de-
livered by a man in the uniform of the
airline.
"The involvement of Libyan Arab Air-
lines in support of terrorist activity
makes it inappropriate in the govern-
ment's view for air services between the
two countries to continue;' Transport
Minister John Moore said.
He said the airline's operating permit
would expire Oct. 31 and, until then, "fur-
ther security measures will be applied to
LAA flights at Heathrow" airport in Lon-
don.
Christopher Meyer, head of the For-
eign Office news department, said yes-
terday's action was "a necessary
response to a security threat;" and that
the decision should not be viewed as po-
litical.
Troops moved into Heathrow yester-
day in a security exercise. The soldiers,
in full battle dress and carrying auto-
matic weapons, stood guard with light
tanks and armored cars. The next Libyan
flight is due today.
Libyan Arab Airlines operates three
flights a week into Heathrow under a
1972 air services agreement that never
was formally ratified by Col. Muammar
Qaddafi's government but has been ap-
plied "administratively."
British Caledonian Airlines had flown
to Libya but suspended those flights in
July.
Mr. Moore said Libya was being in-
formed of the British action through
Saudi Arabia, Libya's diplomatic repre-
sentative here since since Britain broke
relations in April 1984.
Ramsi Awad, 43, a Palestinian of dual
Jordanian-Spanish nationality, was ar-
rested in September 1985. A Jordanian
medical doctor, he was said by the pros-
ecution to be a member of the radical
Palestinian group led by Abu Nidal.
Police said they were unable to deter-
mine what Awad's possible target was,
but believed he might have been setting
up an attack at Heathrow similar to last
winter's Vienna and Rome airport massa-
cres in which 16 were killed.
A former Libyan student who testified
at Awad's trial last week said he received
instructions from Libya to pick up four
grenades at Heathrow from a man in a
Libyan Arab Airlines uniform.
He did so and informed Scotland Yard.
Police substituted dummy grenades for
the real ones and arrested Awad when he
took delivery of them.
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 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403380003-4
RADIO TV REPORTS, INC.
4701 WILLARD AVENUE, CHEVY CHASE, MARYLAND 20815 [phone]
PUBLIC AFFAIRS STAFF
NBC Nightly News STATION WRC TV
NBC Network
DATE October 27, 1986 7:00 PM CITY
CIA Recruitment
Washington, DC
I' TOM BROKAW: In this country, to help fight terrorists
around the world, the CIA now has decided to call for the cops.
As NBC's Art Kent reports tonight, it is looking to hire police
officers off the streets of America's big cities.
POLICE OFFICER: The color of the day today is yellow.
ART KENT: Street cops in New York City getting ready to
make a drug bust, and now they're the target of a major recruit-
ing effort by the Central Intelligence Agency.
At a July seminar on terrorism at the CIA's Langley,
Virginia headquarters, CIA Director William Casey asked civilian
logy transfer climate.
police officials to help in the CIA's effort to recruit cops with
"street smarts." Intelligence officials say the fight against
international terrorism and the war on drugs have forced a change
in the traditional role of clandestine intelligence gathering and
a change in the kinds of people the CIA wants.
RAY S. CLINE: You may well want to hire someone who is
familiar with the cocaine climate rather than say the techno-
KENT: The CIA has stepped up its recruiting recently,
taking out ads in newspapers and visiting college campuses. But
its efforts to recruit working cops away from their departments
is not meeting with universal acceptance. In Los Angeles, the
police department says it needs all its people at home. New
York's mayor says his city is happy to contribute.
MAYOR ED KOCH: But I don't think that the numbers that
OFFICES IN: WASHINGTON DC. ? NEW YORK ? LOS ANGELES ? CHICAGO ? DETROIT ? AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES
Matenal supplied by Radio TV Reports, inc may be used for fide and reference purposes only it may not be reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhibited
. Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403380003-4
 Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/01/26: CIA-RDP90-00965R000403380003-4
they're talking about have any impact at all upon our police
department.
KENT: Police officers who have taken the CIA's employ-
ment test say the agency prefers single people, warns them they
will have to pass druq and lie detector tests and serve overseas.
A CIA spokesman said these are not temporary jobs, but
permanent staff positions. And unlike the well-known Marine
Corps' recruiting pitch, the CIA wants a lot of good men and
women.
Art Kent, NBC News, Washington.
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.Not- ivll.,n1LT VtWS FILE ONLY
7:00 P.M 7 August 1986
the time the CIA told the FBI,
Former CIA Agent Defects and the FBI started to close
CONNIE CHUNG: Former CIA
agent Edward Lee Howard,
accused of selling secrets that
devastated U.S. intelligence in
Moscow, has been granted
political asylum in the Soviet
Union. He is believed to be
the first known CIA agent to
defect to the Soviet Union.
Today his whereabouts emerged
in the Soviet press.
Art Kent reports.
ART KENT: The item that
moved on the Tass news wire in
Moscow this morning confirmed
what American intelligence had
Feared for almost a year
.
Edward Lee Howard, a fugitive
former CIA agent, did go to the
Soviet Union when, he escaped
FBI agents last September and
has now been granted asylum
there.
Former CIA Deputy Director
George Carver says Howard's
defection gives the Russians a
lot of knowledge about the
CIA's operations.
GEORGE CARVER: This is a
loss of major magnitude, and it
is a very, very serious
compromise indeed.
KENT: According to intelli-
gence sources, Howard had been
trained for a junior agent's
posting to Moscow and knew
enough about CIA sources and
methods that his defection
enabled the Russians to almost
wipe out CIA operations in
Moscow and likely cause the
death of at least one major
Soviet CIA contact.
How did Howard get away?
The CIA had fired him in 1983
when a lie detector test
revealed drug abuse and mental
instability. Then, last year,
KGB defector Vitaly Yurchenko
told the CIA that Howard had
been working for the Russians
since at least 1984, traveling
from his New Mexico home to
meetings with the KGB. But by
ln, Howard was gone.
Administration sources
confirm that Howard crossed
into Mexico, flew to Finland,
and from there crossed the
border into the Soviet Union.
Senate Intelligence Commit-
tee Vice Chairman Patrick Leahy
has been critical of CIA and
FBI handling of the case.
SEN. LEAHY: I think that it
has caused a very intensive,
and really needed, review of
their own internal procedures.
KENT: The FBI disciplined
two agents for mishandling the
Howard case. The CIA would
only say that its security
staff was always looking for
ways to improve its procedures.
CHUNG: Howard's father, who
lives in Garland, Texas, told a
local newspaper there that his
son called him from Moscow
Howard Tuesday morning. n h~g. He said
his wife and son
to visit him in the Soviet
Union, and that he promised to
write when he finds a place to
live.
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19C.lunPH1986NEWS FILE ONLY
7:00 P.M.
High-Ranking KGB Defector
UTLEY: A Soviet spy has
defected'to the United States.
According to Art Kent, our
national security correspon-
dent, he is important and he
brought with him Soviet
information stamped top secret.
ART KENT: A Soviet connec-
tion to Palestinian guerrillas
training and operating in
Northern Africa has been
broken. According to
rces Ole
Agranients (?>- was a KE
-liaison office .to the Pales-
tinian until fected last
month. The de?' ion, analysts
say, is a major setback to
Soviet intelligence operations
in that area.
Agranients, who wa.s
stationed at the Soviet Embassy
in Tunis, was also responsible
for KGB operations in Northern
Africa. Intelligence sources
say he has provided the names
of KGB agents in Tunisia,
Algeria, Morocco and Libya.
That would be a significant
blow to the KGB, which will now
have to replace all those
agents and possibly the
networks of which they were a
part.
In addition, according to
former CIA Deputy Director
George Carver, a defector o
Agranients' rank would - h-e-v-e-
other valuable information.
GEORGE CARVER: He would not
have been posted to this senior
assignment overseas without
having held previous assign-
ments of almost equivalent
seniority, and he could have
told us a lot about what he had
derived from those assignments.
KENT: A ranients is just
the latest Soviet in te i ence
official to defect. Best kn own
is Vitaly Yurchenko, the KGB
colonel who redefected. There
was also Ole Gordievsk , the
KGB station c ie in London:
Sergei Bokan, a military
intelligence a ent in Greece,
Viktor udorev, a KuB agent in
that same country; and another
high-ranking KGB agent who has
never been identified.
The CIA will not confirm
A ranients' defection, nor
rom ante i ence
sources that he had been a A
double agent for as long as
three years before he defected.
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