SUICIDE BOMBERS?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940081-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 15, 2011
• Sequence Number: 81
• Publication Date: February 2, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940081-0
tilt
Jack Anderson
And Dale Van Atta
WASHINGTON POST
2 February 1986
Suicide
Bombers?
The specter of fanatical Moslem
terrorists seeking one-way tickets to
paradise through kamikaze attacks on
Western infidels has been burned into
the American consciousness by no less
an authority than President Reagan.
More than two years ago he 'an-
nounced that Iran had trained at least
a thousand of these potential martyrs.
And terrorist groups themselves hlrve
done their best to encourage this
image.
But without minimizing the gha4tly
damage that even a single dedicated
fanatic can wreak, we suggest that
there may not be as many suicidal
crazies out there as the determinOty.,
nonsuicidal terrorist leaders would like
the world to think. Examination- of
highly classified intelligence files on
Shiite Moslem terrorist activities pro-
vides a less apocalyptic picture. -?
Consider the opening attack in .the
Shiite terrorists' overt but undeclared
war on the Western presence in the
Middle East: April 18, 1983, when an
explosives-laden van crashed into the
U.S. Embassy in Beirut, killing 17
Americans. According to investiga-
tors' reconstruction of the incident,
the driver of the van was probably
blown to bits-but not voluntarily,
Evidence indicates he had been told
he'd have time to jump out of the iian
before its deadly cargo was detonated
by remote control.
Six months later, two devastating
truck-bomb explosions at the Beirut
airport killed 241 U.S. Marines andfi8
French paratroopers. lattIgma re-
rts reveal that both driven had met
the a before with a Lebadbse
Shiite leader, who them and
assur m j1rTUWy were Oed
in thee attacks they would go to v-
en
-$ut French intelligence reports,
la er gi_ wn the , added some
cinating ormation. the
two divers were tea ~-
cold cash:
gious passion was fuelled by
The next Shiite strike was a series
of simultaneous bombings in Kuwait
against U.S., French and Kuwaiti tar-
gets in December 1983. Seven of the
eight vehicle explosions were dgto-,
nated either by remote control or a
timing device. The only terrorist wbo
died needn't have. He accidentaly'br
deliberately failed to use the safety
fuse that would have allowed him. to
escape. N . .1
In September 1984, a van wiO g,
bomb hurtled into the U.S. Embassy-
annex in Beirut, killing two Amer{cans,
and the driver. It is not 1 Wn
whether the driver went to his death,
willingly, because bullets stoppedhim
before his van reached its goal: thaga'.
rage under the annex.
Other acts of Shiite tertutbm
against Americans since-two, One
hijackings and a series of kidnappil-gs
-showed no evidence of a suicidalim-
pulse by the perpetrators.
There is also serious doubt' that the
number of potential martyrs is as-high-
as the Shiite leaders claim. A top-se-
cret report on a high-level meeting in
Tehran on May 26, 1984, suggests
that the terrorist leaders have diffi-
culty finding suitable recruits. The gist
of the minutes was that Iranian gov-
ernment officials had, been ordered to
produce 1,500 to 2,000 young men,
preferably bachelors and veterans of
the war with Iraq, to form a suicide
brigade.
"I must say that we have at present
a number of dedicated groups who are
ready for action and who have, to the
outside world, become known as-
sui-cide groups," one official declared.,Bvt
he added that "these groups that,we
have are inadequate by themselves."
One problem, the official acknowl-
edged, was that the existing reci *lts
had faith but no expertise m the ta*ics
of terrorism. In fact, according tone-
cret U.S. intelligence reports, even
the suicidal sincerity of the terrorists
is doubted by their leaders. A dozen or
more recruits reportedly have been
killed in Iranian training camps in tan-
dom tests to see if they actually wenld
go through with a suicide mission.
Footnote: Intelligence analysts
stress the difference between ~tbe
hordes of teen-age "soldier." who
have supposedly volunteer~fgr su>ca-
dal mine-clearing operations against
rah and the umbvidual terrorist who
)e
vea
gg "t ha
ft,the 565 on
tough time backing out. -11 is is not the
case wrath a terra asst tiva-
tion may also overpowering
clad Untbd hi wn smaoaa, W- r
Declassified and Approved For Release 2011/12/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706940081-0