FRANCE EXPELLING 2 LIBYANS, CITING TERRORIST LINKS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504420002-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 9, 2012
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: April 6, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504420002-8
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ON PAGE _* 0-
NEW YORK TILES
6 April 1986
F, rance Expelling 2 Libyans, Citing Terrorist Links-
By JUDITH MILLER
Special to The New York Times
PARIS, April 5 - France has or-
dered two Libyan diplomats to leave
the. country and expelled four other
A>;abs in connection with efforts to pre-
vent terrorist attacks on American in-
stallations in Europe, an Interior
Ministry spokesman said today.
The spokesman declined to identify
the diplomats but said they had been in
contact with individuals believed to bbe~
planning attacks against American
personnel and installations in France
and elsewhere in Europe.
Officials said the expulsions, which
began on Wednesday, followed an in-
vestigation by France's counterespion-
age service. The action reflects Prime
Minister Jacques Chirac's pre-election
pledge to take a tougher line against
terrorism, officials and diplomats said.
Accord With Terrorists Denied
The announcement of the expulsions
also followed a report in The Los An-
geles Times that France and Italy per-
mitted terrorist groups free passage in
the 1970's in exchange for assurances
that no incidents would be staged in the
two countries. French Foreign Minis-
try officials today categorically denied
the report, but foreign experts on ter-
rorism confirmed that France, as well
as other European nations, had at one
point made such arrangements. The
understandings were abandoned after
terrorist incidents were staged in
France and Italy by splinter terrorist
groups, the experts said.
A spokesman for the Libyan People's
Bureau in Paris, which has embassy
status, said he had "absolutely no in-
formation" that any of its personnel
had been asked to leave France.
French sources identified the four
Arabs who were expelled on or about
Wednesday as two Lebanese, an Alge-
rian, identified as Fethi Cherif, and a
Tunisian, Rouini Hedi Ben Ali. It could
not be determined whether the Libyan
diplomats had been in contact with any
of the four expelled Arabs or whether
the expulsions involved separate or re-
lated threats.
Embassy Security Is Increased
Security at American embassies and
consulates in France and elsewhere in
Europe has been reinforced since the
United States Sixth Fleet clashed with
Libya in the disputed Gulf of Sidra late
last month. After the clash Col. Muam-
mar el-Qaddafi, the Libyan leader,
threatened to strike at American inter-
ests in Europe.
Since Mr. Chirac's conservative Gov-
ernment took power after parliamen-
tary elections on March 16, France has
sought to limit France's vulnerability
to terrorist blackmail by reducing its
presence in Lebanon, and it has also in-
creased efforts to combat terrorist
cells operating in France.
This week France withdrew a 45-
member observer force that had been
monitoring violations of a cease-fire
accord among Lebanese factions for
two years.
On March 28 the French police ar-
rested Andre Olivier, who officials as-
sert is one of the key figures in the
French terrorist group Direct Action.
Pressure on Previous Government
The previous Government, led by
President Francois Mitterrand's So-
cialist Party, was under intense politi-
cal pressure because of its inability to
secure the release of four Frenchmen,
one of whom is believed to have been
killed, and a four-member French tele-
vision crew held by Shiite Moslem
groups in Lebanon.
Mr. Mitterrand was also embar-
rassed by assertions from unidentified
American officials in Washington three
days before the election that France
had failed to detain and prosecute a
Lebanese Shiite, Imad Mughniyah,
when he entered France late last year.
Mr. Mughniyah is suspected by Amer-
ican authorities of having master-
minded the hijacking of a Trans World
Airlines jetliner to Lebanon last year.
Since the elections d
ems to have adopted a tougher stand
Chirac.
s week
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reve
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closer coo
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Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/09: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504420002-8