SPYING ON TERRORIST--IT'S A TALL ORDER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706830002-9
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 20, 2011
• Sequence Number: 2
• Publication Date: July 8, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706830002-9
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Spying on
Terrorists-It's
A Tail Order
To punish hijackers, U.S. must
know who and where they
are. The CIA is hard pressed
to provide the information.
In the war on titiddle East terrorism,
America's intelligence services are up
against one of their toughest chal-
lenges ever.
Their task: Cracking the shadowy
bands of Moslem zealots to obtain the
information needed to pre-empt anti-
U.S. acts of violence or to punish those
terrorists who succeed.
In attempting to match overseas the
success of the Federal Bureau of Inves-
tigation in penetrating and neutraliz-
ing terrorist organizations at home, the
Central Intelligence Agency faces
enormous obstacles.
Particularly difficult to infiltrate are
the Shiite terror cells in Lebanon re-
sponsible for the current hijacking epi-
sode as well as most of the major at-
tacks on American installations in the
diddle East in recent years.
These cells of killers are small, clan-
nish and fanatic. Some-
times they consist solely
of brothers and cousins
who are distrustful of all
outsiders. "Almost every-
one is suspicious of every-
Attack on Shiite gunmen by
carrier-based planes is one
Reagan option. But It re-
quires information on their
Identity and whereabouts.
on activities of Palestinian
and other Arab under-
ground groups.
Despite the difficulties,
officials assert, the CIA has
managed, directly or indi-
rectly, to penetrate some
clandestine groups in the
Mideast and elsewhere
overseas. On June 24, Sec-
retary of State George
Shultz said in a press interview that the
U.S., in cooperation with intelligence
organizations of other nations, had
been able to obtain advance warning
of some 60 planned terrorist operations
over the past nine months.
One example, say officials, was when
a CIA informant disclosed that a Shiite
gang was preparing for an attack on
the American ambassador's residence
in Beirut last fall. Since they knew the
identity of the group and the general
location of its hideout, the authorities
were able to forestall the assault.
Saudi Arabia's royal family has been
able to take precautions against terror
attacks on the basis of information that
U.S. intelligence officials passed on
from Israeli agents who had infiltrated
Middle Eastern guerrilla groups.
There are other instances of success-
ful international cooperation in the
campaign against terrorism. One came
last November when Italian police
rounded up seven Shiite Lebanese who
reportedly were plotting to blow up
the American Embassy in Rome. The
Italians, acting on a tip Erom Swiss au-
thorities, alerted Washington in time
for protective measures to be taken.
An eighth man was arrested in Zurich.
Collaboration with friendly intelli-
gence agencies also paid off for the U.S.
recently when Egyptian agents uncov-
ered aLibyan plot to attack the Ameri-
can Embassy in Cairo with a truck
loaded with explosives.
Beyond the grave. Dogged police
work resulted in the arrest of Shiite
terrorists from Iraq who carried out a
suicide truck-bomb attack on the U.S.
Embassy in Kuwait in 1983. Kuwaiti
authorities recovered two fingers of
the driver. Identification of his finger-
prints led to capture of the others in-
volved in the attack.
Experts on American intelligence
matters say that the CIA and other
Western services have managed to
thwart terrorist attacks by recruiting
people in support organizations-for
example, those who produce false pass-
ports, supply weapons, make bombs or
provide vehicles. With the cooperation
of these operatives, terrorists' guns and
bombs, according to one authority,
have been "spiked"-secretly doctored
so that they failed in an attack.
Given the magnitude of the chal-
lenge they face, American intelligence
officials concede that their successes
have been modest and partial. They
warn that President Reagan has scant
hope of implementing a policy of swift
retaliation unless spying on terrorists is
far more effective. ^
By ROIBERT S. DUDNEY with JEFF TRLNBLE in
JCfUS~FOm
U.S.NEWS 8 WORLD REPORT.
8 July 1985
body" else, maintains former State De-
partment terrorism analyst Terrell
Arnold. "Their paranoia is a big prob-
lem for us."
Compounding that problem is the
fact] that today's hard-core terrorists
are true professionals, trained and
equipped by experts from Eastern Eu-
rope or radical Mideast states.
Some operations, according to Amer-
ican intelligence sources, are planned
and staged by teams whose members
may come together only for a single
spectacular attack. The group then dis-
solves and disappears, making attempts
at pre-emption or retaliation virtually
impossible.
Entrance test. Prospective Western
informers or agents often are deterred
from trying to penetrate the terrorist
gangs by demands that they demon-
strate their bona fides in advance-by
committing murder or other violent
crimes.
"Some of the groups are so fanatic,"
warns former CIA Director Stansfield
Turner, "they they will put your agent
to a test that he can't possibly accept."
Ironically, the expulsion of the Pales-
tine Liberation Organization from
Lebanon in 1982 by the Israeli Army
dealt a serious blow to the operations
of the CIA and those of Mossad, its
Israeli counterpart, in combatting ~iid-
east terrorism. The two intelligence
agencies relied heavily on operatives
within the PLO to provide information
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/20 :CIA-RDP90-009658000706830002-9