CIA CHIEF LABELS IRAN RESPONSIBLE FOR TERROR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560027-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 10, 2012
• Sequence Number: 27
• Publication Date: July 3, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560027-2
ARTIC1-F APPEAR10
--T
WASHINGTON TIMES
3 July 1985
CIA chief labels Iran
responsible for terror
By Tom Diaz
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
Central Intelligence Agency
Director William J. Casey told a con-
ference three months ago that there
is enough evidence to hold the
Iranian government responsible for
terrorist acts carried out by radical
Shi'ite groups such as the one that
hijacked a TWA jetliner last month.
"There is today .. . sufficient evi-
dence that radical Shi'ite terrorists
are responsive to Iranian guidance
and receive Iranian support on a
constant basis, for us to hold Tehran .
responsible for their attacks against
United States citizens, properties,
and interests," Mr. Casey told a con-
ference on terrorism at 'Rifts Uni-
versity's Fletcher School of Law and
Diplomacy in Medford, Mass., on
April 17.
The speech has not been reported
previously in major press outlets
but will be published soon in a com-
pendium of the conference proceed-
ings.
Mr. Casey also named the Soviet
Union as the sponsor of the current
surge in international terrorism.
"In providing terrorist move-
ments with arms, training and politi-
cal support, the Soviet Union and its
allies, the radical states, have discov-
ered a highly cost-effective way of
making their point - that in today's
world, it is not safe to practice
democracy," he said.
Mr. Casey outlined in a lengthy
talk "how the American intelligence
community assesses this dreadful
scourge, and how I think we ... need
to deal with it."
He called international terrorism
"a pitiless war without borders;' and
said "we cannot and will not abstain
from forcible action to prevent, pre-
empt, or respond to terrorist acts
where the conditions justify - the
knowledge justifies - the use of
force"
He said the United States should
be "prepared to direct a propor-
tional military response against
bona fide military targets" of coun-
tries that direct terrorist actions
against the United States.
"We need not insist on absolute
evidence that the targets were used
solely to support terrorism," Mr.
Casey said. "Nor should we need to
prove beyond all reasonable doubt
that a particular element or individ-
ual in that state is responsible for
specific terrorist acts"
He said the United States cannot
"permit terrorists and their sponsor-
ing states to feel ... that our
response is going to be so bogged
down in interminable consultations
or debates that we, in fact, do not
really have a deterrent."
"In my view," he said, "Western
nations have, on the whole, been
weak in applying economic, political
and diplomatic sanctions."
In what now appears an almost
prophetic forecast of the demands
made last month by radical Shi'ite
terrorists, Mr. Casey said "radical
states ... see in terrorism the poten-
tial for obtaining concessions from
other states that can never be
attained by traditional diplomatic
means"
A central demand of the TWA
hijackers was the release of 735
Lebanese interred in Israel who
were seized by the Israeli Army dur-
ing its withdrawal from Lebanon.
"Our very ability to endure in our
policies is being called into question
by terrorism," Mr. Casey said.
"Unless we deal effectively with ter-
rorism, our international credibility
will be seriously weakened."
In the course of his talk, Mr. Casey
did not flinch from naming specific
countries and groups as responsible
for "state-supported terrorism used
as an instrument of foreign policy."
"The chief protagonists of this
departure in international murder
are Iran, Syria and Libya," he said.
"Probably more blood has been shed
by Iranian-sponsored terrorists dur-
ing the last few years than by all
other terrorists combined"
Mr. Casey said that during 1983
the United States identified "as
many as 50" terrorist attacks with
"confirmed or suspected Iranian
involvement."
"Most of these incidents occurred
in Lebanon, where radical Shi'ias of
the Hezbollah, or Party of God, oper-
ated with direct Iranian support
from terrorist bases in the Syrian-
controlled Bekaa Valley."
Mr. Casey said that these groups
"to protect themselves from direct
retribution;' used the "umbrella
trade name" of "Islamic jihad."
He said that Libyan leader
"[Muammarl Qaddafi is not in the
Ayatollah Khomeini's league," but
added that two bombings during
1984 in England were traced to Lib-
yan agents or "surrogates"
"I must say that these attacks in
highly populated British cities have
passed without significant
response;' Mr. Casey said.
I Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/02/10: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201560027-2