WEEKLY SITUATION REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06626248
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: March 9, 2023
• Document Release Date: January 23, 2020
• Case Number: F-2016-02132
• Publication Date: January 27, 1976

Approved for Release: 2020/01/15 C06626248
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Weekly Situation Report
on
International Terrorism
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27 January � 1976
S9tfret 95
27 JAN 1976
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ARTICLES
Increase in Threats Against U.S. Personnel Abroad
The number of reported plans for terrorist attacks against
U.S. personnel overseas, as well as other circumstances that
might cause terrorists to target Americans, was larger in
January than at any time in several months. Many reports of
planned attacks came from informants of unknown or dubious
reliability, and it is normal for rumors of this type to in-
crease following successful, publicized terrorist incidents
such as the seizure of the OPEC ministers in Vienna and the
murder of U.S. official Richard Welch in Athens--both in late
December. It does appear, nevertheless, that the probability
of an attack against an American target will be higher than
normal for the next few months.
Reports of planned attacks have come from various parts of
the world. In Latin America, four different reports concerning
attacks against U.S. officials have been received in the past
two weeks.
The embassy is taking all possible precautions until
more information can be developed.
Guatemalan Com-
munists have information that an organization called the
Guerrilla Army of the Poor is planning some sort of violent
action against U.S. military advisers in Guatemala. (See the
20 January issue, page B-I1.) American military personnel also
are possible targets in Venezuela, where a Bandera Roja activist
reportedly was assigned in mid-January to surveil the automobile
registered to a U.S. Military Group employee. The surveillance
was to last for ten days and may have been only an exercise,
-but the Military Group and the targeted employee were advised
to be alert.
In the Dominican Republic, the Commandos of the Resistance
reportedly plan to kidnap one or more Americans traveling on
the "Queen Elizabeth II." They intend to entice some of the
'debarking tourists into taxis driven by members of the Com-
mandos, abduct them and demand that three political prisoners
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be released in exchange for the Americans. One of the three
prisoners is Plinio Matos Moquete, founder of the i,12th of
January Liberation Movement--the group that kidnapped USIS
director Barbara Hutchison in Santo Domingo in SePtember 1974.
The next scheduled visit of the "Queen Elizabeth 1I" to Santo
Domingo is on 10 February, and if this reported plot is found RV)
to be genuine, the terrorists' plan probably can be neutralize(b)(3)
by that time.
In the Middle East, threats have aP-P-m_r_e_n_nr_t_e_d_a_g_ain_s_t_
U.S. interests in Abu Dhabi and Iran.
against the U.S., British or West German embassy in Abu Dhabi.
a Palestinian group is planning arq operation
Precq.utions are being taken. but no further deta'as are avail-
able
The FBI has unconfirmed information that
In Europe, one explicit threat to U.S. pe6onnel has been
reported, and other possibilities for anti-U.S: operations
exist.
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While the OPEC ministers were held hostage in late Decem-
ber, "Carlos" (Ilich Ramirez Sanchez), the leader of the ter-
rorist group, allegedly told a hostage that his next operation
would be aimed at freeing the Baader-Meinhof anarchists cur-
rently on trial in West Germany. (See Section B-II.) This
would be done by seizing an official of an allied country in
order to put pressure on the FRG government. This report did
not specify American personnel as the intended victims, but if
the report is accurate, U.S. officials in Europe might be
considered desirable targets.
The possibility of a terrorist attack against an American
target is strengthened by the recent publicity given to the
U.S. intelligence presence in Western Europe. In mid-January
radical leftist publications published the names of more than
one hundred Americans alleged to be intelligence officers in
the U.K., France, Spain, Italy and The Netherlands. Some of
these officers have since been the object of harassing telephone
calls and surveillance. While much of this activity is believed
to be motivated more by curiosity or mild political malice than
by serious hostility, the likelihood of another terrorist
attack against an American believed to be a high-level intelli-
gence officer, in Europe or elsewhere, cannot be dismissed.
The combination of this publicity and the unusual number of
reported threats is causing most U.S. missions abroad to in-
crease precautions in order to discourage or to blunt the
effect o nvtrorLtieraionthMpi ay be planned against
them.
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