LEBANON: IMPLICATIONS OF THE HIGGINS ABDUCTION

• Document Type: FOIA
• Collection: FOIA Collection
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 06932296
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: July 13, 2023
• Document Release Date: May 2, 2022
• Case Number: F-2020-01608
• Publication Date: March 10, 1988

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Directorate of
Intelligence
Terrorism Review
.1111*Fdri988
Dl rR 88-005
10 Mardi 1988
6," 500
2.(.0
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Terrorism Review
10 March 1988
(I?)(3)
. (b)(3)
(b)(6) 5
(b)(3) 9
(b)(3)
Focus: Lebanon: Implications of the Higgins Abductior
C7C
Highlights
Counterterrorist Center
State Support for International Terrorism: 1986-87
(b)(6) 13
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(6)
Syria: Relations With the Abu Nidal Organization in LebanoU
17 Peru: Sender� Luminoso's Latin American Contacts
21 Chronology of Terrorism-1987-88
Counterterrorist Center
Reverse Blank
This review is published biweekly by the Directorate of Intelligence. Other
elements of the CIA as well as other agencies of the US Intelligence Community
are encouraged to submit articles for publication. Comm nts and aueries are
welcome and may be directed to the Executive Editor on
"Sitetat..
DI TR 88-005
10 March 1988
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Terrorism Review
10 March 1988
Lebanon: Implications of the�Higgins Abduction
NOFOR
NTRACT-
Chances that US Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins will be rescued are fading as
time passes and Amal�the moderate Shia militia in southern Lebanon�coma
under increasing pressure to find him. Since Higgins was abducted in southern
Lebanon on 17 February, his captors have had time to reinforce security around
him and shift the burden of public guilt onto Amal for trying to release a US
"spy." Higgins' kidnaping is the latest in a series of attacks on the Western
presence in Lebanon, and we believe additional operations targeting US and UN
personnel, in particular, will continue.
The Act
Higgins, who is head of the Lebanon unit of the United Nations Truce Supervisory
Organization (UNTSO), was not merely a target of opportunity: he was kidnaped
in a well-planned operation after he left a meeting with Antal officials in Tyre.
While driving alone behind another UNTSO vehicle, Higgins was waylaid by
several gunmen near the Ar Rashidiyah refugee camp south of Tyre. The gunmen
apparently hustled Higgins into a car and drove him to a nearby village. The car
was later found abandoned, and the terrorists probably moved him quickly to
another location, a number of possible
detention sites.
Hizballah terrorists most likely are responsible for Higgins' abduction.
the on-the-scene mastermind of the operation was Khalil Harb,
chief of Hizballah forces in the Tyre area,
Herb reportedly owned the car usect to kidnap Higgins and may nave
had a personal motive for the operation: Harb probably is related to a popular cler-
ic in southern Lebanon, Shaylch Raghib Herb, who helped found Hizballah there
and who was killed in 1984 by a bomb probably planted by the Israelis. Herb and
Hizballah may have timed the Higgins abduction to commemorate the cleric's
murder; Higgins was abducted on the fourth anniversary of the Shaykh's death.
Harb also probably shared Hizballah's opposition to the UN presence in Lebanon
and may have seen abducting Higgins as an opportunity to lash out at Israel, the
United Nations, and the United States
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
We believe that Hizballah tried to cover its involvement by issuing communiques
through two other groups that took credit for the operation. The �Irst communique,
issued by the Islamic Revolutionary Brigades, was not accompanied by any
authentication. The second communique, by the Organization of the Oppressed on
' Since the article was prepared, two UN Relief Works Agency hostages were freed on I March and
German-Lebanese hostage Ralph Schray was released on 2 March. On 4 March, however. the British
Middle East Director for Oxfam, Peter Coleridge, and his Lebanese assistant were abducted while
visiting a refugee camp near Sidon. The two were released on 7 March.
Secret
. DI TR 88-005
10 March 1988
(b)(3)
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Earth, was sent to a Western news service along with photocopies of Higgins' UN
identification cards. The Organization of the Oppressed is a name used previously
by renegade Shia terrorists who have kidnaped and murdered Lebanese Jewish
hostages ancl
The organization's demands, which
Higgins read in a videotape, included the release of Lebanese and Palestinian
prisoners held by Israel, the removal of the US and Israeli presence from Lebanon
and an end to US Secretary of State Shultz's visit to the Middle East
Dim Prospects for Finding Higgins
We are not optimistic that Higgins will be found soon. His captors probably
consider him highly valuable and are likely to take extraordinary security
precautions. Hizballah leaders and Iran are now aware that the UNTSO
commander once served as a military aide to former Secretary of Defense
Weinberger, and they probably assume he has detailed knowledge of US programs
and plans in Lebanon and the Middle East. (b)(3)
We believe Amal initially pressed hard to locate Higgins in the south, but it faced
difficulty rescuing him. In the days following Higgins' abduction, AMA militia
forces in southern Lebanon arrested a number of Hizballah membe
nd ransacked Hizballah
and Iranian cultural and religious facilities. They harassed Hizballah clerics and
publicly announced they would press that- search for Higgins.
Amal chief Nabih Barn i may fear that military clashes with Hizballah in the south
would expose his organization's growing weakness there, and, thus, he would not
want to force a showdown over the kidnaping. Higgins was seized near Tyre, an
area ostensibly under Amal control, which suggests the organization is losing its
political base and ability to control security there. If Higgins is still in the south, he
is almost certainly being held in a Hizballah-controlled village.
The searches have exacerbated tensions between Amal and Hizballah, which has
been waging its own campaign to win over the Shia villagers in the south.
Hizballah has long opposed Amal's policy of not challenging the Israelis and the
Army of South Lebanon�which Amal regards as merely another, albeit pro-
Israeli, militia�in the security zone. With money and a more radical ideology.
Hizballah is wooing away Amal adherents.
Sporadic fighting between Amal and Hizballah units
was also reported.
2
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
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Recent Terrorist Attacks Against
Western Interests in Lebanon
27 January
Target
Responsibility
German-Lebanese national
Ralph Sehray abducted in Won
Beirut.
Claimed by Revolutionary Jus-
tice Organization; released
2 March 1988.
2 February
Armenian Secret Army for the
Liberation of Armenia
(ASALA) suspected but has de-
nied responsibility; no arrests.
Jacque Merrin assassinated in
East Beirut.
5 February
Two United Nations Refugee
Welfare Agency (UNRWA) of-
ficials kidnaped near Sidon.
No claim but various Palestin-
ian Hizballah factions accusing
each other: released 1 March
1988.
16 February
Assassination attempt possibly
on French military attache or
US naval attache in East
Beirut.
No suspects.
17 February USMC Lieutenant Colonel
Higgins kidnaped near Tyre.
Islamic Revolutionary Brigades
and Organization of the Op-
pressed on Earth take credit,
but Hizballah believed
responsible.
0 March
This table is
British Middle East Director or
Oxfam and his Lebanese coun-
terpart kidnaped from 'Ayn al
Hulwah refugee camp.
No dairn.
(b)(1)
(b)(3)
(b)(3)
Nor is Damascus likely to apply strong pressure to obtain Higgins' release. Syria
pressed hard for the release of US hostage Charles Glass and made a serious effort
to obtain the release of German-Lebanese hostage Ralph Schray, both of whom
were kidnaped in areas in or near Beirut that are under Syrian control. Higgins, (b)(1)
however, was abducted in an area where there is no Syrian presence, and we judge( b)(3)
Damascus is unlikely to risk a confrontation with Hlzballah or its Iranian backers '
for him. suggest Higgins was moved to Beirut by the end of
February, however, to a Hizballah-controlled area beyond the reach of Amal and
the Syrians.
(b)(3)
The Backdrop: Renewed Terrorism Against Western Presence in Lebanon
The Higgins abduction is probably part of a larger effort by Hizballah elements to (b)(1)
intensify pressure on the United States, France, and the United Nations to end 113)(3)
their presence in Lebanon and to resolve Western hostage issues on Iranian and k
Hizballah terms.
including tne murder ot a
French intelligence official, the attempted murder of another French military
official, and the abductions of two United Nations Refugee Welfare Agency
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(UNRWA) officials and a German-Lebanese national. Different Hizballah de-
ments have been linked to these attackS
We believe Hizballah's leaders and their Iranian patrons consider the United
States and France particularly vulnerable now because of upcoming elections in
both countries. Iranian leaders believe they were able to use the US diplomats held
hostage in Tehran to manipulate the 1980 elections in the United States, and
Hizballah officials have already suggested that the release of American and
French hostages currently held in Lebanon would depend on the US and French
elections. Hizballah�or elements of it�will probably try to stage additional
kidnapings, release videos, free a hostage, and seek other public relations stunts to
upset the political process in both Paris and Washington.
Hizballah and Iran will also continue their efforts to eliminate the United Nations
from Lebanon. The Hizballah terrorists implicated in the Higgins abduction
(b)(3)
probably see Higgins as an especially attractive target because he is both a US and
a UN official.
The above article is
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