HILL PANEL FINDS CIA NOT GUILTY IN BEIRUT CAR BOMBING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000504680006-6
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: February 27, 2012
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: June 24, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

,3
24 June 1985
panel fords CIA not guilty in
Beirut car bombing
By Stephanie L. Nail
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
The CIA was not guilty of any
direct or indirect complicity in the
March 8 car bombing in Beirut that
killed 80 people, according to the
House Intelligence Committee.
A report, approved by the com-
mittee June 12 but not released until
Friday, said that a review of files,
intelligence documents and inter-
views with intelligence officials
"uncovered no evidence that any
U.S. intelligence agency - any U.S.
government agency - has encour-
aged or participated in any terrorist
activity in Lebanon. Further, the
committee was able to discover no
evidence that any U.S. intelligence
agency had roreknowledge of the
March 8 bombing outside the resi-
dence of Sheik Hussein Fadlallah."
The alleged CIA link to the car
bombing has been mentioned by
radical Shi'ite Moslems as one of the
reasons they hijacked TWA flight
847 10 days ago and took American
passengers hostage - killing one of
them.
Sheik Fadlallah, the target of the
bombing, escaped unharmed and is
believed to be holding at least some
of the hostages taken from the air-
plane.
AII. tions of an indirect role in
the b( attack by the CIA was first
menu _d in a May 12 article in The
Washington Post. The Post said the
CIA had an indirect connection to
the car bombing and quoted a Leba-
nese intelligence source as saying
that the CIA knew the car bombing
was being planned.
The story also said that President
Reagan approved a covert operation
directing the CIA to train and sup-
port several counterterrorist units
for strikes against suspected terror-
ists.
It said in part: "... members of
one of those units, composed of
Lebanese intelligence personnel and
other foreigners, acting without CIA
authorization, went out on a runaway
mission and hired others in Lebanon
to detonate a massive car bomb out-
side the Beirut residence of a mili-
tant Shi'ite leader believed to be
behind terrorist attacks on U.S.
installations, the sources said.'
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504680006-6
P,, WASHINGTON TIMES
t
Yesterday, the Post published a
letter from CIA official George
Lauder criticizing the May 12 story.
In a separate article, the Post quoted
two unnamed committee members
as saying that the panel's report did
not directly address the Post story.
However, the committee said in its
report that the review followed press
allegations that the CIA had been
authorized to train and support
counterterrorist units of foreigners
and that its purpose was "to deter-
mine whether or not any evidence
existed to support the charge that
the United States Government, and
specifically the Central Intelligence
Agency, knew about beforehand, or
was in some way responsible for, a
March 8, 1985, bombing in Beirut.
"How could anyone say the report
was not done because of the Post
article?" Rep. Henry Hyde, R-III.,
said yesterday. "I don't understand
that"
"The Post was wrong;' Mr. Lauder
said Friday. "I told I Post editor and
writer I Bob Woodward that the story
was wrong, but they ran it anyway."
After the May 12 article ran, the
CIA publicly denied "any connec-
tion" with the terrorist act. In his
letter to The Post, Mr. Lauder said
the Post article "gave the American
public and the rest of the world the
false impression that the U.S. gov-
ernment was involved in terrorist
activity. This misleading theme has
been picked up by other journalists
as fact and has even been cited by
the Shi'ite terrorists as one of the
motives for the hijacking of TWA
Flight 847"
CIA spokeswoman Kathy Ferson
said yesterday the agency "hopes
that the committee report will set
the record straight. We deny the
implication that the CIA had any-
thing to do with the March bombing.
But that denial didn't seem to make
any difference to what people
thought - as evidenced by the
statement from the hijackers.
"The story left quite an impres-
sion around the world and it is an
impression that's not correct."
Some terrorism experts have
expressed the belief that the hijack-
ing of a TWA airliner is the first
major terrorist action directed
against Americans following reports
of alleged CIA involvement in
training Lebanese counterter-
rorists.
During the first Beirut stop of the
jetliner, the hijackers read a
statement over the plane's radio
which, among other demands.
included a condemnation of U.S.
Mideast policy. The statement spe-
cifically condemned a March 8 car
bombing in Beirut that killed 80 peo-
ple at a building known to be a center
for radical Shi'ite Muslims.
Samuel Francis, a former staff
member of the Senate Judiciary
Subcommittee on Security and Ter-
rorism and an aide to Sen. John East,
R-N.C., said it was possible the
hijacking was partly the result of the
1?ost story.
" "Three weeks ago, Islamic Jihad
made a statement that they plan to
target more Americans," Mr. Fran-
cis said. He said that decision may
have been sparked by reports of
alleged CIA activities in Lebanon.
Yonah Alexander, a specialist on
international terrorism at the
Georgetown University Center for
Strategic and International Studies.
said there is some validity to the
argument that allegations linking
the CIA to a Beruit bombing contri-
buted to an increase in terrorist
actions against Americans.
"Clearly, it is revenge against the
United States;' Dr. Alexander said.
Dr. Alexander pointed out that
after the bombing, a banner was
draped from the building which
read, "Made in America."
At the time of the May 12 Post
story, an administration source told
The Washington Times that the arti-
cle had endangered the lives of
Americans in the Middle East.
"The Washington Post has put the
lives of every American in Lebanon
in jeopardy.... I find it utterly con-
temptible.... It invites retaliation
against every American in Beirut -
including women and children,"
another administration source said
at that time.
Immediately following the story,
the State Department alerted U.S.
diplomatic outposts worldwide of
possible terrorist actions in
response to the May 12 Post report.
A State Department source said a
message was sent under "standard
notification procedures" urging U.S.
officials to be wary of retaliatory
attacks.
Bill Gertz contributed to this
report.
Declassified and Approved For Release 2012/02/28: CIA-RDP90-00965R000504680006-6