ARAB HIJACKINGS HIDE RED THEFT PLOT, EXPERT SAYS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP80-01601R000300300010-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 13, 2000
• Sequence Number: 10
• Publication Date: November 29, 1971
• Content Type: NSPR

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ve&For. Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601 R0003
111QUIRER
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STATINTL
_ 463,503
867,810
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LONDON (AP).-The Arab : Martinez Fernandez from
skyjacking of four Western Colombia. A fourth was a
airliners last year was part of Costa Rican student, Alvara
a worldwide Communist plot ~, Fuentes I
lesias
the book
,
g
that delivered secret Atlantic
Alliance documents to the So- said.. ... ways jumbo jet, hijacked to
viet Union, a British spy book Even Leila l:haled, the girl Cairo on a ,Sept. 7 flight from
claimed Monday. guerilla briefly-jailed in Bri- Amsterdam to New York,
Pouches containing top taro after she failed to cap- "they captured' a mass -of
secret reports on a NATO air- tune an Israeli El Al plane NATO documents concerning
` sea exercise and the military. over the English Channel' + i
I budget were taken off the ? toli-'secret Plaps for the com
planes before they were blown may have been born in Hon- . bined NATO air and naval
'
Win-
tip at Cairo airport and in the duras, Coo':cridge indicated. exercises code-named
sands of the Jordanian desert, The name on her passport, he tex'," set for 1971,. said
H. Cookridge, a Vienna-horn Chaves, and she speaks Span- The Central _-!.P tcfligcnce
espionage specialist. ish. A?rency, he went on, later dis-
,.,v..... Y had been delivered to Col,
and a fifth attempt which dead i-, Israeli securit
failed in a blaze of gunfire guards while the plane was in Samih Sharraf, the Egyptian
above the English Channel-- flight, t:'as Nicaraguan-born intelligence chief, and given
flashed the world spotlight on . Patrick Anguello, an Ameri to the Soviet Embassy in
the Arab guerillas. of the can citizen. Cairo.
Marxist-Maoist Popular Front "!le had nothing to do with The papers were photogra-
plied and the pouches slashed
for the Liberation of Palest- Arab nationalism ... he was
ine,"who did the job. The or- a professional Ccnununist and burned to resemble ex-
.__ nlne-nn fin,,, n-n Than thnv
ganization has now virtually
:vanished from the Arab scene.
The air piracy had little to
do' with Arab nationalism,
claimed "Spy Trade,". which
contended: "It was, in fact,
part of a worldwide Commu-
n1st conspiracy,. although not
necessarily -stage-n.tanaged
from Moscow.
"Hardly any of the actual
skyjackers were Palestinians
or Arabs," said Cookridge.
The book is likely to pro-
yoke Arab denials from the
Middle East, where the
skyjackers are regarded as
Palestinian heroes and bona-
'fide Arabs.
Two of tie air bandits were;
Africans from Senegal, said
Cookridge, a World War II
intelligence agent and author
of half a dozen books on
spying.,
Another was Miss . Cecilia
[l"C11L 611U 111J 111VU1V' 111G11L
were. ?with the PFLP was only inci- delivered to the Ameri-
.dental," the book say . i can Embassy in Cairo with
1 formal Egyptian regrets. The
Cookridge did not specify Spiritex maneuvers were
the precise purposes of the --- ------._-..----- =
alleged' Communist plot. But
he said one effect of the hi-
jacking was the seizure of the
secret NATO papers.
From a Pan American Air-
canceled.
From a Trans World . Air-
lines 707, hijacked and blowii'
tip in Jordan, the skyjackers"
took NATO . documents
route from Supreme Head-
quarters Allied Powers in T,ii-
rope (SHAPE) to the Penta--
on in Washington, the book
said. ?
These were given to Ru's-
'sian agents in Damascus, .arid
Cookridbe comments: "It
was a good catch: They con-
tamed a complete set of'.
documents of the NATO mili-
tary budget for 1971."
"The great skyjack open-.
ation of' September 1970, :is"
already half forgotten," cau-
tioned Cookridge. He warned
that "in the area of intelli-
gence and military limbs of
government the drama .i.e
mains an ominous pointer. to
the future."
Approved For Release 2001/03/04: CIA-RDP80-01601R000300300010-8