LEBANON/CIVIL CONFLICT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01070R000201040003-0
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 21, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: January 20, 1984
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2008/10/21 :CIA-RDP88-010708000201040003-0
C:tiS EVENING NEWS
20 January 1984
LEBANON/CIVIL RATHER: Good evening. This is the CBS Evening News, Dan
CONFLICT Rather reporting. There were unconfirmed reports last
night that American xarships off Lebanon's coast xere on
high alert against threatened terrorist suicide attacks.
Today those stories xere confirmed, and Pentagon
correspondent David Martin has learned the threats appear
to come from Iran.
MARTIN: A White House official says terrorist groups in
Lebanon have acquired small aircraft in prepartion for
kamikaze attacks against the U.S. Marines or American ships
off shore. Other government officials tell CBS News that
unmarked crates haver been spotted moving from Iran through
Syria to the Iranian stronghold of Baalbek. The crates are
said to contain small propeller-driven aircraft, probably
American-made like these F-33s. Officials say such
aircraft., camouflaged with American markings, pose a
particularly worrisome threat because U.S. gunners might
hesitate before shooting at them. Members of Iran's
fanatical revolutionary guards are training to fly the
F-33s. But so far there is no evidence the pilots have
arrived in Lebanon. Pentagon officials say the U.S. would
probably launch a preemptive air strike to destroy the
planes if intelligence confirms they are assembled and
ready to fly. a merican fleet has been on guard against ,
kamikaze attacks ever since the October bombing of the
2~.arines. In November, after a CBS News plane flex out to
take pictures of the ships, concerns about a small aircraft
slipping through the fleet's elaborate defenses increased.
The U.S. issued a xarning that any planes coming within
five miles of an American ship will place themselves at
.risk. Now the fleet has gone to an even higher state of
alert. However, some U.S. analysis regard the kamikaze
threat as a smokescreen, intended to hide a shift in
terrorist tactics away from suicide bombings toxard
assassinations of prominent Americans such as Wednesday's
killing of Malcolm Kerr, head of the American University in
Beirut. David Martin, CBS News, the Pentagon.
Approved For Release 2008/10/21 :CIA-RDP88-010708000201040003-0