NIO/CT'S PROSECUTION OF TERRORISTS MEMORANDUM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88T00988R000200160030-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 10, 2011
• Sequence Number: 30
• Publication Date: February 12, 1986
• Content Type: LETTER

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/10: CIA-RDP88T00988R000200160030-1
12 February 1986
NOTE FOR: Bob Gates, C/NIC
FROM: Graham E. Fuller, VC/NIC
SUBJECT: NIO/CT's Prosecution of Terrorists Memorandum
Bob,
1. I have a lot of problems with this memorandum. Put bluntly I
find the idea of prosecution of Hizballah as a terrorist organization
under American law not to be living in the real world.
-- I know we must think creatively about the terrible scourge of
terrorism.
-- There is no doubt that Hizballah comprises some very bad guys
indeed.
-- Action both preventive and punitive will have to be taken by the
US under appropriate circumstances.
2. But Hizballah is culturally an integral--and definitely
non-attractive--side of Middle East life. Its main purpose in life is
not terrorism. It has serious, finite and even achievable political
goals in mind which are hostile to us but are very understandable by
Middle East standards. I find the idea of prosecuting Hizballah to be
about as realistic as declaring the Soviet Union illegal.
3. If we want to identify terrorist groups and punish them as such,
there are organization which do qualify as largely terrorist in nature:
Abu Nidal, Red Army, Action Directe, etc.
4. I find it no more reasonable to declare Hizballah outside the law
then to apply the same criteria to other political parties around the
world whom we dislike and who don't shrink from terrorism either. Almost
any Communist party would fall into this category.
5. To declare war against Hizballah is to declare war against Shia
Islam as a whole. I feel it would open the US to world ridicule in
attempting to stop the expression of powerful regional political emotions
which we find distasteful. Our enemies would have a field day against us
in the Middle East and elsewhere if we took such a position.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/10: CIA-RDP88T00988R000200160030-1
 Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/10: CIA-RDP88T00988R000200160030-1
SECRET
-- This is not to say we cannot capture or punish Hizballah
terrorists. I do not even argue that we need total smoking guns
or court-proof evidence, but we must go after the perpetrators
in general rather than an organization like this in particular.
6. I would almost rather the US simply took the law into its own
hands without any legal justification to shoot down known terrorists
without benefit of legal process. But when I read about the US versus
New York Central Railroad or the US versus Union Supply Co. as precedent
for a position on events taking place in distant turbulent wildly
different cultures, I feel a deep note of unreality is creeping into our
conceptualization of this process.
7. Let's take action against terrorists but not take Canute-like
legal positions that will win us ridicule across most of this country and
everywhere abroad.
cc: NIO/CT
VC/NIC (Hal Ford)
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/06/10: CIA-RDP88T00988R000200160030-1