SEARCHING FOR HIT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000605850006-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 23, 2010
• Sequence Number: 6
• Publication Date: December 21, 1981
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605850006-3
"TICLL APPS RED
ON PACE
There was no proof, but there was sufficient reaso
With its finely wrought balus-
trade, the Doric columns sup-
porting its portico, the. Villa
Pietri looked like a Roman tto-
WIP
bleman's villa that had. some-
how been misplaced on the edge
of the African continent. It was
the headquarters from which Gaddafi di-
recred the global activities of his terrorist
network. The Libyan leader himself had
assigned those who went out from the villa
to do his bidding their leitmotif 'Every-
thing thatputsan infected thorn in the foot
of our enemies isgood."
-The Fifth Horseman, by Larry Col-
lins and Dominique Lapierre
It sounded like the plot of an interna-
tional thriller, as frightening as the fic-
tional tale told in the Collins-Lapierre
bestseller in which Libyan Strongman
Muammar Gaddafi threatens the U.S.
with nuclear blackmail. According to re-
ports received by the U.S. Government,
hit teams had been dispatched by Libya to
assassinate President Ronald Reagan and
other top American leaders. As increas-
ing fragments of evidence about the plot
became public last week--some chilling,
some bizarre, some literally beyond be-
lief-Washington found itself embroiled
in an international confrontation without
precedent. If Administration reactions
were confusing and contradictory, so were
the facts from which decisions had to be
made. If intelligence agencies and the Se-
cret Service seemed to be reacting with
undue alarm, they could offer a justifica-
tion that was hard to refute: the true ca-
lamity would be to take the threat too
lightly-and be wrong.
Despite skepticism in many quarters
about the very existence of a hit-team
plot, the White House was taking no
chances. Security around the President,
S 7 9 .a - ?w. ..n-. is
TIME
21 December 1981
which had been notably increased since
the assassination attempt by John Hinck-
ley last March, was strengthened still
more. Air Force One. for example,. was
equipped with sophisticated electronic
gear that would allow its pilot to evade a
missile attack, and Reagan sometimes
rode in unmarked cars instead of his offi-
cial limousine. At other times, presiden-
tial motorcades featured two similar lim-
ousines, both with flags flying. ,
The rising tensions between the U.S.
and Libya were dramatically demonstrat-
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/23: CIA-RDP90-00552R000605850006-3
nora '-. ~