DEFECTOR DESCRIBES SOVIET TIES TO TERROR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000606030001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 24, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: June 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606030001-7
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In PAM
WASHINGTON TIN
18 June 1986
Defector describes
Soviet ties to terror
By Bill Gertz
THE NMSHINOTON TIMES
A former Czechoslovakian de-
fense official said yesterday that the
Soviet Union and its allies have been
supporting international terrorist
groups since the early 1960s.
Czech Army Gen. Jan Senja, who
defected to the United States in 1968,
told reporters during a luncheon
meeting that Czechoslovakia "abso-
lutely" serves as a base for terrorist
training of Palestinian, Latin Amer-
ican and West European terrorist
groups.
"It is the simple truth that all [So-
Right-wing terrorists, he said,
also were targets of Soviet bloc
agents who infiltrated groups in or-
der to gain information about right-
ist terror plots, he said.
One major training base was lo-
cated near the Czech town of
Doupov, he said, close to the West
German border and a large military
base.
Soviet and Czech intelligence ser-
vices supplied explosives, weapons,
pistols, and even radio communica-
tions equipment, Gen. Senja said.
Gen. Senja was one of the first
Soviet bloc defectors to provide the
West with details of Soviet support
for terrorist groups and the loca-
tions of ?everal terrorist training
centers in Czechoslovakia.
Other Soviet defectors have con-
terrorism many, many
years brick," said
Gen. Senja.
... supported
"AU [Soviet] satellites
viet] satellites, including Czecho-
slovakia, supported terrorism many,
many years back;" said Gen. Senja,
who said he visited training centers
and met with terrorist leaders who
requested weapons and explosives.
Groups who have received
training and weapons since around
1962 included the German Baader-
Meinhoff gang and Italy's Red Bri-
gades, he said. Palestinians, Colom-
bians and other Latin American
terrorists also were trained and sup-
plied by Czechoslovakia defense of-
ficials, he said.
The Soviet bloc intelligence ser-
vices try to "control as much as
possible" left-wing terrorist groups
and try to direct terrorist actions by
using weapons supplies as leverage.
The ultimate goal is to obtain politi-
cal advantages from terrorist deeds,
he said.
and CIA Director William Casey
said in a speech last year that the
Soviet Union continues
600 terrorists each veer.
"They train military leaders, they
train professional terrorists [in the
use of] ... explosives and they train
political leaders;' said Gen. Senja, a
14-year Czech Defense Ministry of-
ficial.
Gen. Senja said he did not know
how U.S. intelligence agencies used
the information he provided on
Czech terrorist training. He said he
brought documents and firsthand
knowledge of the training camps
when he slipped into Italy from
Yugoslavia and defected in 1968.
In addition to terrorist training
centers in Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria
provides training for Turkish and
Iranian terrorists. The Czechs also
provided safe passage for terrorists
traveling to the Soviet Union.
Gen. Senja said many Westerners
have been fooled into believing ter-
rorists are the Soviet bloc's version
of what the West considers "free-
dom fighters"
"If you look at it from the point of
view of freedom and democracy,
they are terrorists,' Gen. Senja said.
Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2010/08/24: CIA-RDP90-00552R000606030001-7