ATTACKS IN EUROPE SE COORDINATED

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080013-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 14, 2011
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: March 11, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080013-2
Y
ARTI^1 C ~:P?EARED
WASHINGTON TIMES
11 March 1985
Attacks in Europe se
coordinated
This is the first of four reports
about mounting terrorism in Europe
and the Middle East. -
By Andrew Borowiec.
THE ygawEGTON TWO POnEq 4 SERVICE
PARIS - A French general and a
West German industrialist no shot
dead gutside their homes: Mortar
shells explode amidst Weste n-weQ-
ships in Lisbon harbor. In an Athens
ban a bmblnjam 69 U.S_sew --"
men.
"Euroterrorism" - a new word in
the "Euro-vocabulary" - has gained
currency, leaving a trail of blood and
warnings across Western Europe.
The targets were selected carefully.
Almost all were connected with the
West's. arms industry and with the
North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
The "attacks appe Ted.' to have
been coordinated, often involving
more than one terrorist organ,
izet' I}tAw tltefr'eQtre a
teur bungling of the 19705, they were
carried out. with. a cboF, almott
detached, professionalism:
The subsequent telephone ds
and the often' conflicthtg clc
were part of the strategy to confuse
the "enemy" - which happens to be
the Western political system.
Although the initial. wave of
attacks in late January and early
February subsided, the "red alert"
continues - in Paris, Rome, London,
Brussels, Bonn and other capitals. .
Formerly reinct 5 le of it
or simply incapba in'
o
organizations and the relatively low
level of international cooperation, at
least in the early stages of responses
to attacks.
Recently, however, cooperation
among the nations concerned has
grown considerably. For example,
France and West Germany have
decided to institutionalize informa-
tion sharing. France has also
assured Italy that it will not be so
generous in granting political asy-
lum to terrorist suspects on the run
- provided there is adequate proof
of their guilt.
The French no longer underrate
Italian intelligence on fugitive ter-
rorists. For example, acting on~infor-
mation received from Rome last
Feb. 19, Paris police arrested Sergio.
'Ibrnaghi, condemned to life impris-
onment by an Italian court for his
role in the notorious Red Brigades.
Across Western Europe, giant
headlines speak of the new groups'
that have signed their names in
blood. There is the Red Army Fac-
tion in West Germany, which
recently united with Action Directe
(Direct Action) of France.
The Red Brigades, which
acquired a sinister reputation dur-
ing Italy's "reign of terror" in the
1970s, are back in the news. A dozen
or so other leftist organizations have
been identified.
Do they have a joint command?
Are they inspired by the local com-
munist parties? Are they infiltrated
or manipulated by _ Soviet or any
other East European intelimenc
services?
-'T'eams of experts are trying to
unravel this deadly puzzle. The
stakes are exceptionally high: the
survival of Western democracies
and NATO's ability to function.
The experts' findings are by no
means conclusive, but they stress
three points:
? There has been a dramatic ideo-
logical and military radicalization of
several key extremist left-wing
s
. -
many cases, the Europeans are now
pulling together to combat Euro-
terrorism.
"It is more dangerous because of
its selectivity," an Italian expert said.
"Fight it as if you were fighting a
dirty war," according to instruction
issued by the French Direction
Generale de In Securite Exterieure
- DGSE (General Directorate for
External Security).
Fear of Euroterrorism has spread
across the Atlantic. In Washington,
Reagan administration officials'are
said to be concerned about the
nobility of the various terrorist
groups. While still using hysterical
anti-Western slogans, their perform- STAT
ance has been far from hysterical,
showing high degree of almost
military Coordination.
? The targets invariably have
been connected with NATO or the
Western arms industry. Thus, Gen.
Rene Audran, assassinated last Jan.
25, dealt with French arms sales
abroad. Ernst Zimmerman, who was
killed five days later outside his
Munich home, was a leading West
German arms manufacturer.
? While not diminishing the threat
posed by terrorists, experts caution
against exaggerating their impact.
The terrorist slayings have not
impaired the West's ability to defend
itself, they say, and the number of
terrorists is smaller than during the
1960s and 70s.
Still, the number of terrorists
appears to be less important than
their accuracy and coordination.
In short, the disparate bands scat-
tered through western Europe have
been replaced by a better organized
and obviously better trained "Euro-
pean brotherhood of terror."
The most significant development
in the murky world of European
urban terrorism was the apparent
linking of two major organizations:
Germany's Red Army Faction and
France's Direct Action. This took
place Jan. 15.
Significantly, both groups are said
to have been involved in the killing
of Gen. Audran outside his home in
suburban La Celle St. Cloud outside
Paris only 10 days after the reported
alliance between the two groups.
. Experts divide the known terror-
ist organizations into three distinct
groups, each using different meth-
ods and claiming different ide-
ologies.
The first, and oldest, are
"traditions" independence move-
ments with strong regional bases.
They include the Irish Republican
Army, the Basque separatists in
Spain and southern France, Cor-
sican nationalists, whose favorite
weapon is the plastic explosive, and
the Armenian Secret Army for the
Liberation of Armenia. The Arme-
nians have found Western Europe a
convenient arena for attacks against
TUrks. They seek not only a separate
Armenia, but revenge on Turkey for
alleged massacres of Armenians in
the 1920s. CAnt auW
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/14: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100080013-2