EMBITTERED PLO VOWS VENGEANCE ON AMERICANS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150068-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 68
• Publication Date: August 31, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

ST Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-R
ARTICLE APPEARED
ON PAGER J 14
Embittered PLO
Vows Vengeance
On Americans
The Palestine Liberation Organ-
ization has declared "open season"
on American diplomats in France.
This vengeance against Americans
will spread to other countries that
have accepted PLO guerrillas from
Lebanon. Eventually, the terrorism
could reach the United States.
These warnings have been circu-
lated. at the highest levels in Wash-
ington. The chilling secret assess-
ment is that no American diplomat
is safe from assassination and that
some, inevitably will die.
Counterintelligence experts be-
lieve that the defeated and embit-
tered PLO will probably disintegrate
into radical splinter groups.
Perhaps the most dangerous fac-
tion is headed by George Habash,
who is described in intelligence re-
ports as "nihilistic" and "ruthless,"
with a preference for "dramatic and
violent" methods. -
He has been quoted as bitterly
blaming the United States for the
Israeli onslaught - that broke the
PLO's power in Lebanon. But he has
always been viciously anti-American.
Intelligence sources - believe he or-
dered a terrorist campaign against
THE ViASHTNGr I POST
31 AUGUST 1982
Americans even before the Israeli
invasion.
They suspect Habash's assassins
may be responsible for the attacks
on Americans based in the Paris em=
bassy. Intelligence sources say the
Habash people may have collabo
rated with an even more radical
group known as Abu.Nidal.
.Last November, the acting ambas,
sador, Christian Chapman, was fired
on by a lone gunman. Chapman
ducked behind his car, and the shots
missed.
Two months later, a military at-
tache was shot and killed as he left
his apartment in Paris. An unknown
assailant simply walked up to Col.
-Charles Ray, pulled out a pistol and
blew him away.
Then, a couple of weeks ago, a
bomb intended for the commercial
counselor, Roderick Grant, exploded
near the Eiffel Tower. Grant es-
caped, but a member of the French
bomb squad was killed and another
critically injured.
The French police have estab-
lished that the same gun was used to
kill both the American military at-
tache and an Israeli diplomat. This
was also the gun that was fired at
Ambassador Chapman.
The murders have yet to be
solved; at first, the French police
pursued the investigations indiffer.
ently. U.S. efforts to get action from.
the Paris police were extraordinarily
difficult, a State Department source
told my associate Lucette Lagnado.
D P90-00965 R000100150068-4
Now French authorities are
searching for the terrorists with
more vigor., But they, have been so
tolerant toward terrorists that it may
now be impossible to penetrate the
radical community that has grown
up in France.
Arms Race in Space: Sen. Larry
Pressler (R-S.D.) has been investi-
gating. ?the ominous ;.move toward
militarization of outer space by the
Soviet Union and the United States.
He has already voiced his concern to
President Reagan, and plans hear-
ings on the subject next month.
Here are some of Pressler's pre-
liminary findings on the latest de-
velopments in the military space
race.
? The costs are already taking off
like a moon rocket. The Air Force's
Space Division has been upgraded to
the Space Command, with a corre-
sponding enhancement of its budget.
In the nest fiscal year, the military
space budget will increase by more
than one-third, from $2.9 billion to
$4 billion.
? The lead in military space tech-
nology seesaws between the Soviets
and the United States, and will
probably continue to do so. For ex-
ample, a U.S. killer satellite that
may be able to sweep 100 to 200
Soviet satellites from the skies in a
single day will be operational in the
late 1980s. Yet the Soviets' develop=
ment program for laser weapons is
reputed to be five years ahead of
ours.
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150068-4