TERRORIST CONVENTION IN LEBANON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150119-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 29, 2012
• Sequence Number: 119
• Publication Date: March 7, 1982
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150119-7
prITT CisE APAR
ON PAGE L9
THE WASHINGTON POST
7 March 1982
Jack Anderson
Terrorist
Convention
In Lebanon
There was a bizarre and frightening
"convention" of international terrorists
in southern Lebanon recently.
According to several sources, includ-
ing Israeli intelligence officials and an
actual eyewitness, as many as 1,000
members of various terrorist groups
were identified with their Palestine
Liberation Organization hosts in the :
no-man's-land near the United Na-
tions cease-fire zones.
One source, who went to southern
Lebanon to observe the terrorists first-
? hand, said the "conventioneers" in- -
chided members of the Red Brigades ;
from Italy, the Baader-Meinhof Gang
from West Germany, the Japanese Red.
Army and groups from Cuba, Libya,
Pakistan and El Salvador.
The weird convocation of assassins
in Lebanon was not unique. As far
back as 1974, British intelligence tin-
covered ominous evidence that terror-
ist groups around the world were
beginning to join in a loose under'-
ground alliance of revolutionary ex-
tremists. The British learned, for el?
ample, that Irish and Palestinian ter-
rorists were training together in Ire:
land and the Middle East. German ter-
rorists were smuggling arms to their
counterparts in Ireland.
Dr. Robeit Kupperman of George-
town University's Center for Strategic
and International Studies said there.
have been several international con ?
claves of terrorist groups in recent .
years. The delegates discuss revolu-
tionary goals and the means to achieve.,
them.
Because the confederacy of criminals
has no formal organization, With loose
intergroup links at most, it is difficult.
and sometimes impossible, for outsid-
ers to learn the whereabouts of the,
meetings, Kupperman explained. Still,.
U.S. and Israeli intelligence agents did
manage to find out about conventions
' in Lausanne, Switzerland, last August,
and in Caracas, Venezuela, last
November. Also, Libya and Lebanon
have clearly been the sites of several
terrorist gatherings. -
"But very rarely do you get the ac-
tual shooters, the people who plant the
bombs, at these conventions," Kupper-
man told my reporter Jeff Nesbit. The
delegates are usually the planners and ?
"money men" from the various groups. -
he said.
One reason the terrorist organiza-
' tions are so tough to crack is their py-
ramidal internal structure. For exam
pie, the Italian Red Brigades may have
anywhere from 200 to 600 "shooters" '
at any given time. They're the front
line troops who do the actual dirty
work, like assassinating foreign diplo-
mats or blowing up buildings.
Supporting the shock troops are per
haps 3,000 individuals who handle the
brigades' logistics and finances. And
there may be anywhere from 10,000 to
100,000 people who give the group ac-
tive support in one form or another.
Kupperman said the United States .
has some documentary evidence that .
the Soviet Union is indirectly encour- -
aging the terrorist groups with arms,
logistical facilities and training. Secre -
tary of State Alexander Haig has re-
peatedly laid responsibility for much
international terrorist mischief at the:
Kremlin's door, and a State Depart- -
ment official said there's "pretty clear
evidence" of terrorist training camps in
the Soviet Union. ?
One definite link between the Sovi
'eta and the terrorists is Muammar.
Qaddafi's Libya, which is the reason
the Reagan administration has been so
persistent in its hostility to that ration. -
Unfortunately, the Soviet Union and '
Libya aren't the only countries that ex ? .4
port terrorism. Secret CIA -documents
identify at least 12 nations that delib-
erately encourage terrorism in other
countries. s, lot; ?
,
I Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/08/29: CIA-RDP90-00965R000100150119-7