BOY SAYS LEBANESE RECRUITED HIM AS CAR BOMBER

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000302120041-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 21, 2012
• Sequence Number: 41
• Publication Date: April 14, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
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?
NEW YORK TIMES
14 April, 1985
Boy Says Lebanese Recruited Him as Car Bomber
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Special to The New York Times
JERUSALEM, April 13? A I6-year-
old Lebanese was captured by Israeli
troops hours before he was supposed to
get into an explosive-laden car and go
on a suicide bombing mission to blow
up the Israeli Army headquarters in
Lebanon, according to Israeli officials
and an account from the youth himself.
The teen-ager, Mohammed Mali-
moud Burro, was captured by Israeli
soldiers in a raid on a southern Leba-
nese village on Feb. 23. It is believed to
be the first time that a trained suicide
car-bomber has been seized alive.
Under questioning by the Israelis
and in a separate interview with The
New York Times, he has given an ac-
count . of his life, of his enlistment for
the suicide mission and of the people he
was working for. If true, his account
would provide the first inside look at
the motivation of a suicide bomber and
the planning and organiztion behind his
operation.
Although there is no independent
. confirmation of his account, senior Is-
raeli military officials have spent days
I, questioning Mr. Burro, who has curly,
light brown hair, has yet to start shay-
ing and looks like any of a thousand Shi-
ite teen-agers walking the streets of
West Beirut today. They have also
_ checked many key elements in his
narrative through their own covert
means, and in each vase, they said,
they found he was telling the truth or
could not have made up what he said. .
"We are convinced," said a senior
military source, "that his story is
true." He added that a formal an-
nouncement of his capture and account
would be made. in Israel on Sunday
morning.
Mr. Burro is expected to remain in
Israeli custody for some time.
It is unclear whether Mr. Burro's ac-
count is typical of those who have been
involved in the wave of suicide car,.
bombings in Lebanon and elsewhere in
the Middle East over the last few
years. Yet three aspects of his account
may have an important bearing on an.
understanding of the suicide bombing
phenomenon.
Not a Devout Moslem
What seems most striking about Mr,
Burro's account is that although he is a
Shiite Moslem, he comes from a secu-
lar family background. He spent his
free time not in prayer, he said, but rid-
ing his motorcycle and playing pinball.
According to his account, he was not a
fanatic who wanted to kill himself in
the cause of Islam or anti-Zionism, but
was recruited for the suicide mission
through another means: blackmail.
Shiite extremist groups in Lebanon
and Iran have given the impression
that the suicide bomb attacks have
been carried out by devoutly religious
people eager to become martyrs. Mr.
Burro said he was taken to two reli-
gious leaders as part of his training for
the mission, apparently to instill reli-
gious zeal.
Unacquainted With Organizers
, Second, Mr. Burro said he did not
know beforehand most of the people
who recruited him or brought him to
the point where the car laden with ex-
plosives would be brought to him. His
accornar if accurate, would seem to
reinforce previous speculation that the
people who actually drive the suicide
cars are carefully recruited from the
general public by intelligence officials
of Lebanese militias or Middle Eastern
Governments The planning and prepa-
ration, it would seem, are carried out
by intelligence experts unknown to the
driver, and the car is brought to the sui-
cide driver only at the last minute.
?
Third, Mr. Burro said the men who
recruited him were from the Lebanese
Shiite militia Amal. This seems note-
worthy because Amal is considered the
most moderate and mainstream of the
Lebanese Shiite organizations, and
while its opposition to the Israeli occu-
pation of southern Lebanon is well
known, Amal was generally believed to
use more conventional means of war-
fare, leaving the so-called "fanatical"
suicide methods to its more extreme
rival, the pro-Iranian Party of God.
Mr. Burro's account could indicate
that a method of terrorism that once
seemed confined to a fanatical Irmge
may now be emerging as an accepted
tool of warfare for more moderate
groups and state intelligence organiza-
tions.
Ten days ago, at the request of The
Times, which had independently
learned of Mr. Burro's capture, the Is-
raeli Army approved a 90-minute inter-
view with Mr. Burro in a Tel Aviv of-
fice, without any interference but in the
presence of military personnel. The in-
terview came at the completion of Mr. I
Burro's interrogation by the Israelis.
On Friday, military censors in Israel
released the interview for publication
after reading it and deciding that noth-
ing had to be deleted. .
Mr. Burro was nervous at the start of
the interview, which was conducted en-
tirely in Arabic, but gradually warmed
up as time passed and he ,appeared- to
speak freely. He is, as Israeli officials
put it, "just ? a kid."
What follows is his account.
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The Enlistment
"I was born in 1969 in the southern
suburbs of Beirut," said Mr. Burro.
"Our financial conditions at home were
nOt good. I am the middle child. I had
two younger sisters, and two older
brothers. My father worked as a traffic
policeman in the southern suburbs."
Mr. Burro's family lived in a three-
room apartment for which his father
paid about $50., a month, he said. Like
many poor Shiite youths, Mr. Burro
said, he quit school ? in the fifth grade
? to help support his family.
He said he worked for several years ,
for a telephone company but lost the
job last May when fighting closed the
businessAfter drifting for'several months, he
said, he was hired by the Civil Defense
Brigade of the Shiite militia Amal as a
firefighter. Amal is the largest and
most powerful Shiite political move-
ment and militia in Lebanon; it con- ,
trolled Mr. Burro's neighborhood.
Mr. Burro said his work in the Amal
Civil Defense Brigade involved "sav-
ing people in collapsed buildings" and
putting out fires. Because of the break-
down of municipal services in Beirut,
such tasks are not performed by the
Government, and it is popular work
among teen-agers.
A Motorcycle Accident -
A few months ago Mr. Burro was rid-
ing his motorcycle and had an acci-
dent, he said. The incident, he said,
eventually led him into his suicide mis-
sion.
"I was driving along, and the car in
front of me was going very fast," he
, said. "Suddenly, he slowed down and I
. ran into him: His rear window broke
and some glass landed on me. The
driver and I got into an argument over
whose fault it was."
In lawless Beirut, accidents are often
adjudicated on the spot between the
two drivers ? the ultimate in no-fault
insurance. Frequently the matter is re-
solved on the basis of who draws a gun
first. In this case Mr. Burro was
clearly at fault. He knew it was going to
cost him. Seeking help, he said, he con-
tacted a man named Abu Hassan, who
was the Amal ? security chief in the
southern suburbs. ?
"Abu Hassan closed the file on the
accident," Mr. Burro said. It is not
clear what Abu Hassan did, but he got
Mr. Burro out of trouble and put him in
his debt.
A few months passed. Mr. Burro said
he continued his work with Amal. Then
another accident happened, this time
involving his father.
"My father ran over a young woman
with his car," said Mr. Burro. "He in-
jured_ his head 'badly and was not the
same afterward."
Demand- for Compensation
The young woman's parents de-
manded that the Burro family pay all
her medical bills and additional money
as compensation, Mr. Burro said.
The accident, he said, left his father
in need of an operation; his father had
to borrow 13,000 Lebanese pounds ?
the equivalent of $750 and an enormous
sum for his family?to pay his medical
bills. He still needed a second operation
for which he had no money. At the
same time, the girl's family wits press-
ing them for money.
Mr. Burro said others then went to
Abs Raman and told him about the
family's predicament. This was in
early February, he said. A few days
later, Mr. Burro said, Abu Hassan sent
a messenger to him, telling him to
come to his office for a talk..
The meeting, Mr. Burro recalled,
was a carefully balanced combination
of inducements and threats. It went
something like this, according to Mr.
Burro:
"You know your father had this acci-
dent with this girl," Abu Hassan said,
"and your financial conditions are not
good. It cost a lot of money."
Abu Hassan then began to tell him in
detail about the financial situation of
his father and how the problems could
be resolved.
"We have the power to take care of
everything," he said. "Tomorrow your
father is going to be fired from his job
and your family will have nothing. We
have everything in our power. The fu-
ture of your family is in your hands."
Mr. Burro answered: "What? What
are you talking about? How can I help
my family?" .
'Think About It' .
Abs Hassan said: "Well, we are sug-
gesting a suicide mission for you. What
do you think about it? Think about it.
Remember, the future of your family is
in your hands."
Mr. Burro said his first reaction to
Abs Hassan's suggestion had been to
reject it. He had no inte'-est in being a
martyr, he said. ? ,
At that point, according to Mr.
Burro, Abu Hassan got tough. The
youth was told that if he did not agree
to the suicide mission, Abu Hassan
A `Very Secret' Conversation
When their talk was over, Abs Has-
san informed Mr. Burro that their en-
tire conversation was "very secret"
and that he was to tell no one, espe-
cially not his parents, Mr. Burro said.
Mr. Burro spent a week and a half
thinking the matter over, not telling
anyone in his family about it, he said.
His father was clearly in a desperate
situation.
The one point in the interview at
which Mr. Burro became misty-eyed
was in talking about his relationship
with his father.
"I love my father very much," he
said. "His blood is my blood." He
added, "My father is like everything
for me ? like a brother for me.'
After a week and a half of thinking
about little else, Mr. Burro said, he re-
turned to Abu Hassan's office to give
his answer.
"I told him, 'O.K., I accept a suicide
mission,'" he said. "The reason I did
was financial incentives and because
they obligated me. It was not out of any
ideology,"
After he had agreed io the suicide
mission, said Mr. Burro, a very
pleased Abu Hassan told him: "We will
help your father. We will finish with
this problem. We will help him. We will
close the file on all of this, and every-
thing will be finished."
Whether Abu Hassan paid anything
to the girl's family or simply ordered
them to,stop pursuing Mr. Burro is not
clear. in any event, "the file was
closed," Mr. Burro said.
Friends Try to Dissuade Him
While Mr. Burro did not tell his
family about his decision, he did tell
five of his male friends in the Amal
Civil Defense Brigade, he said.
"I told them that they had suggested
I go on a suicide mission and that I had
agreed," Mr. Burro related to Israeli
military sources. "My friends said to
me: 'What! Are you crazy?'"
His friends tried to talk him out of it,
Mr. Burro said. The prospect of suicide
clearly. had a stigma to his friends.
Abu Hassan told Mr. Burro that he
should not worry so much about the sui-
cide aspect of the mission, the youth
said. In fact, Mr. Burro said. Abs Mtg.
san told him he had a 50-50 chance of
surviving the car bomb because he
would be given a special flak jacket
that would protect him. In addition, ac-
would cause problems for his father cording to Mr. Burro, Abu Hassan said
and reopen the file on his motorcycle a steel grid would be installed around
accident. Abu Hassan also. ainarently
- the driver's seat to separate him from
hinted that he was ready to cut off Mr the blast. Mr. Burro said he had not
Burro's only source of income with the been particularly convinced by due.
Amal 'civil defense unit. - ? "They told me maybe I will live,
Mr. Burro made it clear that he had maybe I will die," recalled Mr. Burro.
been terrified of Abu Hassan and of "They did not speiffy my destiny."
what he might do to 'his father.-
. "I knew then and there that I would
have no choice but to say yes," the
youth said. "I knew what would happen
if I said no."
Still, Mr. Burro said, he could not
bring himself to agree right away. He
stalled, he said, and told Abu Hassan
that he needed time to think about it.
Abu Hassan told him to take a few
days, Mr. Burro said.
t,
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The Training Begins
Before Mr. Burro could be sent to his
destiny, however, Abu Hassan appar-
ently felt he needed preparation in cer-
tain fields. To begin with, Mr. Burro
clid not have a driver's license and had
apparently never driven a car. ?
Abu Hassan arranged for two days of
driving lessons around the southern
suburbs. "They instructed me how to
drive a car in Beirut," explained Mr.
Burro. "It was a Mercedes."
But Abu Hassan was apparently
more concerned about Mr. Burro's
lack of religious convictions ? the fact
that he said he occasionally ate pork
and had gone to the Shiite prayer cen-
ter only five times in his life. Moslems
are supposed to pray five times a day
and never eat pork.
Abu Hassan put Mr. Burro in touch
with some local Shiite religious lead-
ers, seemingly to instill in him some
religious zeal. His first meeting was
with a local Shiite religious figure by
the name of Haj Ali Kamal Mari. Mr.
Burro described the session this way:
"Abu Hassan took me to All. He gave
me religious lessons. One lesson was
that when a martyr dies he doesn't feel
death. He said to me: 'You won't feel
death. You will continue to live. You
I don't feel death. You can die but you
don't feel death.'
"He said: `After the -death it's not
really death. You will meet all of your
brothers, the martyrs, and you will live
together in paradise.' lie said: 'In this
world there is nothing. There is no rea-
son for living.'
'I Have Not Seen Anything'
for me for two years after my death."
This practice, known as "shafaa," is
well known in Shiite Islam. Since Shiite
'religious leaders are believed to have a
special link with God, if a sheik prom-
ises that on top of all his blessings he is
going to endow someone with the au-
thority to pray for a person's soul, it
means that the person's memory will
remain in the heart of his people and
that the pryers will also be a constant
reminder of the person's existence to
?
God himself. It is not like the Kaddish
in Judaism, in which loved ones accept
a death by extolling the greatness and
omnipotence of God. Instead, it serves
as a reminder to God of the person,
what he did in this world and the re-
ward that should come to him in the
afterlife.
Mr. Burro was not impressed:
"I did not benefit from these reli-
gious lessons," he said with slight dis-
dain. "In my heart, I was not con-
vinced."
- At this point, Israel was beginning its
withdrawal from southern Lebanon,
the battle there was heating up and
there was heated competition between
Amal and the Party of God over who
would dominate the region.
On Feb. 21, Abu Hassan came with
another man, named Nour, to inform
Mr. Burro that his day had come, the
youth said. Now., it seems. was a sen-
ior intelligence operative in the Amal
security apparatus. It was apparently
his job to arrange for the exploding car
and to get it to the driver.
Links to Foreign Intelligence
' Mr. Burro apparently was not put at
ease by Haj All. He said he told the reli-
gious leader after the lesson: "But I
have not seen anything from my life
yet."
To which he quoted Haj All as reply-
ing, "Well, this worldly life is nothing
compared to paradise.' - -
After the first class with Haj All, Mr
Burro said, he went back to Abu Has-
san's office. Abu Hassan "questioned
me about my nerves and other ques-
tions about prayer," the youth said. "I
said to him, "Look, what is this?' So
they took me back to Haj All for an-
other religious lesson." .
Mr. Burro indicated that Abs Hassan
had told him that this was a "holy mis-
sion" and that only someone who was
holy and pure could carry it out. Haj Ali
apparently promised to give him a
clean slate.
Abu Hassan then sent him to a sec-
ond, more prominent religious leader,
Sheik Hassan Tred.
Mr. Burro described their meeting,
saying: "I told him, 'I am going to do
an operation and I might live or die in
It.' He said, 'Fine.'"
Prayers Are Promised
Mr. Burro said he and the sheik had
written a contract of sorts in which the
sheik agreed to "pay someone to pray
Although there is no direct evidence,
it is likely that these Amal secunty,
men had links to intelligence agents
from Syria or even Iran. Syria is known
to have a variety of intelligence
branches operating out of West Beirut,
maintaining close contact with the
local militias and helping to coordinate
their anti-Israeli operations in south-
ern Lebanon, Western diplomats in
Lebanon said. Syrian, Iranian an0
Libyan intelligence. in Particular. are
jmoortant suppliers of explosives;
detonators and other material, accord-
ing to Western diplomats.
"They asked me if I was ready to
go," Mr. Burro said. "I told them that I
am not ready. I said, `No, no, not to-
day.' "
? Abu Hassan and Nour, Mr. Burro
said, decided to give him until the next
day, apparently recognizing his nerv-
ousness. ?
"They came a second day and told
me to come to the office of the Amal
civil defense," said Mr. Burro. "I told
them, 'But I have not yet seen my
mother and my brothers.' "
Abu Hassan and Nour were appar-
ently not about to let Mr. Burro engage
in any goodbyes. They took him to the
civil defense office, he said, and there
the plan for the suicide mission began
to be put into effect.
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4
The Mission
LFrom the Amal civil defense office, talking about it. They said there was a
Mr. Burro said, two cars set off for the button on the left of the steering wheel
trip to southern Lebanon. Mr. Burro
rode in a Volvo with two men named
Abs All and Khudtrr, whom he had not
previously met, he said. In the lead
car, a Mazda, he said, were Nour and a
man named Malik.
According to his account, they drove
in one day from- Beirut to Sidon and
then to Zrariye, a small Shiite village
between Sidon and Tyre. It was being
used as an advance staging post by
Antal for operations against Israeli
forces. Israeli troops raided the village
on March 11, killing 34 people described
as Shiite guerrillas.
On the drive, Mr. Burro said, he was
informed of his target. He was told, he
said, to drive the suicide car at the Is-
raeli military command headquarters
for the western and central sectors of
southern Lebanon, which was situated
on a hilltop in a rundown former Leba-
nese Army barracks on the outskirts of
Nabatiye.
About 100 Israeli soldiers Worked at
the headquarters on a daily basis be-
fore it was evacuated last Thursday in
the Israeli pullout from Nabatiye.
If he could not reach the headquar-
ters, Mr. Burro said, he was to blow up
the car next to an Israeli Army convoy
or patrol. -
Should Not Be Afraid'
? "They said the car would have 400
kilograms of TNT inside it and that it
would destroy all the homes and people
In a radius of two iquare kilometers,"
said Mr. Burro. "They said I should not
be frightened by this prospect. If I saw
civilians beside me or behind me, I
should not be afraid. I should just go on.
They told me, 'Don't be afraid' to blow
up the car."
In Zrariye, the cars stopped and
Nour and Malik had a conversation at
the side of the road in which Nour pro-
vided details about the car bomb, Mr.
Burro said.
"I never saw the exploding car,"
said Mr. Burro. "I just heard them
and a button on the right. The one on
the right was for operating and the one
on the left for exploding. They had not
given me any instructions about the car
yet. I just heard Nour and Malik talk-
ing about it. I was on the side. Re said it
was an American car."
According to Israeli military
sources, some of the cars used for sui-
cide bombings in Lebanon have had
two buttons. One is pushed when the '
driver gets into the car, and it insures
the bomb will explode if the car is
turned off at any time. This guarantees
that the driver will not back out at the
last minute. The button on the left gives
the driver the manual ability to deto-
nate the bomb at the right time.
_
Other. car bombs, such as the one
used against the American marines in
1983, are believed to have been deto-
naied by a remote control radio signal
by someone nearby so there would be
no problem if the driver lost his nerve
or was shot at.
The Group Splits Up
In Zrariye, the group split up. Nour,
Abu Ali and Khudur were to stay in
Zrariye, while Malik and Mr. Burro
were to drive together to Sir el Ghar-
biye, a small village farther inland.
Mr. Burro recalled their goodbyes.
"They kissed me," said Mr. Burro.
"They wished me that, God willing, I
would have a blessed martyrdom, that
I wouldn't feel death. They said, 'God
willing, you will live in paradise and
meet all your friends.' They told me,
'Don't be afraid.' I was not believing
the whole thing. I was just not thinking
about the whole thing." ?
Mr. Burro and Malik then took off for
the village, where they were to go to the
home of a local Amal contact, Mr.
Burro said. They arrived after dark.
Malik told Mr. Burro to Sleep there
and that he would pick him up the next
morning at 6:30, the youth said. But the
rendezvous would not take place.
Umtinuetf
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An Unexpected Search
Shortly after dawn that next morn-
ing, Feb. 23, the Israeli Army launched
a search operation in Sir el Gharbiye,
.which is in the area of southern Leba-
non from which they had withdrawn a
few days earlier.
"A boy knocked on the door," Mr.
Burro recalled, "and said,.'The Israeli
Army is Surrounding the town. Go, run
away from here.'"
At first, Mr. Burro said, he started
running with a group of young men
from the village, some of whom were
gunned down. Mr. Burro said he had
managed to duck into someone's house.
"I found a lady with her daughter,"
he said. "I said, 'Hello, let me just stay
a moment with you.' There was a lot of
shelling and Israeli troops all around.
"They came to the house," he said;
Bater el-Shuf, killing herself and two
Israeli soldiers. The next day, a film
was released in West Beirut ? and
later broadcast on Syrian television ?'
of what was described as an interview
with the I6-year-old driver shortly be-
fore her mission.
- The film showed a dark-haired girl,
Sane Mbeidleh, appealing to other
youths of southern Lebanon to follow
her example.
What was striking from the film was
the absence of religious polemics, the
fact that she was wearing a red beret
often worn by Lebanese leftist militias
and that she appeared to be sitting
below a sign of the Syrian National So-
cialist Party, a leftist Lebanese militia
that takes its orders from Damascus.
Miss Mheidleh said she was "happy to
give my life for Hafez al-Assad," the
Syrian President.
Like Mr. Burro, Miss Mheidleh said
she had not told ter parents what she
was about to do, and in the film she
made a somewhat sorrowful apology to
? her mother and father for not being
- -
able to say goodbye.
Given all this, and the rather
hearsed natrue of her statements ?she
appeared to be reading from a boart
next to the camera ? it !teems likely.*
that she too was a secular young person':
recruited by unidentified agents on the;
basis of her psychological profile.,,g
One thing seems certain ? that lassr-o-
Mheidleh, like Mr. Burro, was -working"!
for professionals. . a ;
No one seemed to want to kill himself:
less than Mohammed Mahmoud Burro.**c?
While he certainly does not enjoy beintt;
an Israeli captive, his happiness at,e,
simply being alive today is palpabler.
When asked If he felt angry that hie,'
mission 'had been foiled, he ? smiled
broadly and said, the contrary, 1.,?
*f
feel great." . -
? Asked if he would like to say any-:*
thing to his family, which he probablyrs
will not see for some time, Mr. Burre*,1
thought for'a moment and then saiTi.
r softly:
I "Tell them that I am Mohammed."'
I and I am born ,.?-? ?
"and asked me where I was from. I
said, 'I am from Beirut.' They said,
'Give us your ID.' They took me to the
school.
' "In the school there was a room for
interrogation. They asked me when I
had come, and I told them, 'Yester-
day.' They put me in the middle of the
room and they were interrogating me,
looking at me ? and here I am in Tel
Aviv."
In their search of Sir el Gharbiye, Is-
raeli troops discovered a car already
rigged for a suicide bombing, accord-
ing to Israeli military sources.
Whether it was the one Mr. Burro was
meant to drive is not clear.
Last Tuesday, a 16-year-old gfrl
drove 'an exploding car into angsraeli
checkpoint along the Awali River at
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