NEITHER CONCILIATION NOR TOUGHNESS IS THE ANSWER TO TERROR

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580049-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: November 15, 2012
• Sequence Number: 49
• Publication Date: June 30, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580049-4
00. LOS ANGELES TIFFS
30 June 1985
Neither Conciliation Noi
Is the Answer to Terror
Ift on" Wffi~infmytl o worded statement, now points out treat a PLO, whose aeparture rrom tletrut Ironi.
WAorox House Intelligence Committee review of cally deprived Western governments
hen an two schools of thought for the incident fouj,4 no CIA, Qomplicity in needed information, at least temporarily.
T handling the terrorism threat ema- the bomb". But, of course, there can be But few have reliable agents among the
noting from Lebanon, including the no ???P y LZlain - a>iDelon Then new social groups that have thrust their
hijacking crisis. Both are wrong. Neither could be some residual r psibility. way to the surface in the Middle East.
being conciliatory nor being tough will The whole episotW' veals why Sbcre- Some in the United States, these prob-
work. Being realistic about the nature of tary Of State George P. Shultz's calls for Lena notwithstanding
Lebanon may. Preemptive 'U.S. action against tenor-
policy of toughneft ? Some ha waha to resume a
ism-even at the risk of ve wanted to
Being conciliatory toward terrorists killing innocent bomb mb Iran, presumably as the base of sNa
runs the rink of encouraging simile civilians-are so misguided After the fervor. Others have proposed that the
outrages against innocent Americans in runaway mission involving the car bomb- United States arrange to have a dispro-
thefuture. Almost no one supports conch- mg, the United States rejected just such a pertiooate number of Lebanese Shies
cation. policy, but no one in the rest of the world shot, poly from among any of the
The United States has already been can be sure that this is the can. Fromm now "detainees" still hold. in Israel As in the
tough in Lebanon. It ordered the battle- on, whenever assassinations occur in the Carter Administration during the Iranian
ship New Jersey to fire into the hills of Middle East, as they will, some parties
hostage , theme sugg are ad-
Lebanon in an effort"to shore up the may point to statements like those of vaned not because they will help resolve
authority of the Christian-dominated Shultz as Proof that the United States was the cries but because some officials are
central government. At the time, in behind the violent deed trying to protect the President's domestic
ree to concern about innocent vic- A senior official of Amal, the more bmotmppoft
tims, U.S. officialiclaimed knowingly that moderate bench of Lebanon's Shia com- It is time to be honest about this e~~iisIess.
to fire the New Jersey's guns was "like munity, made this point when he com- Israel's holding of about ?00 Lehi ese
tossing a Volkswagen on a tennis court." mented that his chief, Nabih Berri, had Shims has been illegal, using these people
Then in earl June, 1985, lots of enemies in Lebanon but that after
Y , the U.S. Navy hostages. The United States has always
quietly announced that it was undertak. some U.S. statements, if anything hap. believed that Israel was wrong to invade
ing an extensive program to improve the pened to him, "all the Shies in the world Lebanon, wrong to seise the hostages and
accuracy of its _ recommissioned World will say the Americans are behind that, wrong to transfer them to Israel.
War U battleships. It turned out that and no Americans in the Arab world will Israel claims that the fate of the Shies
because the United States was using be safe after that." Some believe that has not been connected in any way to the
powder dating from the Korean War, better intelligence can resolve some of fate of the American hostages and that it
shells from the New Jersey-each heavy these dilemmas. But experienced Ameri- intended in any event to release them. So
as a Volkswagen-tended not only to hit can diplomats repeatedly warned the be it. Israel should have released these
intended targets but Lebanese villages. Reagan, Administration against many of
the actions that turned out to have.such people without comment or conditions .
The result was to drive the Muslim disastenca part of the effort to extract itself com
majority of the country to the conclusion consequences. Some sections of pletely from its disastrous involvement in
that the United States was the enemy. In Israeli intelligence are reported to have Lebanon.
the crazed atmomhere s of Lebanese poll. had grave reservations about the Ariel The United States should have made no
tics, the car bombing of the U.S. Embassy Sharon-Menachem Begin plan to prop up comment on Israel's action. ( The fact that
and the Marine barracks followed a Christian minority government in Leba- the United States now has no ambassador
The legacy of hatred lives on. One of nom' but the Israeli Cabinet ignored such in Israel makes it even more difficult to
the hostages released in Algiers expressed warnings and plunged into the moraa, manage this sensitive issue.) It should
confusion on her return to the United This latest incident is certain to reopen also have refused to talk to those holding
States: Why did the hijackers have such a the queotion of whether the congressional the U.S. hostages. No hint must be given,
hostile attitude toward New Jersey, the investigations of CIA abuses in the put now or in any future hostage situations,
state she was from? have gutted the American intelligence that the United States will pay any price
Nor was the firing of the New Jersey's effort. The United States has made grave for release. The Administration should
guns the only misplaced effort to use force mistakes. It allowed the Shah of Iran to
to solve a Lebanon problem that has no order the State Department and the CIA
short-run solution. In May, 1985, Ameri- not to maintain contact with the Iranian
can newspapers reported that the Reagan overestimated And the the intelligence States has
Administration had authorized the CIA to lligence achieve-
train counterterrorist units composed of meets of del, which, like America, has
foreigners, including Lebanese who could suffered ere setbacks from terrorists
strike suspected terrorists before they The Reagan Administration has spared
could attack U.S. targets, and that one nom to
unit in Lebanon, acting without authority, take strengthen g Ito the CIA. But it will
planted a car bomb that killed more than years o penetrate . s
80 civilians instead of the Shia leader the groups as the Lebanese Shims, more
team had hoped to assassinate. moved by religious visions than by CIA
The hijackers of TWA flight 847 also promises Of a Swiss bank account. Many
cite this, attack as a justification for their Western intelligence agencies had pone.
action. In response, the CIA, in a carefully trated the leadership structure of the
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/11/15: CIA-RDP90-00965R000807580049-4