MURDERING SDI, HON. JIM COURTER, CONGRESSIONAL RECORD, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1987

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M00005R000600030032-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: October 26, 2012
• Sequence Number: 32
• Content Type: MISC

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Vol. 133 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1987 No. 121
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HON. JIM COURTER
OF NEW JERSEY
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday; July 22, 1987
Mr. COURIER. Mr. Speaker, one of the searchers. defense contractors, and military sponsibility. In an apparent reference to von
lesser noticed practices of terrorist groups in and government officials. All the victims Braunmuhl's role in West Germany's secret
Europe is attacking targets which are of spe- were involved with hightech, defense-relat- discussions with Washington, the communi-
cial value to the North Atlantic Treaty Organs ed research, most of it linked directly to the que stated: "Today we have, through the
zation [NATO]. Fuel pipelines, computer com- Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and all Ingrid Schubert Commando, shot dead the
panies, and defense contractors are all hit the deaths took place in the midst of a high- secret diplomat von BraunmuhL" Investiga-
with more frequency than many Americans re- profile campaign by the Soviets to kill SDI tors say that the same typewriter was used
alize: And of course, the attacks upon Europe- development. Three of the dead men were in' the von Braunmuhl and the Beckurts
an and American soldiers and their bases are senior advisors to Western European gov- communiques.
ernments; each of them had participated in i NO TO STAR WARS
continual. There is very definitely a military sensitive and previously secret SDI "coop
side to political terrorism. eration talks" between their respective gov- On March 20. 1987, General Llcio Gior-
I was therefore extremely concerned to see ernments and Washington. Although some glen of the Italian Defense Ministry was
a pattern developing in Europe this year in individual reports of the more dramatic ter- gunned down by two assassins on the streets
which scientists and military officers closely in. rorist incidents have appeared in the press, of Rome. Giorgierl, the Director General of
volved with strategic defense work and the as yet not one In the U.S. Government or the Department of Space and Armaments
media has seriously addressed the SDI-reeat- Procurement at the ministry, was the lead-
European role in SDI were dying in remarks- ed killing spree. ing advocate of SDI in the Italian armed
ble numbers. Yet as of May 2d, when I raised On July 9. 1986. Karl-Heinz Beckurts and forces. Glorgierl, like Beckurts and von
the issue in a speech before the Committee his driver were killed by a remote-control Braunmuhl, served as a principal advisor to
for the Free World, there was only a press bomb outside Munich. Beckurts was the Di. his government during the SDI cooperation
item or two to indicate anyone had noticed a rector of Research at the Siemens Compa- talks. The Union of Fighting Communists. a
pattern, or taken any interest in it ny, an SDI contractor; in June 1985, he had faction of the Italian Red Brigades, claimed
I was pleased to learn subsequently that the met with U.S. Government officials to dis. responsibility for the attack in a rambling
president of the National Forum Foundation cuss the possibility of conducting SDI re- 14-page communique. According to that doc-
, search. According to a report in the Los An- ument, Giorgieri "was struck down exclu-
Mr. Jim Denton, been making t4' thorough geles Times (July 10, 1986), government of- ~ sively for his responsibility exercised follow-
inquiry into this concert circumstances. ficials said Beckurts had been involved In re- ing the Italian adhesion to the Star Wars
results of that inquiry, just published this search on SDI technologies, although a + project." The word "exclusively" was under-
month, literally merit headlines. company spokesman denied it. In late 1985 ! lined in the document, which closed with:
it is not reasonable to believe that America and early 1986. Beckurts served as an advi- ? "No to Star Wars." Only a few days later,
and her European allies are dealing with coin- sor to the Bonn government during SDI co- 1 French police reported that Giorgleri's
cidence. The details are too overwhelming in operation talks with Washington. A letter
number, too consistent, and in some cases left by the Marxist Red Army Faction
too explicit (statements by the terrorists ac- (RAF) indicated Beckurts was assassinated
knowledge that SDI is the real target of their because of his Involvement in these "secret
negotiations." Beckurts name appeared on
appeared on
assassinations). an RAF hit list of businessmen and re-
I would strongly urge my colleagues in the searchers who had expressed interest in
House to read the Jim Denton/Peter Schwei- SDI. which was found during a raid on a
zer article closely, and to consider its implica- Red Army Faction safehouse shortly after
tions. Among these, certainly, must be the Beckurts death.
unity of left-wing terrorists in Europe, the mili- On October 10, 1986, Gerold von Braun-
tary ramifications of their peacetime strikes, mull, a West German Foreign Ministry offi-
and the confluence of interests-at the very cial. was shot dead by a masked gunman
while leaving a taxi near his home outside
least-between the leftist terrorists interna. Bonn. Von Braunmuhl has been a principal
tional and the U.S.S.R., which has made many advisor to West German Foreign Minister
official efforts to kill SDI. Hans-Dietrich Genscher during SDI coop.
(From the National Review, July 31, 19871 eration talks with the United States. Ac-
cording to the Frankfurter Allgemelne Zei-
tung, von Braunmuhl had "great responsi.
Since last July there have been seven ter- bilities" in these secret talks and "will hardly
rorist bombings, three assassinations, five be replaceable." Near the scene of the
highly suspicious "suicides," and one disap- murder police found a six-page letter writ.
pearance among European scientists, re- ten by a faction of the RAP claiming re-
name appeared on yet another hit list, this
one discovered in a raid on a Direct Action
safehouse in Orleans. Direct Action is a
well-known Marxist terrorist group.
While these attacks against high govern-
ment officials were'taking place, private Eu.
ropean defense contractors were also target-
ed by terrorist groups. As a matter of securi-
ty. virtually all defense contractors had ini-
tially attempted to keep their SDI contracts
secret. And for good reason. In several in-
stances, terrorist attacks followed hard on
the heels of public disclosure that a compa-
ny was seeking or participating in SDI-relat-
ed research.
On June 18, 1986, the German Ministry
for Research and Technology released
Paper No. 31-86, identifying companies en-
gaged In research on missile-defense-related
technologies. Barely a month later, two of
the companies listed were attacked. On July
24, the offices of the Fraunhofer Research
Institute in Aachen sustained heavy damage
from a bomb blast. According to Paper No.
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31-86, Fraunhofer was conducting SDI-re-
lated research on a high-energy laser
project known as Eurolaser. On July 25, a
15-pound bomb rocked the headquarters of
the Dornier Company in Immenstaad. Dor-
mer was working with the Sperry Corpora-
tion on the Instrument Pointing System, a
device that allows objects In space to be tar-
geted with greater accuracy.
In August, two months after the CSF
Thomson corporation was publicly awarded
an SDI contract, Thomson's Paris office was
bombed. The firm was working on free-elec-
tron lasers, a technology that, according to
General James Abrahamson, director of the
U.S. Government's Strategic Defense Initia-
tive effort, would make ?'a dramatic differ-
ence" In the SDI system. Thomson was also
reportedly working on gallium-arsenide Inte-
grated circuits for SDL These circuits,
which are faster than silicon chips and more
resistant to countermeasures, are designed
to reduce the reaction time of the weapons
system. According to French embassy offi-
cials in Washington, Direct Action is be-
lieved to be responsible for this attack.
On September 18, 1986, the Research In-
stitute of Optics in Tubin. West Germany,
was bombed. Rumors had circulated A hat
the institute was conducting research on
SDI, but the firm strongly denied it. Accord-
ft to a spokesman for the Institute, as re-
ported In the German press, the institute is
not engaged in any research connected
with SDI."
Again, on October 29, barely a month
after a public announcement that the AEG
Company of West Germany was bidding on
an SDI contract, Its Copenhagen office was
bombed. AEG was proposing to study means
of applying SDI technology to a missile-de.
fense system for Western Europe under the
Theater Defense Architecture Study.
The IBM Research Center in Ieidelbe'rg,
West Germany. was damaged on November
16, 1986, when a bomb exploded inside. The
Red Army Faction claimed responsibility for
er-guidance export with Marconi Defense search would "most definitely" have poten-
SYstems. Britain's la-g =r SD! Contractor, tial applicatiutt to SDI. Titus far, the t:or-
apparently committed suiri'le by jumping ernment considers the deaths a local matter
from a bridge in Bristol. In a telephone and is not conducting its own investigation.
interview Bristol police xtid !here were no Back in July 1986, Kurt Rebmann, Ger-
witnesses nor could they find a motive. A many's Federal Prosecutor investigating the
month later, in an es-,lolly determined
effort, Ashhad Shariff. a oiputtr expert Beckurrs murder and the Dormer and
with Marconi who was r ?'Oin dry working Fraunhofer bombings, told the New York
on the interception of projecti:r?s, apparent- Times that he believed rinse three attacks
ly killed himself by driting off in his car were part of a geordinated offensive"
after having first tied one end of a rope against t he 'V est in general and SDI in par-
around a tree and the n,her end around his ttcular. The subsequent well as i.t the d discoverscover ?
neck. According to the same Bristol police: lions and bombings-as well as y
no witness, no motive, of the cummuriq es and hit lists-appear to
On March 30, 1987, Day: id Sands. it com- Co. firm Rebmann' eat is suspicions. There
puter expert with Easams. also an SDI con- may be no connection between the bombing
tractor, was killed when his car slammed spree in Europe and the suicide binge in
into an abandoned building in Surrey. The Great Britain, and In none of the SDI?relat?
car, which had been loaded with gasoline- ed suicides is there any hard evidence of
filled containers, exploded violently. Again: foul play. Perhaps it L Just a statistical ab-
no witness, no motive. erratior.. But it is carious that British high-
In January 1987, Aytar Singh-Gida, a Sikh tech researchers became particularly vul-
friend of Dajibhai, disappeared while con- net-able to suicide at the precise time terror-
ducting tests in central England. Singh-Gida Ist were striking at SDI targets on the Con-
was working on military-funded research on tinent.
sonar technologies, research with apparent What is clear from their own words is that
SDI applications. Police are still investigat- several European terrorist groups are zero-
ing his disappearance, including recent re- ing in on SDI, a dramatic and ominous de-
ports that he has been spotted in the red- parture from their traditional tactics and
light district of Paris. strategy. According to Dr. Yonah Alexan-
There have been two other mysterious der, author of thirty books on international
suicides by individuals who, though not di- terrorism. "Left-wing European terrorist
rectly engaged in SDI research, were con- groups traditionally confine themselves
nected with high-tech defense-related Indus- largely to political targets, symbols of cap-
tries. On February 21 of this year. Peter italisin and 'Western imperialism-' the vic-
Peapell, a senior lecturer at Britain's Royal tiros usually having nothing in common
Military College of Science, died in his except perhaps being part of 'the system."'
garage as a result of carbon-monoxide poi- In the past, European terrorists were rarely
soning. He apparently took his own life, driven by anything more specific than a
after he and his wife entertained friends at desire for ransom or for the release of their
their home. According to press accounts, comrades in prison. But the recent attacks
the wife knew of no motive. And in May appear aimed at sabotaging a specific mili-
1987. Richard Greenhalgh. a 46-year-old Lary weapons system by adding enormous
computer salesman with Defense Center of human and financial costs to the contrac-
ICL, apparently slashed his wrists and tors' cost benefit equation, as well as by In-
the attack. IBM had four SDI contracts, al- t some sixty feet below. Greenhalgh survived
the fall but died a few da lat
thou
h it is not
l
h
th
t
g
c
ear w
e
er SDI work was
J. er
nanearby
hospital. At the time police said there were
neither witnesses nor any apparent motives
being done at the particular facility that
was bombed
On November 20, 1988, the home of
Guenter Spur was shattered by a bomb.
Spur was shattered by a bomb. Spur, the dl-
vector of the Fraunhofer Institute's Berlin
Defense Center of ICE Is the principal com,
puter contractor for the Royal Navy's
Opcon Command and Control Center at
Northwood, London.
A LOCAL MATTER?
office, survived the apparent assassination
attempt. - -
Unlike the aftermath of the murders of
Beckurta, von Braunmuhi, and General
Glorglerl. there were no communiques
issued connecting the bombings with SDI.
Perhaps It is only coincidental, but the in-
tensity of these attacks and their concert.
trated focus on SDI contractors strongly
suggest that the ultimate target was SDI.
NO WITNESSVS, NO MOTIVE
During the same period in which anti-SDI
attacks were taking place on the Continent.
there was In Great Britain a bizarre suicide
wave. five high-tech defense resi?atchers-
at least three of whom were apparently
working on SDI-related research-died, ap-
parently by their own hand.
In August 1986 Vimal Dajibhel. a comp,it.
This peculiar series of deaths has not been
entirely overlooked by the British govern-
ment. In Parliament, John Cartwright of
the Liberal/Social Democratic Alliance has
called for an investigation. In a letter to the
Defense ministry, he noted: "Mr. Dajibhai,
Mr. Shariff, and Mr. Singh-Gida were all
working on aspects of underwater vibration
simulation which has extensive Implications
for the Strategic Defense Initiative. I under-
stand that Mr. Sands was also involved In
SDI-related research on computer-con-
trolled radar." The British government,
however, maintains that these victims were
not connected with the SDI research pro-
gram. and that they were merely conducting
research related to the interception of pro-
jectiles. British embassy officials In Wash-
ington acknowledge, however, that this re-
Why have a number of otherwise inde-
pendent terrorist organizations suddenly
banded together to sabotage SDI develop-
ment? It is tempting to speculate that the
Soviets' high-intensity public-relations cam-
paign to stop SDI has exceeded diplomatic
norms. Of course, it may be just another
freak coincidence that the Soviets' assault
on SDI was launched simultaneously with
the terrorists' strikes. Another possibility Is
that Marxist terrorists are taking their cues
from Moscow's public statements, without
direct KGB involvement. Senator Robert
Dole plans to call for an Investigation into
the SDI attacks that may answer these
questions.
Until then, we do know that Soviet leaders
are desperately anxious to stop the develop-
ment and deployment of the Strategic De-
fense Initiative, and that they have an es-
tablished record of willingness to knock off
civilians In furtherance of political goals. In
view of the Kremlin's preoccupation with
killing SDI. its cozy relationship with vail-
ous terrorist groups, and the pattern of Its
past behavior, it would be naive and irre-
sponsible to ignore its possible complicity.
timidating SDI proponents and scientists at
every level.
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