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• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90M00005R001100160042-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 5, 2013
• Sequence Number: 42
• Publication Date: February 22, 1988
• Content Type: REPORT

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Vol. 133 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, JULY 22, 1987
No. 121
Congressional 'Record
MURDERING SDI
HON. JIM COURTER
OF NEW JERSEY
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
Wednesday, July 22, 1987
Mr. COURTER. Mr. Speaker, one of the
lesser noticed practices of terrorist groups in
Europe is attacking targets which are of spe-
cial value to the North Atlantic Treaty Organi-
zation [NATO]. Fuel pipelines, computer com-
panies, and defense contractors are all hit
with more frequency than many Americans re-
alize. And of course, the attacks upon Europe-
an and American soldiers and their bases are
continual. There is very definitely a military
side to political terrorism.
I was therefore extremely Concerned to see
a pattern developing in Europe this year in
which scientists and military officers closely in-
volved with strategic defense work and the
European role in SDI were dying in remarka-
ble numbers. Yet as of May 2d, when I raised
the issue in a speech before the Committee
for the Free World, there was only a press
item or two to indicate anyone had noticed a
pattern, or taken any interest in it.
I was pleased to learn subsequently that the
president of the National Forum Foundation,
Mr. Jim Denton, had been making thorough
inquiry into this concert of circumstances. The
results of that inquiry, just published this
month, literally merit headlines.
It is not reasonable to believe that America
and her European allies are dealing with coin-
cidence. The details are too overwhelming in
number, too consistent, and in some cases
too explicit (statements by the terrorists ac-
knowledge that SDI is the real target of their
assassinations).
I would strongly urge my colleagues in the
House to read the Jim Denton/Peter Schwei-
zer article closely, and to consider its implica-
tions. Among these, certainly, must be the
unity of left-wing terrorists in Europe, the mili-
tary ramifications of their peacetime strikes,
and the confluence of interests?at the very
least?between the leftist terrorists interna-
tional and the U.S.S.R., which has made many
official efforts to kill SDI.
(From the National Review, July 31, 1987)
MURDERING SDI
Since last July there have been seven ter-
rorist bombings, three assassinations, five
highly suspicious "suicides," and one disap-
pearance among European scientists, re-
searchers. defense contractors, and military
and government officials. All the victims
were involved with hightech. defense-relat-
ed research, most of it linked directly to the
Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), and all
the deaths took place in the midst of a high-
profile campaign by the Soviets to kill SDI
development. Three of the dead men were
senior advisors to Western European gov-
ernments; each of them had participated in
sensitive and previously secret SDI "coop-
eration talks" between their respective gov-
ernments and Washington. Although some
individual reports of the more dramatic ter-
rorist incidents have appeared in the press,
as yet not one in the U.S. Government or
media has seriously addressed the SDI-relat-
ed killing spree.
On July 9, 1986, Karl-Heinz Beckurts and
his driver were killed by a remote-control
bomb outside Munich. Beckurts was the Di-
rector of Research at the Siemens Compa-
ny, an SDI contractor; in June 1985, he had
met with U.S. Government officials to dis-
cuss the possibility of conducting SDI re-
search. According to a report in the Los An-
geles Times (July 10, 1986), government of-
ficials said Beckurts had been involved in re-
search on SDI technologies, although a
company spokesman denied it. In late 1985
and early 1986. Beckurts served as an advi-
sor to the Bonn government during SDI co-
operation talks with Washington. A letter
left by the Marxist Red Army Faction
(RAF) indicated Beckurts was assassinated
because of his involvement in these "secret
negotiations." Beckurts name appeared on
an RAF hit list of businessmen and re-
searchers who had expressed interest in
SDI, which was found during a raid on a
Red Army Faction safehouse shortly after
I Beckurts death.
On October 10, 1986. Gerold von Braun-
muhl, a West German Foreign Ministry offi-
cial, was shot dead by a masked gunman
while leaving a taxi near his home outside
Bonn. Von Braunmuhl has been a principal
advisor to West German Foreign Minister
Hans-Dietrich Gascher during SDI coop-
eration talks with the United States. Ac-
cording to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zei-
tung, von Braunmuhl had "great responsi-
bilities" in these secret talks and "will hardly
be replaceable." Near the scene of the
murder police found a six-page letter writ-
ten by a faction of the RAF claiming re-
sponsibility. In an apparent reference to von
Braunmuhl's role in West Germany's secret
discussions with Washington, the communi-
que stated: "Today we have, through the
Ingrid Schubert Commando, shot dead the
secret diplomat von Braunmuhl." Investiga-
tors say that the same typewriter was used
in the von Braunmuhl and the Beckurts
communiques.
NO TO STAR WARS
On March 20, 1987, General Licio Gior-
gieri of the Italian Defense Ministry was
gunned down by two assassins on the streets
of Rome. Giorgiert, the Director General of
the Department of Space and Armaments
Procurement at the ministry, was the lead-
ing advocate of SDI in the Italian armed
forces. Giorgieri, like Beckurts and von
Braunmuhl, served as a principal advisor to
his government during the SDI cooperation
talks. The Union of Fighting Communists, a
faction of the Italian Red Brigades, claimed
responsibility for the attack in a rambling
14-page communique. According to that doc-
ument, Giorgieri "was struck down exclu-
sively for his responsibility exercised follow-
ing the Italian adhesion to the Star Wars
project. The word "exclusively" was under-
lined in the document, which closed with:
"No to Star Wars." Only a few days later,
French police reported that Giorgieri's
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 Inunenstaad. Dor-
tiler 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 SDI. 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, 1988, the Research In-
stitute of Optics in Tubin, West Germany,
was bombed. Rumors had circulated -that
the institute was conducting research on
SDI, but the firm strongly denied it. Accord-
ing 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 Heidelberg,
West Germany, was damaged on- November
18, 1688, when a bomb exploded inside. The
Red Army Faction claimed responsibility for
the attack. IBM. had four SDI contracts, al-
though Kis not clear whether SDI work was
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 di-
rector of the Fraunhofer Institute's Berlin
office, survived the apparent assassination
attempt, ? -
Unlike the aftermath of the murders of
Beckurts,.. von Braunmuhl. and General
Giorgieri, there- were no. .communiques
issued, conneeting the bombings with SDI.
Perhaps it is only coincidental, but the in-
tepsity41. these.itttACkti.stind their concen-
trated
focus on SDI contractors strongly
suggest that the ultimate target was SDI.
NO WITNESSES, NO MOTIVE
During the same period in which anti-SDI
attacl:s were taking place on the Continent,
there was in Great Britain a bizarre suicide
wave. Flee high-tech defense researchers?
at least three of whom were apparently
working on SDI-related research?died. ap-
parently by their own hand.
In August 1986 Virnal E.Lijibhai. a comput-
er-guidance expert with Marconi Defense
Systems. Britain's large:;t SDI contractor,
apparently committed suicide by jumping
from a bridge in Bristol. In a telephone
interview Bristol police saki there were no
witnesses nor could tiler find a motive. A
month later, in an especially determined
effort. Ashhad Shariff, a computer expert
with Marconi who was reportedly working
on the interception of projectiles, apparent-
ly killed himself by driving off in his car
after having first tied one end of a rope
around a tree and the other end around his
neck. According to. the same Bristol police:
no witness, no motive.
On March 30, 1987, David Sands, a com-
puter expert with Easarns, also an SDI con-
tractor. was killed when his car slammed
into an abandoned building in Surrey. The
Car. which had been loaded with gasoline.:
filled containers, exploded violently. Again:
no witness, no motive.
In January 1987, Aytar Singh-Gida. a Sikh
friend of Dajibhai. disappeared while con-
ducting tests in central England. Singh-Gida
was working on military-funded research on
sonar technologies, research with apparent
SDI applications. Police are still investigat-
ing his disappearance, including recent re-
ports that he has been spotted in the red-
light district of Paris.
There have been two other mysterious
suicides by individuals who, though not di-
rectly engaged in SDI research, were con-
nected with high-tech defense-related Indus-
tries. On February 21 of this year. Peter
Peapell, a senior lecturer at Britain's Royal
Military College of Science, died in his
garage as a result of carbon-monoxide poi-
soning. He apparently took his own life.
after he and his wife entertained friends at
their home. According to press accounts,
the wife knew of no motive. And in May
1987, Richard Greenhalgh. a 46-year-old
? computer salesman with Defense Center of
ICL, apparently slashed his wrists and
leaped off a bridge onto railroad tracks
; some sixty feet below. Greenhalgh survived
the fall but died a few days later Ina nearby
hospital. At the time police said there were
? neither witnesses nor any apparent motives.
Defense Center of ICL is the principal com-
puter contractor for the Royal Navy's
Opcon Command and Control Center at
Northwood, London.
search would "most definitely" have poten-
tial application to SDI. Thus far, the gov-
ernment considers the deaths a local matter
and is not conducting its own investigation.
Back in July 1986. Kurt Rebmann, Ger-
many's Federal Prosecutor investigating the
Beckurts murder and the Dormer and
Fraunhofer bombings. told the New York
Times that he believed these three attacks
were part of -a coordinated offensive"
against the West in general and SDI in par-
ticular. The subsequent terrorizt aesassina-
Lions and bombings?as well as the discovery
of the communiques and hit lists?appear to
confirm Rebmann':; early suspicions. There
may be no connection between the bombing
spree in Europe and the suicide binge in
Great Britain. and in none of the SDI-relat-
ed suicides is there any hard evidence of
foul play. Perhaps it is lust a statistical ab-
erration. But it is curious that British high-
tech researchers became particularly vul-
nerable to suicide at the precise time terror-
ist were striking at SDI targets on the Con-
tinent.
What is clear from their own words is that
several European terrorist groups are zero-
ing in on SDI, a dramatic and ominous de-
parture from their traditional tactics and
strategy. According to Dr. Yonah Alexan-
der. author of thirty books on international
terrorism. "Left-wing European terrorist
groups traditionally confine themselves
largely to political targets, symbols of cap-
italism and 'Western imperialism.' the vic-
tims usually having nothing In common
except perhaps being part of 'the system.'"
In the past, European terrorists were rarely
driven by anything more specific than a
desire for ransom or for the release of their
comrades in prison. But the recent attacks
appear aimed at sabotaging a specific mili-
tary weapons system by adding enormous
human and financial costs to the contrac-
tors' cost benefit equation, as well as by in-
timidating SDI proponents and scientists at
every level.
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 vari-
ous terrorist groups, and the pattern of its
past behavior. It would be naive and irre-
sponsible to ignore its possible complicity.
A LOCAL MATTER?
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,
IMr. Shariff. and Mr. Singh-Gida were all
working on aspects of underwater vibration
simulation which has extensive implications
for the Striakic 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-
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