U.S. DEFIES THREAT BY TERRORISTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP91-00587R000100200111-8
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 30, 2011
• Sequence Number: 111
• Publication Date: May 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Approved For Release 2011/08/31 :CIA-RDP91-005878000100200111-8
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V.S. Defies
Threat b
Terrorists
Jihad Group Holding
Americans Warns
Of a Catastrophe
WASHINGTON POST
17 ;clay 1y85
The statement issued by Islamic
Jihad, published yesterday in the
Beirut press together with color
pictures of kidnaped westerners,
was addressed to the families of the
hostages, to the Rev. Jesse Jackson
and to "the international public,
namely the American people:'
"For the last time;' it said, "we
wish to stress that all the contact
with your abducted relatives will be
cut off and the consequences will be
catastrophic if you do not act seri-
ously and force your governments
to intervene for the release" of "all
our brothers in Kuwait."
It was not clear from the state-
ment whether the term "cata-
strophic" consequences was a spe-
cific death threat against the six
hostages or a general ? warning
aimed at American and French in-
terests in the Middle East, or pos-
sibly elsewhere.
The pictures published in Beirut
newspapers yesterday included four
of the five Americans-Anderson;
William Buckley, a political officer
at the U.S. Embassy in Beirut; the
Rev. Lawrence Jenco, head of the
Catholic Relief Services in Lebanon,
and. the Rev. Benjamin Weir, a
Presbyterian minister. The Jihad
group also claims to be holding two
French diplomats, Marcel Fontaine
and Marcel Carton.
Jenco's family in Joliet, 111., made
public a letter apparently relayed by
Islamic Jihad in which the priest
said his freedom was tied to that of
the prisoners in Kuwait, The Asso-
ciated Press reported. The family
said the letter was received several
weeks ago.
The fate of the fifth American,
Peter Kilburn, a librarian at the
American University of Beirut, re-
mains amystery. He was in poor
health when kidnaped and there has
been no indication of his status.
The pro-Iranian Lebanese terror-
ist group Islamic Jihad (Holy War),
is seeking the release of 17 pro-
Iranian Arabs, most of them Shiite
Moslems, who have been convicted
in Kuwait for involvement in bomb-
ings of the U.S. and French embas-
sies in December 1983. The bombs
killed five persons and injured 86,
most of them at the U.S. Embassy.
Islamic Jihad has claimed respon-
sibility for a wide variety of terror-
ist activities in Lebanon, including
the bombing of the U.S. Marine
barracks in Beirut in October 1983.
Some observers speculate that it is
an arm of the militant Islamic group
known as Hezbollah, the Party of
God, while others contend it is sim-
ply the name used by a wide num-
ber of extremist factions.
Kuwait yesterday refused aU
comment on the ultimatum yester-
day.
As concern mounted for the miss-
ing Americans, a United Nations
official kidnaped Wednesday in Bei-
rut was released, Irish diplomats
reported from the Lebanese capital.
Aidan Walsh, an Irish national and
deputy director of the U.N. Relief
and Works Agency, was reported
safe and in good spirits. No infor-
mation was made public on who had
kidnaped him or how his release
was arranged.
White House spokesman Larry
Speakes said the U.S. government
had no intention of entering into
negotiations with the mysterious
Lebanese terrorist group to gain
the hostages' release.
"We have not negotiated with
terrorists before and that is our
policy," he said.
State Department spokesman Ed
Djerejian refused to comment on
whether the United States was put-
ting any pressure on the Kuwaiti
government to release the 17 icon-
victed terrorists. "I just cannot get
involved in our diplomatic ex-
changes," he said.
He also refused to say whether
the United States had sent any mes-
sages to Iran regarding the Amer
ican hostages in Beirut. While
Washington has no diplomatic re-
lations with Tehran, it is known to
have channeled messages in th~
past through the Swiss and Syrians:.
Djerejian would not say wbether
the United States was ready to go
through a third party, such as Jack-
son, to try to~gain the release of the
American hostages.
Relatives of three hostages met
yesterday with Jackson to discuss
new approaches to seeking their
release. At a joint news conference,-
the civil rights activist said he was
prepared to go to Lebanon, or Ku-
wait, to try to gain the hostages'
release "if there is any reasonable
chance to have an impact:'
By David B. OttawaY
Washington Paat Start Writer
The United States said yesterday
it would not be intimidated by ter-
rorist threats of the militant Islamic
group in Lebanon that holds hos-
tage four, and possibly five, Amer-
icans and two Frenchmen.
Islamic jihad, in a statement re-
leased in the Lebanese press along
with ,.photographs of the hostages,
warned of "catastrophic" conse-
quene~s if 17 convicted terrorists
being 'held in Kuwait were not re-
leased.
Islamic Jihad said it would "ter-
rorize America and France forever"
if its demand were not met, prompt-
ing the White House to issue its
own declaration that such threats
would not be allowed "to compro-
mise our fundamental policies and
values:'
The White House also rebutted
charges of inaction from the fam-
ilies of the kidnaped Americans,
saying it was determined to obtain
their release and that the issue re-
mained "of the highest priority" to
the administration.
"We believe that we are present-
ly following the best-designed
course to obtain this result in a qui-
et, nonpublic manner," it said.
At a news conference yesterday,
Peggy Say, sister of kidnaped As-
sociated Press Beirut bureau chief
Terry Anderson, said she felt the
situation had come to "the crisis
point. This new demand, .this ulti-
matum, makes me feel we're got to
work harder [to free the hostages]
before something very bad hap-
pens."
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a
Jackson traveled in December
1983 to Syria and arranged the re-
lease of captured U.S. Navy flyer
' Lt. Robert 0. Goodman Jr., whose
plane was shot down over Syriari-
controlled territory in Lebanon.
Jackson, saying be had no interi-.
tion "to undermine our govern-
ment," charged that Secretary of
State George P. Shultz had brushed
aside a request to meet with him to
discuss the Beirut hostage crisis.
Later, Jackson and the group met
with Robert B. Oakley, head of the
State Department Office fqr
Counter Terrorism. '
The hostages' relatives and Jack-
son are to meet with represents-.
tives of the Kuwaiti Embassy today.
Washington Past staff writer Kathy
Sawyer contributed to this story. '
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