U.S. WAS WARNED OF BOMBING AT BEIRUT EMBASSY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000100140083-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 13, 2012
• Sequence Number: 83
• Publication Date: May 10, 1983
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/13 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100140083-8
A=,TI~~ A'~ir:~_..i
ON PAGE
U.S. Was Warned
Of Bombing at
Beirut Embassy
WASHTNGTON POST
10 NAY 1983
At the same time, the GIA, which
lost seven people in the bombing,
had gathered "humint," or human
.intelligence, which warned that the
same group had plans to bomb the
embassy.
According to the .intelligence re-
port, preparations for the bomb at-
tack were supervised by a high of-
ficial in the Iranian Foreign Minis-
try, who also gave final approval. It
was . assumed that Khomeini also
knew of the plari and approved it.
The admission that both the NSA
and the CIA had prior warning of
the bombing was hedged with sug-
gestions that the intelligence infor-
mation could not be verified, and in
at least one case came from an un-
tested source.
But this alibi has a hollow ring.
Not only had the Islamic Jihad
shown itself to be a terrorist group
that should be taken seriously, but
the CIA had been keeping track of
the Jihad and other Khomeini-
backed .groups for a year or more.
For example:
? The Islamic Jihad claimed re-
sponsibility for scar-bomb explo-
sion-the same kind of attack as
that of April 18-that killed 12 peo-
ple at the French Embassy in Beirut
a year ago.
? It also took responsibility for
grenade and machine-gun attacks on
American and Italian troops of the
multinational peace-keeping force in
U.S. intelligence agencies received
warnings a month in advance that
.Iranian-backed"terrorists planned to
bomb the American Embassy in Bei-..
rut. Yet nothing was done to beef up
security at the building where 17
Americans were killed.
This shocking admission is con-
tained in the super-secret National
Intelligence Daily, a document cir-
culated to fewer than 100 high-level
U.S. officials. An autopsy of the Bei-
rut bombing appeared in the April
20 edition-two days after the trag-
edy and one day after the Islamic
Jihad Organization claimed respon-
sibility for the blast.
Though the report itself is clas-
sifted above top-secret, it was re-
viewed by -my associate Dale Van
Atta. Here's the appalling story:
The National Security Agency's
code breakers had intercepted some
alarming communications. in the
Middle East. These gave a clear in-
dication that a pro-Iranian Shiite
Moslem group, fanatically loyal to
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, was
planning to bomb the embassy in
Beirut.
Beirut last N~arch. The'toll: one Itsl-
ian killed and five Americans
wounded. And it claimed to have
taken -shots at members of the
French peace-keeping force a few
days before the U.S. Embassy blast:
The Jihad~s an offshoot of the
mainstream Shiite paramilitary or-
ganization AmaL The original leader,
Musa al Sadre, was a Khomeini dis-
ciple who disappeared on a 1978 trip
to Libya. The Jihad is closely asso-
ciated with an estimated .1,000 Iran-
ian revolutionary guards .who have
proclaimed an "Islamic-Khomeinist
state" at Baalbek in northeastern
Lebanon.
CIA reports over the past year list
several cases of Khomeini's attempts
to export his revolution beyond
Iran's borders:
? An attempt to set up an Islamic
state in Turkey through the Iranian
consulate in Lstanbul.
? A planned coup by 60 Bahrainis,
many trained in Iran, to take over
that Persian Gulf state.
? A meeting in Cyprus of Saudi
Arabian opposition leaders to plot
infiltration of the military, incite-
ment of the large Shiite minority
and eventual overthrow of the toys]
fami}v.
? Financing of secret trips by
Moslem students to Iran for revolu-
tionary training. The students are
then smuggled back to their home-
lands to await the signal for uprising.
V
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/04/13 :CIA-RDP90-009658000100140083-8