Approved For Release 2003/09/09 ee Ve 1 intelligence services | € iranian-dirécted terrorist groups: ’ Some=but-notall—of the re 3 have gathered has hared withthe Centr; Intelligence Agency. ** The British and West Germans are leery ofa CIA bias that Seeks to make Libya’s Moammar Gadhafi the bogeytnan anid to-blame him for the 270 deaths in Lockerbie, Scotland, “On€ CIA official ad: d'to us'that he: understood why. foreign spies were waty about . _ sharing what they know. “It’s ‘hardito blamé them,”,. -.7 he said. “Look at the. Reagan administration's past” al shenanigans with Libyan-related intelligence.” -_. ~ | oo-"He was referring to. 1981 rumors about a Libyan: . “hit-squad and the 1986 bombing of a Berlin disco. =.” West German police think the Reagan: administration hyped—or manufactured—flimsy evidence blaming Gadhafi for the disco bombing in |. which one U.S. serviceman was killed. President ' Reagan used the incident to justify a‘subsequent .. enshar bombing raid on Libyan sites, including Gadhafi’s -. ; . 7 : the downing of an Iranian airliner last July by.a US. 00 “Tripoli home... 2 0, : woe, - : Tn 1981, the CIA paid tens of thousands of «~~ - dollars to a Middle East informant who gave the CIA what it wanted to hear. He manufactured false. reports of a Libyan hit squad out to assassinate Reagan. The story unraveled when alert West European intelligence officers noted that the TACK ANDERSON and DALEVAN ATA [| top priority. Our sourées say‘ the CIA%S _ spend “several million dollars” to find out who is *: ~ “responsible. The flaw'in this approach isthatit * - encourages gadflies to com th é United States want's to hear—that’Gadhafi did it.” - thing Reagan wants to hear is that: terrorists . Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini... | : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3 4 . .-Frupay, January 13,1989 ES} = ae Reluctant to Blame | informant had included among the alleged hit squad embers several people who had sworn to-kill. |. 5. prepared to™ |: to conie forward. withwhat the ‘. ‘These espionage entrepreneurs know that’ Reagan has been obsessed with Gadhafi for eight : 4 years and might like to have the final say. The last directed by Iran bombed Flight 103, Reagan has: . béen humiliated by Iran and is not arixious for'a.* final ignominious footnote in his dealings with That’s what makes the West Europea intelligence services so wary of sharing |... Iranian-related information: with the CIA. They... ~ pointed out to us that U.S. Embassy ‘officials across .* |. Europe and.the Middle East have pooh-poohed the a claims of a shadowy pro-Iranian group that has been trying to assert responsibility for the bombing. elo ; The group calls itself “The Guardians of the Islamic Revolution” and claims it was motivated by... warship. The group, in a'call to London news * services, warned “there will be another present in * the new year for America” if the United States doesn’t deport Reza Pahlavi, son of Iran’s late shah. Iranian government officials have denied any involvement. But to believe them isludicrous. —, Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
rt Be Pyoo74 |: PLO Said to Aid’ | Panam Probe 3 have pr a- t. tion to western agents trying to €termine who was responsible ~ for blowing up the Pan Am jum-, "+ bojet over Scotland Jast month, "according to ABC News... The television network, quot- ing —_ western intelligence |. Sources, reported last night'that ~ “several dozen PLO intelligence agents”. -have been : working alongside British and West Ger- | |. man investigators and have de- J. livered : “exceedingly valuable” . |: information in-the case... |: The report marked the first . | Confirmation~of- the’ PLO’s -in- |. volvement in the- crash ‘inves- ‘|’ tigation, It followed a pledge by + PLO chairman. Yassir. Arafat to. . assist in the probe. .' .: or ' The PLO’s willingness to Co- , operate is seen-as. an effort by ‘the organization to show that it did not sabotage Pan Am Flight |. 103, which was en route from London ‘to New York. The main Suspects in. the case are said to be extremist Palestinians ‘who |.” Oppose Arafat’s recent move to Fenounce terrorism. and ac- kt owledge Israel’s right to ex- 02-3 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R0006007400
By Bill Gertz THE WASHINGTON TIMES Western intelligence agencies 1° concluded last week that the bomb- ing of Pan Am Flight 103 was com- missioned by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and carried out by Palestin- ian terrorists — with support from the Syrian and Libyan governments. The bombing was one of at least seven terrorist operations con- tracted by.the Iranians in retaliation for the downing of an Iranian com- mercial airliner by a U.S. Navy war- ship in July, Western intelligence MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1989 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : sources said last weekend. Six of the. operations, organized by terrorists of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), were thwarted when 13 suspected mem- bers of the group were arrested in October in West Germany, the sources said. : The seventh operation was the sabotage of a U.S. civilian airline that intelligence agencies now be- lieve was the bombing of Flight 103. The Pan Am Boeing 747 jumbo jet exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland, Dec. 21, killing all 259 persons on WASHINGTON, D.C. board and 11 on the ground. The PFLP-GC has denied in- volvement in the Pan Am bombing. For the Pan Am bombing, the in- telligence sources said, the PFLP- GC used a “drug mule” — a courier ferrying illegal narcotics — to unwittingly carry the bomb aboard the jet when he checked his luggage at Frankfurt, West Germany — Flight 103’s point of departure. West German officials have iden- tified the courier but have ‘not re- leased his name in order to protect a possible case against the blast’s per- | petrators, the sources said. According to the sources, West German authorities obtained details of the bomb plot last week from Khalil Dalkamoni, a PFLP-GC com- mander. Mr. Dalkamoni was arrested Oct.. 26 along with 12 other suspected PFLP-GC terrorists and is still in West German custody. He had re- mained silent since his arrest, but began talking to authorities last week, the intelligence sources said. Mr. Dalkamoni said several other members of the group remained at large and were not identified at the time of the arrests. These Palestin- CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3 ians are believed to have carried out the Pan Am bombing, the sources said. They did not disclose the iden- tities of the suspects, who are the subject of a global manhunt. Although some of Mr. Dalkamo- ni’s testimony surfaced in news re- ports last week, State Department officials denied having reached any conclusions about the bombing. The intelligence sources agreed to discuss details of the case with The Washington Times because they said the State Department does not want to face the serious implications of naming three countries — Iran, ca Syria and Libya — as being respon- sible for the terrorist attack. “Qualitatively, this is not just a group of 20 radicals,’ one source said yesterday. “These are nations waging war. We’re not talking fac- tions; we’re talking countries who have supplied the ingredients” for the bombing and other planned attacks. If Syrian and Iranian involvement see CRASH, page Al0 A senior House Democrat wants anew dialogue with Iran. Page All. oo el ee el ' — | Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3 oo ieee ace ot aig ot ea rr pete OF a, a ee we Z oe PHONE: 636-3000 SUBSCRIBER SERVICE: 636.3333 25 Cent bo Pan Am jet crash called a ‘hit’ for tran
Fy " PAGE AiO / MONDAY, FEBRUARY 6, 1989 was officially sanctioned, the “next question” the United States will have to ask is, “What are we going to do about it?” the source said. “Terrorism isn’t an ‘ism) it’s a po- litical act,’ said the source. “That is what State [Department] has tried to avoid.” — . President Bush has promised to ' “seek hard” and “punish severely” ; those responsible for the attack. State Department officials, the sources said, have disclosed some investigative findings because they ' fear the public’s misapprehension i that the bombing was a radical Pai- ' estinian retaliation for the United : States’ opening of a dialogue with ' the Palestine Liberation Organi- zation. L. Paul Bremer, the State De- : partment’s ambassador-at-large for , counterterrorism, said yesterday Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3 that it was “premature” to say any- one in the U.S. government has reached conclusions about the per- pretrators. “Y’m confident we’re getting closer, but we haven’t reached any conclusions yet,’ Mr. Bremer said. A State Department official, who declined to be named, said he was unaware that Mr. Dalkamoni talked to West German authorities. The of- ficial denied that the department was attempting to downplay the evi- dence. As for the revénge theory outlined by the intelligence sources, the offi- cial said, “It’s a plausible explana- tion. It may very well come out that way.” Information obtained during in- terrogations of Mr, Dalkamoni con- firmed facts that U.S. and British investigators had gathered about the ‘bombing, including details about the ~ type of explosive used, how the bomb was smuggled aboard and the motivation for the attack, the oar i Cran Raa aeeaenene Sources said. Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3 “What Dalkamoni told us tracks with [information obtained from] other sources and findings of the in- vestigation,” one intelligence source said. Mr. Dalkamoni said Iranian Revo- lutionary Guards and other Leba- nese Shi'ite fundamentalists met in Beirut, Lebanon, last fall and De- cember with PFLP-GC leader Ah- mad Jibril, a former Syrian army captain and explosives expert, the sources said. The Revolutionary Guards, one of Tran’s two military forces, asked the PFLP-GC to carry out the terrorist operations in West Germany in re- taliation for the July 3 downing of an Iran Air jetliner, the sources said. All 290 persons on board the Iranian plane were killed. According to the sources, Libyan government agents supplied cash for the PFLP-GC terrorist oper- ations. The Syrian government, through its ties to Mr. Jibril, pro- vided intelligence support and travel documents, the sources said. “The Libyan government paid the bills, and there was active support ' from Syrian intelligence,’ said a source. Syrian support was de- scribed as “large,” although the sources declined to elaborate. West German authorities may have “turned up the heat” on Mr. Dal- kamoni to make him talk in order to counter international criticism of West German corporate involve- ment in building what the Bush ad- ministration has said is a chemi- cal-weapons plant in the Libyan desert, the sources said. Of the 12 others arrested with Mr. Dalkamoni, eight have been released. The bomb used in the Pan Am ex- plosion contained Semtex H, an ad- vanced, plastic explosive manu- factured exclusively in the Soviet bloc, and was detonated by a sophis- ticated barometric mechanism de- signed to go off at high-altitude air pressures. Flight 103 exploded at 31,000 feet about a half hour after taking off from London’s Heathrow Airport. The sources said the terrorists’ plan was to have the Pan Am jet ex- plode over the Irish Sea. But strong winds forced the jet to take a more northerly course before turning east over the ocean en route to New York. Since the plane exploded over land, investigators were able to col- lect evidence they would not have found in the sea. Chemical residue of Semtex H was found on a luggage pallet recov- ered from the wreckage of the jet, along with evidence of narcotics, the sources said. That evidence first linked the bombing to the PFLP-GC because it was the same type of plastic explo- sive West German authorities found in a bomb discovered in the group’s weapons cache in October. The bomb found in West Germany was built into a Toshiba portable ra- dio, using Semtex H and a triggering device connected to a barometric sensor that sent an electric pulse when it sensed high-altitude air pressure. Palestinian terrorist Anmad Jibrit devised the Pan Am jet bombing.
20 Wruwrsy PESL Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA- RDP96- 00789R000600740002- 3 THE WASHINGTON Post ‘ Hijack Alert Issued Before Lockerbie Lawmaker Calls FAA Bulletins to Airlines ‘Dangerously Inaccurate’ By Laura Parker Washington Post Staff Writer ing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, U.S. security officials were bracing for a poten- tial airline hijacking, not a bomb- ing, according to documents re- leased yesterday by a House sub- committee. In a security bulletin dated Nov. 4, the Federal Aviation Ad- ministration cautioned U.S. car- riers operating in Europe about the possibility of a hijacking in Europe “in the first half of No- vember.” Pan American World Airways also posted an additional lookout at the airport in Frankfurt to watch for passengers who fit the FAA profile of a terrorist, accord- ing to the documents. Subsequent bulletins warned airlines to be on the watch for a bomb concealed in a radio-cas- sette recorder. But even after the Dec. 21 bombing, the FAA was still concerned about a possible hijacking. A bulletin dated Dec. 24 listed the names of 13 people be- lieved to be planning a hijacking. Excerpts of 27 FAA security bulletins issued in 1988 and six bulletins issued through Feb. 16 “- were made public by Rep. Cardiss ————— , Collins (D-Ill), who chairs the In the month before the bomb- House Government Operations subcommittee on government ac- tivities and transportation. She criticized the bulletins as being inéffective and “dangerously in- accurate.” The bombing of Flight 103, which killed 270 persons, is likely to bring a closer examination of FAA security measures, existing security rules and the emphasis placed on information the agency gives to airlines. Collins said yes- terday she plans to hold hearings on those subjects next month. PaiNe Frank R, Lautenberg (D- ) chairman. of the Senate Ap- propriations transportation sub- committee, last week called for a présidential inquiry into the bombing. FAA spokesman John Leyden said the agency would have no comment on the documents Col- lins released until it had a chance to review them. -. Generally, the FAA allows air- lines to develop their own secu- rity programs, dictating only that planes be secured against the threat of bombings or hijackings. The. bulletins issued last No- vember prompted Pan Am to sup- plement examination of carry-on. - baggage with . ‘additional hand checks. But Pan Am’s increased security for checked baggage in- cluded only an additional X-ray inspection, despite an FAA warn- ing that some sophisticated bombs can pass through X-rays unde- tected. The bomb that exploded aboard the Boeing 747 jumbo jet was con- cealed inside checked baggage. Officials believe the bomb was made of a plastic explosive known as Semtex that can elude X-ray machines, A British Transport Depart- ment memo written Dec. 29 said bags transferred to the Pan Am jetliner at Heathrow from a Frankfurt flight did not receive .a second security examination, ABC News reported yesterday, Two weeks after the November warning about a possible hijack-. ing, the FAA issued a general bul- letin to airlines about a bomb seized by West German police in an Oct. 26 antiterrorist raid in Frankfurt. The bulletin said a To- . shiba “Bombeat 453” radio had been seized by police in the arrest of 16 people believed to be con- nected with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-Gen- eral, Command. According to the bulletin, the device contained approximately ‘Tobler’ brand candy wrapper. “The bomb contained an electrical REP. CARDISS COLLINS . +» plans hearings on FAA measures 11 ounces of “a plastic type explo- sive wrapped ina metallic coated. » detonator and “a barometric de- vice connected to a computer chip, which was believed function- al and apparently part of the trig- ger or arming function.” . The bulletin continued: “The potential target cannot be iden- tified at this time although it was identified that the [bomb] would be very difficult to detect via nor- mal X-ray inspection, indicating that it might be intended to pass undisclosed through areas subject to extensive security controls, such as airports.” Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
3 L Tue WASHINGTON Post /Y A Pan Am Bomb Probers Differ on Courier Report By David B. Ottaway and Laura Parker _ Washington Post Staff Writers ‘Government sources disagreed yesterday over a report that named -a college student as the passenger ‘who unwittingly carried a bomb _- onto Pan Am Flight 103, destroyed ~ Dec, 21 over Lockerbie, Scotland. | Some U.S. intelligence sources confirmed a-CBS:report Wednesday — “that the’ dupe ; who unknowingly, “brought the bomb aboard :was a ~ -€' Lebanege-American college-student “traveling home to visit relatives in * Detroit for the Christmas holidays. But other sources involved in building ‘a criminal case based on _.the evidence available cautioned that the number of possible dupes has only been narrowed to a “hand- ful.” U.S. antiterrorist officials said Khalid Jaafar, a Lebanese-American college student returning to Detroit from Frankfurt for the holidays, is on the list of suspected: dupes, -but added that several other passengers with Middle East “connections” are being studied as well, 7° | Jaafar’s parents, who operate a gasoline ‘station in ;Detroit, have © ‘told. FBI agents their son: was not _ involved i in the bombing, ° “US. intelligence agencies have - reached conclusions sooner than FBI and other European law en- forcement officials who are seeking to obtain conclusive evidence be- fore making their findings-public. The U.S. intelligence sources said they believe the prime suspect in the bombing is a relative of an official in the Syrian-backed Popular Front .for the Liberation of Pales- tine-General Command. Hafez Dalkamoni, who was among 14 sus- pected members of the PFLP-GC arrested in an antiterrorist sweep in West Germany last October, is still in prison there, But.other sources said that while Dalkamoni-has brothers in Tunis and? Algiers,’ he has no known rel- ativés in Europe, and denied that he - ig cooperating with investigators. “If someone [in the group] was cooperating, we would have broken the case some time ago,” said one | ’ England and West. Germany in late official. “Investigators believe the courier on the Pan Am flight was given a radio cassette recorder, which con- tained a well-disguised plastic bomb, without realizing what it was. The cassette recorder was put in- side a suitcase and was placed aboard Flight 103 as checked bag- gage. The Boeing 747 exploded at high altitude over Lockerbie, killing all 259 people on board and 11 on the ground. In the October raid, police seized weapons and three Toshiba cas- sette recorders containing hidden explosives, The White House announced that President Bush will visit Lockerbie on his way back from a NATO sum- mit in Brussels and visits to Italy, May. Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3 Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3
IGTON Post. pe ntnenremertemrecninnennna ie He" Poboeefor Relegse 20936u0e z CagRnP96,0679R0006007 40002-3 Hiding the Story on Flight 103 Margaret Thatcher secretly agreed last M .. spring to play down the truth about who blew up Pan Am Flight.103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. After both leaders had intelligence reports pointing the finger ata terrorist hired by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Thatcher called Bush. In that conversation, they agreed that neither could stand the political heat of making the evidence public because both were impotent to retaliate, Highly placed White House sources told us that the phone call took place about mid-March. By that time, both the British and U.S. intelligence services had followed the trail of evidence to terrorist Ahmed Jibril as the hit man who was paid by Iran to blow up the plane. The intelligence services had evidence that Khomeini and his successor, Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, had approved the bombing. Pan Am 103 originated in Frankfurt, West Germany, stopped in London and.was bound for New York when a bomb exploded at 30,000 feet over Scotland on Dec. 21,.1988, Ali 259 passengers were killed, along with 11 people in the village of Lockerbie: Iranian-sponsored terrorists quickly asserted responsibility, but the British and U.S, governments put out the story that there were - several suspects, Behind the scenes, all the . evidence pointed to Jibril, He had been shopping for money for his terrorist group, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command. His usual sponsors, Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi and Syrian President Hafez Assad, were short of cash, Pp resident Bush and British Prime Minister The intelligence reports told Bush and Thatcher that Jibril went to Iran in July 1988 and struck the deal with Khomeini and Rafsanjani to blow up an American plane in retaliation for the accidental U.S. downing of an Iranian airliner earlier that month. When the intelligence reports began to leak last March, Thatcher called Bush to discuss their problem. She said no purpose would be served by making public the evidence against Iran because neither the United States or Britain could respond, Bush knew that Khomeini had proved the undoing of Jimmy Carter and had nearly proved the undoing of Ronald Reagan. Carter lost an'‘election because he couldn’t get American hostages back from Iran, and Reagan suffered the biggest blow of his presidency when he tried to trade arms to Iran for American hostages. So Bush didn’t argue when Thatcher suggested that they “low-key” the findings—say that the investigation was inconclusive and long-term, After the call, word was quickly passed to top officials conducting the Pan Am investigation that they were not to make any off-the-record remarks implicating Jibril or Iran. In Britain, when the press speculated about possible perpetrators, investigators called the speculation “wild” and “irresponsible.” U.S. intelligence sources who told us about the call said the decision was political cowardice, Thatcher, the “Iron Lady,” earned her reputation in a war with Argentina over the Falkland Islands, But by last March, her popularity was on the wane and she didn’t need to be embarrassed by Khomeini. Bush, still fighting his “wimp” image, didn’t want to face the ultimate calls for retribution. : (7 caret /SSA STS SSS SrA ese Pete ehh rrr ashes onnshefry tin Approved For Release 2003/09/09 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000600740002-3