Approved For Release 2000/08/08 : CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3 | | | soptovds For Release 2000/08/08 : GIA-RDF96-00789R000400040001-3
CPYRGHT
Approvje^^rj^lease^^j^J
:
Kidnaped TTffiMarine Officer
U.S. to Seek Release
In Official Channels
By Lou Cannon
Washington Post Staff Writer
Reagan
administration
official fli
said yesterday that U.S. efforts
to.
secure the release of abducted Ma-
rine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins will;
be undertaken through the United'
Nations
and
governments
in
the.
Middle
East
rather
than by
U.S.
military forces.
President Reagan raised the pos-
sibility of a rescue attempt when he’
was asked at a White House photo-
taking session if there was anything
he "could do for Col. Higgins/' kid-
naped Wednesday
in Lebanon
by
unknown gunmen.
"I have
to
tell you we're doing
everything we
can/'
Reagan
re-
plied. "We're trying to find out as
much as we can, and we'll try to get
him located and certainly we want
to rescue him."
A White House
official promptly
discounted the idea that the admin-
istration might be planning a rescue
attempt, saying "the president was
referring to ongoing efforts through
the U.N. and governments
in the
House
Minority
Leader
Robert
H.
Michel
(R-Ill.),
present
at
the
photo-taking
session,
dismissed
Reagan's statement as "just an off-
the-cuff remark of the president/'
White
House
officials
acknowl-
edged privately that the president
had raised the idea of a U.S.
mili-
tary attempt to free Higgins by us-
. ing the word "rescue” but said no
such attempt
is being planned. One
official said
that,
despite intensive
efforts to
find Higgins,
his where-
abouts and that of his kidnapers are
not known.
State
Department
spokesman
Charles E. Redman, who
also
dis-
counted the idea of a U.S. military
rescue,
denied
assertions
by
a
group calling itself the Islamic Rev-
olutionary Brigade, whiph said that
it
abducted
Higgins
and
that
he
worked for the Central Intelligence
Agency.
Redman
and
ranking
Defense
Department officials said they have
never heard of the Islamic Revolu-
tionary Brigade and questioned its
authenticity.
Meanwhile, Higgins' father, Wil-
liam,
72,
of
Louisville,
Ky.,
died
yesterday of cardiac arrest and kid-
ney failure, according to doctors at
Humana
Heart
Institute
Interna-
tional.
Doctors said he had been under-
going treatment for a heart ailment
at the Louisville hospital since Feb.
2. The doctors said he was coma-
tose
at the time his son was kid-
naped and died unaware of the
in-
cident.
Higgins, 43, was abducted near
the
southern
port
city
of
Tyre
LEBANON, From A14
were no leads as to where Higgii|!j
had been taken.
Shiite Amal militiamen,
in coo
dination with U.N. troops, check* I
cars and expanded a 24-hour hui
for Higgins
in rural villages. Am
fighters
said
they
were
und<
"strict orders" to find Higgins ar
not to sleep before locating him,
Amal
officials said
fog,
rain
ar|<
poor
visibility had helped the
kil|
napers
and
prevented
effect^
searches by U.N. helicopters.
U.N.
Undersecretary
Generty
Marrack Goulding cut short a visit
Damascus and
flew back
to
Beir|
today upon hearing of Higgins’
di
appearance. He met with Lebane;
President Amin Gemayel and
latf|
condemned the kidnaping.
"Here
is an American who canli
to Lebanon to take part in an enteH
prise set up to assist the withdraw^
of Israeli troops from Lebanon,
support Lebanese sovereignty aiM
Lebanese state
institutions,” Goi[
ding said.
"When you have
a
situation
LT. COL. WILLIAM R. HIGGINS
.
.
. seized Wednesday in Lebanon
where he was on duty as head of a
75-memb6r
U.N,
observer
team
that is part of the U.N. Truce Su-
pervisory
Organization,
a
small
group that has supervised armistice
Arab states since 1948.
He was alone and driving a car
flying the blue-and-white U.N.
flag
when he was kidnaped, according to
witnesses.
Redman
said the United States
would continue to supply U.S.
sol-
diers for the U.N. truce force de-
spite the incident, "We don’t intend
The White House
discounted the idea
ofa rescue attempt.
to let terrorists determine our pol-
icies or deter us from fulfilling our
duties,” he said,
Redman drew
a
distinction
be-
tween American civilians who have
been ordered out of Lebanon and
U.S. troops assigned to the peace-
keeping force.
Because
of the wave
of abduc-
tions in Lebanon, the State Depart-
ment has been warning Americans
to stay away. Last year, after three,
more
Americans
were
kidnaped,
use of a U.S. passport for travel to
Lebanon was banned.
"In this particular case, the indi-
vidual U.S.
officer was under the
}
responsibility, authority and control'
of the United Nations in his role as
a member
of the
United Nations
supervisory organization/' Redman-
said,
Staff writer Molly Moore contributed
to this report.
Authorities Doubt
Responsibility Claim
By Nora Boustany
Special to The Washington Post
TYRE,
Lebanon,
Feb.
18—
Around-the-clock searches by U.N.
peace-keeping
troops
and
Shiite
Moslem
militiamen
in
the muddy
countryside
of
southern
Lebanon
turned up no sign today of U.S. Ma-
rine Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, the
head of a U.N. observer group who
was kidnaped by gunmen near here
yesterday.
An anonymous
caller
in
Beirut
claimed
responsibility
for
the
kid-
naping on behalf of a previously un-
known
group
called
the
Islamic
Revolutionary Brigades, but author-
ities were unsure of its authenticity
and most suspicions pointed toward
one
of
the
area’s many
militant,
pro-Iranian factions.
The caller, in a telephone conver-
sation with
an
international news
agency
in Beirut, accused Higgins
of being "one of the directors of the
CIA in southern Lebanon.” He said
the "hostage will not be freed until
after his trial,” and said the captors
would follow up with another state-
ment accompanied by a picture of
nissing American-r-the method
regroups -have^se4^o-ptave^
that they are holding a captive.
Higgins, 43, who heads the 75-
man Lebanon Group
of the U.N.
Truce
Supervision
Organization,
was seized by gunmen and taken to
an unknown
destination yesterday
as he was driving by himself, behind
another
U.N.
car,
enroute
from
Tyre to U.N, troop headquarters in
Naqurah, near the Israeli border.
Abdel Majeed Saleh, the political
commander
of
the
Shiite
Amal
movement
in
southern
Lebanon,
who had met here with Higgins and
his aides for IV4 hours just before
he was intercepted, said the Amer-
ican was probably "the captive
of
the same people holding other for-
eign
hostages
in
Lebanon.” Most
are being held by
pro-Iranian
fac-
tions.
Speaking at his home here, four
miles north of Ras Ain, where Hig-
gins was ambushed, Saleh said* that
there appeared to be a "determina-
tion
to
destroy
an
international
sphere of influence in Lebanon and
its humanitarian
organizations
for
the sake of swapping any foreigner
within reach for prisoners abroad.”
Although he
did
not name
the
Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah, Saleh
clearly was referring to their hos-
tage-taking strategy in Lebanon.
Hezbollah's clergy and followers
appeared nervous and edgy
in the
Tyre area today and largely kept a
low profile. Some were seen racing
through
U.N.
checkpoints on
the
coastal
road
just
north
of
Tyre,
refusing to stop.
Timor Goksel, spokesman for the
U.N, peace-keeping force, said in a
telephone
interview
that
there
See LEBANON, A16, Col 4
Find Kidnaped U.S.M
which three international staff have
been
taken
hostage
within
two
weeks, that is a very serious situ-
ation,” he added,
referring to the
abduction two weeks ago
of two
senior
Scandinavian
officials
with
the U.N. Relief and Works Agency
in Sidon.
In New York, U.N. spokesman
Mario Zamorano said that the pur-
pose of Goulding's visit to Gemayel
was to "stress the need for this mat-
ter
to be
resolved as speedily as
possible.” He
said Goulding drew
the Lebanese government's atten-
tion "to the possible implications for
United Nations
activities
in Leba-
non of the
fact
that three United
Nations
officials
have
been
kid-
naped
during
the
last
two
weeks"—a statement seen
in New
York and here as a warning
that
U.N, agencies may further cut back
their activities here.
“We don’t know who did it " Goul-
ding
said, "We do
not know why
they did
it. But what
I can say
is
that
these
incidents
do
obviously
have an effect on the readiness of
governments to send
their people
arine
whether as military or
civilians to
work in Lebanon."
Aly Yassin, a fundamentalist Shi-
ite religious leader
in Tyre, spec-
ulated, however,
that Higgins had
been singled out for kidnaping pri-
marily because he was an Ameri-
can, not because he was a member
of a U.N.-affiliated organization.
Goksel said Higgins had believed
he was safe traveling in this area of
southern Lebanon because he was
the chief of his unit. Other Amer-
icans in his group are largely con-
fined to U.N. headquarters in Naqu-
rah, near the Israeli border.
Diplomatic sources in Beirut said
Higgins was considered to be some-
what of a "cowboy” and appeared
overly confident
in
his venture
to
travel to the Tyre area.
Saleh said Higgins' visit here was
his second in three months.
Goksel
said
there had been no
previous threats or indications that
Higgins was in any danger as a U.N.
officer. He was wearing
his U.S.
Marine Corps uniform
along with
the U.N. insignia and blue beret at
the time of his abduction.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3
Approved For Retease 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP06-00789R000400040001-3
Of Marine
Are Arrested
Higgins Viewed
As ‘Gold Mine’
ur
By Nora Bouatany
Special to The Washington Post
CPYRGHT
BEIRUT, Feb. 23—Local secu-
rity
officials and independent
mil-
r itary observers
in southern Leba-
* pon said today that three men in-
volved in the kidnaping of U.S. Ma-
rine
I4 , CoL William Higgins have
been arrested, but gave no encour-
agement that
it might lead to the
officer's release.
Daoud Daoud,
a commander
of
the
Shiite Amal
militia, confirmed
that two- participants in the abduc-
tion, as well as a third man who was
carrying a letter from Beirut to the
kidnapers with orders to bring Hig-
gins
to
the
Lebanese
capital,
all
were arrested by Amal
last Wed-
nesday, the same day the abduction
took place hear the southern port
city of Tyre;
The courier was not able to de-
liver his message, Daoud added.
The Amal commander
said
his
militia knew the name of the mas-
termind of the kidnaping, but had
him. He de-
three men being held.
Amal security sources„said they
,
suspected Higgins was being held in..
the-
' Village of Jibsheet, "about
mil^s northeast of Tyre. Hezbollah
gunmen have fanned out in a cordon
around the village, where there
is
heavy Iranian influence and a fer-
vently religious population.
The gunmen prevented Amal and
reporters
from
approaching
the
small town. Last Friday, Amal mili-
tiamen searched Jibsheet and took
in a few men for questioning,
i
j A
security
official
in Tyre
said
today
that "two
of
the
kidnapers
who were
in
the
front
car and
a
tlurd person supposedly monitoring
Higgins’ movements were arrested,
but the abduction was a very elab-
orate
and
professional
operation
and involved five cars.
"The
kidnapers
switched
their
hostage from a Volvo
to a pickup
. tityck, then to a Mercedes 280, and
th£n the trail is lost,” he added.
- HThe group that said
it abducted
.Higgins,
the
Organization
for
the
Oppressed on
Earth,
has accused
thjil 43-year-old Marine of being a
Central
Intelligence Agency oper-
ative under United Nations cover.
' Higgins heads the U.N. Truce Su-
peryision Organization in Lebanon.
;
U.N.
Undersecretary
General
j
'
- Marrack
Goulding
has
described
*
the allegation as "nonsense,”
*
I
Confirmation by the Pentagon of
;
reports
that Higgins had been an
*
aide to former secretary of defense
'
Caspar W. Weinberger and
press
reports that the officer had a high
security clearance have minimized
A chances
for his release, according
1 to U.N, sources.
“This
has
been
a very
serious
setback,
especially
if
you
under-
stand how the minds of these
kid-
napers work,” said one
official
in-
volved
in the
investigation. "They
1-Jnow think they have a gold mine,
with a shortage of foreigners in Bei-
*.
rut and the stream of information
”
! on the man. The kidnapers probably
,1-
; think they have the top man in, the
l
' CIA and they will try to get as much
*
as they can for him from the highest
; bidder,” he added.
IT
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3
The Washington Post
Tuesday, August 2 , 1988 A17
U.S. Says Iran Has
By Bill McAllister
Washington Post Staff Writer
Iran, in a step that White House
officials hope could ultimately lead
to the release of American hostages
in Lebanon, has responded to U.S.
messages over the downing of an
Iranian jumbo
jet, the Reagan ad-
ministration disclosed yesterday.
Although
President
Reagan
is
known to be anxious to win release
of the nine hostages before he leaves
office
in January, White House and
State Department officials sought to
play down the message.
Presidential
spokesman
Marlin
Fitzwater would say only that the
communication
restated
Iranian
efforts to link improved relations or
release of the hostages to the free-
CPYRGHT
ing
of Iranian
assets
still held by
United States "or some other quid-
pro-quo
kind
of movement which
we are not prepared to do.”
Neither White House nor State
Department
spokesmen
would -
characterize the message, received
last week through a third party, or
the
status
of any communications
between the two countries.
"Let's put
it this
v|ay: They are
aware of our response, but
I really
can't
say
exactly
hqw,”
Fitzwater
said.
j
The White House spokesman said
the two countries "are not talking”
and described the message as "very
similar to what we have heard for
several years.”
In the past the administration has
rejected suggestions voiced by Iran-
;es Over Jet’s Downing
ian officials in television interviews
and
elsewhere,
saying
the
com-
ments were
not addressed
to the
government and were not coming
from what the United States con-
sidered "authoritative sources.”
Fitzwater
said
the
Iranian
re-
sponse was "serious” and authori-
tative.
"I don't think there
is anything
new
involved
here. The
situation
remains the same. We're willing to
talk to them
if they would provide
an
authoritative source
to do
it,”
Fitzwater said. "I don't think we're
willing to give
it any special signif-
icance at this point.”
The White House reluctance to
discuss the messages and their im-
plications
may
reflect
continued
administrative concerns
in the
af-
termath
of the
Iran-contra
The
president was
harshly c
cized then for appearing to be se
ing arms to the Iranian govemmc
in an effort to gain the release
hostages held by Lebanese factic
sympathetic to Iran.
Reagan has said repeatedly
tl
his intentions were to support wl
he perceived to be moderates in
t
Iranian government and that he r
ognizes now the offer was a mista
What remains unchanged,
so!
administration officials have said
the president's strong desire to
j
the American hostages freed wl
he is in office.
These concerns have complica
the
administration's
desire
to
spond to overtures from Iran
t
followed the U.S. Navy's down
CPYRGHT
MARLIN FITZWATER
;
j
, situation “remains the same!’!
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3