CPYRGHT
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. Approved For Release 2000/08/08
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^000 f-3
U.S. Rejected
Proposed Sale
Of F5s to Iran
Brokers Hinted Deal
Might Help Hostages
By David B. Ottaway J
Wrixfun Jtoi! Fiisi Staff Wriu-r
*
International
arms
merchants
sought last spring to get the Rea-
gan administration
to approve the
$170
million
sale
of 16 aging F5
fighter jets from Chile to Iran
in a
deal they suggested might
lead to
the release of American hostages in
Lebanon, U.S. officials said yester-
day.
State
Department
spokesman
Charles E. Redman said the admin-
istration's answer “in no uncertain
terms” was “no.”
“We're not going to be a party, or
arrange in any way, for arms to be
transferred to Iran," he said.
Redman
cast
the
episode
as
a
successful example
of
the admin-
istration's
campaign—formally
known as “Operation Staunch”—to
cut off arms supplies to Iran.
He denied
part
of
a
report by
ABC News, which broke the story
Tuesday
night,
that
a
promise
of
Iranian cooperation
to gain the
re-
lease of nine U.S. hostages figured
prominently in the proposed deal.
"The hostage element seems
to
have come up only briefly and very
fhelingly
in the
last
stages, and
it
seems
to have been
laiscd by the
brokers, not by the Iranians/’ Rod-
in an
^ aid.
“As you can imagine, again, when
that
issue was
raised,
the answer
was just as clear: no deal," he said.
White House spokesman
Marlin
F it zwater,
speaking
to
reporters
aboard
President
Reagan’s
plane
Hying
between
Columbus
and
Toledo, Ohio,
said
it was "another
example of a private individual try-
ing to get involved
in the hostage
situation for private gain.
It
is not
helpful
to the hostages or our
re-
lations in the Middle East.”
See KHOMEINI, A17, Col.
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CPYRGHT
AB
Lebanese Shiites Clash
Over Search for Marine
BEIRUT—The pro-Iranian
Shiite Moslem
group
that
kidnaped
a
U.S.
Marine
officer
Wednesday told the Shiite Amal
militia yes-
terday to stop searching for him, and other
pro-Iranian militants
fired on militamen car-
rying out the search.
A statement released here and signed by
the Organization of the Oppressed on Earth
called on "our brothers in Amal to understand
the dangerous spying role” of Lt. Col. William
Higgins, who was kidnaped while in southern
Lebanon as part Of a U.N. truce-monitoring
group. A pro-Iranian cleric said
in Tyre that
Higgins had been smuggled out of southern
Lebanon.
Iranian-backed Hezbollah
militants shot at
Amal militiamen searching the southeastern
village of Ain Tineh. The Amal fighters fired
back
with
rocket-propelled
grenades. Amal
has detained dozens of pro-Iranian militants as
part of the search, which
it says
is meant to
defend the
role
in southern Lebanon of the
United Nations.
•
Thai,
I ant*
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ved For Release *DBtWfc@&ITCIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3
»s
a-
Approve
Search
For Higgins
Intensifies
Iranian Militiamen
Seized in Roundup
By Nora Boustany
Special to The Washington Post
BEIRUT,
Feb.
20—A
clamp-
down
on
Moslem
fundamentalist
groups backed by Iran spread from
southern Lebanon
to
the western
Bekaa
Valley today as Shiite
mili-
tiamen pressed
their search
for
a
kidnaped American officer attached
to a U.N. observer force.- ^
_
,
. _ _
deadersoTthie mainstream Shiite
Amal militia hinted that Marine Lt.
Col. William Higgins, who was kid-
naped Wednesday in southern Leb-
anon, may have been seized
in an
effort by supporters of Iran to re-
activate
talks on
an
exchange
of
hostages
for weapons
needed
by
Iran.
An
official
of the
Palestine
Lib-
eration Organization
said
the PLO
also had evidence
to suggest Hig-
gins was kidnaped for use
in a po-
tential deal with the United States,
“We believe
Iran wants
to make a
new deal with the Americans using
Higgins,"
said PLO
official
Salah
Khalaf in an interview with Reuters
news agency in Tunisia.
In
Beirut,
a
senior member
of
Amal's
politburo,
Mohammed
Beidoun,
said
he
suspected
that
“the
basic aim behind Higgins’
ab-
duction was
a
pressure
campaign
.
. concerning hostages and weap-
ons/'
As
the
search
for
Higgins
re-
sumed,
Amal
members
stormed
strongholds of pro-Iranian extrem-
ists
in
southern
Lebanon
for
the
fourth straight day.
Tension
between
the
moderate
Amal and
radical Hezbollah (Party
of God)
mounted
in
the
western
Bekaa
as
the
rival
militias
set up
checkpoints
near
the
town
of
Machghara,
Shiite
officials said
to-
night.
There was
still no trace of Hig-
See LEBANON, A28, Col,
LEBANON, From A19
i
U.N. Troops, Amal Intensify Search
In Lebanon for Kidnaped American
bollah stronghold, and rounded up
suspects after a standoff with some
of its armed residents.
Amal
officials
said
a number
of
Iranian
Revolutionary Guards
had
also been taken in for questioning.
Justice Minister Nabih Berri, who
is the leader of Amal,
ridiculed
al-
legations
that
Higgins was
a CIA
agent, In a television interview, he
said Higgins “may be an intelligence
agent [for the CIA] and he may not,
But
...
a
lot
of westerners
kid-
naped before were accused of being
spies. Some
of them,
for example
some
Frenchmen,
were
later
re-
leased. Did they stop being
spies?
What kind of pretext
is this?"
A communique by the Organiza-
tion of the Oppressed on Earth, de-
livered yesterday
to
the
offices of
an
international news
agency,
re-
jected
American
peace
efforts
in
the region and the dispatch of U.S.
envoys
here.
Secretary
of
State
George P. Shultz is expected in the
region in the next 10 days.
gins, the chief of the Lebanon unit
of the U.N. Truce Observation Su-
pervision
Organization
(UNTSO),
abducted by gunmen south of Tyre.
His abduction has been claimed by
two
groups,
the
previously
un-
known
Islamic
Revolutionary Brb
gades and the Organization of the
Oppressed
on
Earth,
which
also
claimed responsibility for the June
1985 hijacking to Beirut of a TWA
airliner.
Using two helicopters and police
dogs, dozens of troops of the U.N,
Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL)
combed the countryside about eight
miles southeast of Tyre.
UNIFIL troops and Amal militia-
men focused their search on a num-
ber of rural towns in that area after
receiving
tips
from
local
infor-
mants. An Amal commander
said
the
militia
last
night
entered
the
southern village of Jibsheet, a Hez-
CPYRGHT
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Terrorism fews
Lebanese Man First to Stand Trial in U.S. for Hijacking Abroad
CPYRGHT
By Ed Bruske
Washington Post Staff Writer
U.S. laws aimed at curbing inter-
national
terrorism
will
undergo
their
first
major
test
in
federal
court here with the opening today
pf the
trial of Fawaz Yunis,
a 28-
year-old Lebanese accused
of tak-
ing part
in the 1985 hijacking of a
Royal Jordanian Airlines jet in Bei-
rut.
Federal officials, relying on 1984
and 1986 statutes giving U.S. au-
thorities jurisdiction abroad
in ter-
rorist
incidents
involving
Ameri-
cans, hope to make an example of
Yunis to terrorists worldwide.
Yunis—a
Shiite
Moslem
and
Amal militiaman who, according to
federal
officials
and
court
docu-
ments, was lured into the custody of
FBI
agents
in
Cyprus
with
the
promise of a lucrative drug deal— is
Expected
to
argue
that
he
was
merely a
foot soldier following or-
ders in the factional wars ravaging
^ebanon and cannot be held respon-
sible for laws broken
in the hijack-
ng incident.
The trial, which will be translated
nto Arabic, could last more than a
month. Federal prosecutors plan to
all more than 20 witnesses, includ-
ng two American passengers of the
.etliner and
airline personnel from
he Middle East and Italy.
Yunis, who faces a possible sen-
ence of life
in prison, could try to
: urn the trial into a Lebanese civics
1 3sson, arguing that the Amal and
other
militant
factions
are
legiti-
mate
political
organizations,
with
followers such as Yunis expected to
do as they are told,
Yunis" arrest in September 1987,
the
first under the long-arm
anti-
terrorist
statutes, was announced
With great fanfare by then-Attorney
General Edwin Meese IIL But some
authorities on
terrorism
have
ar-
gued that Yunis w$s only a bit play-
er and that the hijacking in which he
allegedly took part
hardly ranked
x
among the world's major terrorist
incidents and mostly involved inter-
nal Arab, bickering.
On June
11,
1985,
five heavily
armed men
seized
the
Jordanian
airliner
in Beirut With about 70
passengers
aboard,
including
folif
U.S.
citizens, they commandeered
the aircraft for a 30-hour voyage to
Cyprus,
Tunisia and
Sicily
before
returning to Lebanon.
The hijackers, who severely beat
several
Jordanian
sky
marshals
aboard the plane, threatened to kill
the hostages one by one unless
all
Palestinian
guerrillas
were
re-
moved from Lebanon.
After the plane landed in Beirut,
a hijacker who called himself MNa-
zeeh” and was
later
identified
as
Yunis
held
a news
conference
in
which he threatened to deliver the
corpses to an Arab League leader.
All
aboard
the
aircraft were
re-
leased before terrorists blew up the
plane and escaped.
Among those expected to testify
here about the hijacking are Landry
T. Slade, a professor at the Amer-
ican University of Beirut, and
his
teen-age son, who were aboard the
airliner.
Yunis" capture
involved person-
nel from the departments of Justice,
State and
Defense, and from
the
CIA, FBI
and Drug Enforcement
Administration, along with a critical
assist from a Lebanese informant
and one-time friend of Yunis, Jamal
Hamdan.
Hamdan, who had escaped from a
Lebanese prison
after being con-
victed
of murdering
his
sister-in-
law and who was suspected of other
crimes,
,;was 'enlisted to lure Yunis
Jtp Cyprus on the pretext of taking
j^rt in k drug deal and party aboard
a luxury yacht.
.The. yacht. Skunk Kilo, had, been
leased by the U.S. government* and
FBI agents posed as the drug deal-
ers. After motoring in a dinghy to
the yacht—carefully
positioned
in
international waters
off Cyprus
Yunis
immediately
was
v arrested.
Agents
threw
him
to
the
deck,
breaking both his wrists.
Hamdan, who is not expected to
appear at the
trial, and several of
his family members have since been
granted residency here under the
federal witness protection program.
Yunis" journey to Washington took
four days by sea and
air, during
which FBI agents elicited from him
a
crucial
statement
outlining
the
hijacking and his alleged participa-
tion in it.
Yunis' court-appointed attorney,
Francis D. Carter, former head of
the D.C. Public Defender Service,
is expected to
tell jurors that
his
client,
suffering
seasickness
and
intense pain from his broken wrists
and without a lawyer, was in no con-
....
; FAWAZ YUNIS
Is facing a possible life sentence
dition
to
give an
accurate
state-
rnentl
. V'J-\
;
.
.
^ Carter earlier had challenged the
ILS. government’s
right
to
seize
foreign
suspects
abroad,
but
the
long-arm
statutes were upheld
in
court
Carter has
raised
the
issue
of
whether Yunis can be held respon-
sible for the hijacking as an Amal
militia
underling. Under the
U.S.
military code,
soldiers accused
of
breaking
the law
while
following
orders can be excused if the order
is not per se unlawful or if the sol-
dier believes he has no alternative.
Carter has told the court that he
intends to introduce evidence that
Yunis was acting on orders from
Amal authorities who directed the
hijacking. Carter said he hopes to
call an expert in Lebanese affairs to
testify that the Amal is one of sev-
eral groups that act as legitimate
ruling military entities
in
the
ab-
sence of a cohesive central govern-
ment.
it/ r
CPYRGHT
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*
*r
The Washington Post
Approved For ReleaseTi^i5?b8/(H^^
'
j
j
,
^
Thursday, January 26, 1989 A21a
‘
Truce Between Rival Shiite Factions Collapses
Syrian-Iranian Agreement Reflected Damascus’ Efforts to Maintain Political Balance
By Nora Boustany
Washington Post Foreign Service
!
i
j
BEIRUT,
Jan.
25—A
truce
|
worked out
in long
talks between
Syrian and Iranian
officials to halt
inter-Shiite
warfare
between
rad-
ical Hezbollah and moderate Amal
fighters
in southern Lebanon
col-
lapsed within hours of its announce-
ment in Damascus today.
At least three persons were
re-
ported wounded in renewed fighting
that died down tonight, but left ten-
sions high.
Failure of the agreement reached
in
the
Damascus-hosted
talks
re-
flected
Syria’s
difficulties
in
main-
taining
a
tenuous
balance between
commitment to its closest Lebanese
ally,
Amal,
and
regional
affiliation
and indebtedness to Iran, the funder
and sponsor of Hezbollah.
Fifteen hours of arduous talks that
included
Foreign
Ministers Farouk
I
Jharaa of Syria and AH Akbar Ve-
ayati of Iran as well as top leaders of
\mal
and
Hezbollah
produced
the
ihort-lived peace program.
The current fighting between the
ival pro-Syrian and Iran-backed Shi-
ite Moslem groups erupted Dec. 31
in the southern slums of Beirut and
spread to a cluster of hilltop villages
t
verlooking
Israel’s
self-declared
ecurity zone in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah still controls the villages
t
f
Loueizeh and
Ain Bouswar
and
lost of now-deserted Jbaa,
all adja-
:ent
to the northwestern
limits
of
he border strip controlled by Israeli
roops and their local ally, the South
^ebanon Army (SLA).
The pro-Iranian group commands
;he
highest
ridges
of Jabal Amel,
Lebanon’s southern mountain range.
Hezbollah’s routes
to the
north-
feast and south are cut off by Amal,
Ivhich has made
it difficult for Hez-
bollah’s supporters to move
in sup-
iQse
directions.
Syrian
d the supply
Hezbollah leaders meet with officials in Damascus to discuss a truce in the fighting between Shiite factions in Lebanon.
lines from the Bekaa, however, and
Amal and Charaa have accused Hez-
bollah of bribing some SLA elements
to
smuggle
in
arms
and
materiel
through
the
security
zone
at
the
height of battles earlier this month.
The SLA today deported 40 per-
sons,
including
elderly
residents
and infants, from the village of She-
baa, for allegedly aiding anti-Israeli
radical Moslem factions.
Asked why the SLA might coop-
erate with Hezbollah
guerrillas,
a
western
diplomat
said:
“Look
at
contacts and possible links between
Iran and Israel. There has been co-
operation
there
before.” He
was
referring to Israel’s role in the Iran-
contra affair.
Despite
Syria’s discomfort with
having Iran-backed fundamentalists
gain
the
upper
hand
in
southern
Lebanon,
analysts
said,
it
cannot
move decisively against Hezbollah,
its
link
to
Iran. The Amal move-
ment, headed by - Nabih Berri, has
been' locked in conflict with Hezbol-
lah since April.
The
Shiite war began
last Feb-
ruary
after the kidnaping
of U.S.
Marine
Lt.
Col.
William
Higgins,
who
was
serving
with
the
U.N.
Truce Supervision Organization
in
southern Lebanon. Higgins was ab-
ducted in Tyre by Hezbollah forces
while visiting a senior Amal secu-
rity official there.
Amal drove Hezbollah from most
of southern Lebanon last spring but
failed to suppress the fundamental-
ist group in Beirut’s southern sub-
urbs in later battles in May and No-
vember.
Amal
is
determined
to
block Hezbollah from reestablishing
military bases in the southern
vil-
lages
near
the
Israeli border and
security zone
in order
to prevent
provocations that could lead to re-
prisal attacks by Israel.
Iran’s
resolve
to
carve
out
for
itself
a
stake
in
the
Arab-Israeli
conflict through Hezbollah bases in
southern Lebanon
is seen by ana-
lysts
as
draining Amal’s
strength
and distracting
it from its struggle
for greater
political rights in Leb-
anon’s disputed governing system.
Amal
politburo
member
Mo-
hammed Beidoun said in an interview
before going to Damascus this week
that
his
organization
would
never
'
allow the south to slip back into the
anarchy that prevailed before. Israeli
troops drove the PLO out in 1982.
_
“Syria
is caught between two aLi
liances. Both are imperative—Amalt.
in Lebanon and Iran
in the region.
But these two allies are confronting
one another
in an explosive area of;
red lines for Syria,” Beidoun said in
‘
discussing
Syria’s
predicament
in
southern Lebanon.
. ^
The Amal official noted that feud-
ing wings in the Tehran leadership,
mainly dovish parliamentary speaker
Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani on one
:
side and the more radical Ayatollah -
Hossein Ali Montazeri and Interior
, t
Minister
Ali Akbar Mohtashemi on 11
the other, added to the complexity of‘8
Iran's involvement in Lebanon.
*
“What
Iran
failed
to
achieve”
through
the
abduction
of
nine^
American
hostages
in
Lebanon
more spare parts for
its western-'-
supplied arsenal and the unfreezing,
of assets in the United States
it*V
will try to obtain through a new big
if
hostage:
southern
Lebanon,”^
Beidoun predicted.
f.
CPYRGHT
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Approved F~r Palrri fir rnftft/fwmTHTT/VT^f^^
Respite Kidnaping, U.S. to Stay With U.N. Unit, Reagan Says
—
0T=3
IIsTthYe^i
** •
No. 77
iPVRGFT
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Staff Writer
president
Reagan
said
yesterday
that
the
United States will not withdraw military officers
:rom the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon
Respite the kidnaping of Marine Lt. Col. William
Richard Higgins and threats of terrorism.
;
“We are going to meet our obligations to the
United Nations,” Reagan said during a photo ses-
sion in the Oval Office as he greeted West Ger-
man Chancellor Helmut Kohl. "You know I‘m not
Supposed to be taking questions here, but on this
particular subject
I feel that
I must straighten it
but.”
;
The president continued, “Of course we worry
because we
know
terrorists
throughout
the
world targeted us as one of their targets
”
i
The Pentagon acknowledged
late yesterday
that Higgins was a junior military aide to then-
Secretary
of Defense
Caspar W. Weinberger
from June 1985 until last June, when he was as-
signed to the U.N. observer group in Lebanon, a
Job acquaintances said he aggressively sought.
"
Pentagon spokesman Dan Howard said that as
an aide to Weinberger, Higgins worked with
f
variety of classified documents but was only “one
of 36 individuals who worked in the immediate
office of the secretary handling administrative
work.”
Iran-Linked Group
LEBANON, From Al
i
[Defense Department
officials
said they be
ijeved the two identification cards were authen|
be.
*
[President Reagan also said Friday
that th
ynited States will not withdraw military officer
from the U.N. peace-keeping force, despite Hid-
gins’ abduction. (Related story, Page A18.)]
* Higgins, 43, who heads the 75-man Lebano
§rqup of the United Nations Truce Supervisio
Organization, was seized by gunmen Wednesda A
&ree miles south of the port city of Tyre as h
;
|as driving by himself, behind another U.N. ca
J
In route from Tyre to U.N. troop headquartei
3i Naqurah, near the Israeli border.
* [The remaining unarmed
military
observe:
Serving with the group that Higgins headed hai
Iken withdrawn from
field operations and coi
Higgins, 43, of Woodbridge, was chief of the
75-member
U.N.
observer
group, when
kid-
naped Wednesday morning in southern Lebanon.
Pentagon officials issued the statement about
Higgins’ previous job, Howard said, because Ra-
dio Free Lebanon had broadcast a report in Ara-
bic quoting unnamed Amal Shiite Moslems as
saying Higgins had an “association with Weinber-
ger.”
Pentagon officials had asked news organiza-
tions to play down Higgins’ background out of
concern the information could possibly jeopar-
dize his return.
Howard said, however, that U.S. officials do
not believe the kidnaping
is related to Higgins’
past assignment with Weinberger.
Howard also said Higgins would not have been
barred from taking the U.N. assignment after
leaving the defense secretary's office.
“There was no restriction that was broken by
his accepting this assignment,” Howard said.
Defense Secretary Frank C. Carlucci said yes-
terday, “We are doing everything, possible” to
locate Higgins.
He added, “A lot of us in this building [the Pen-
tagon], myself included, know Col. Higgins, and
we certainly want to do everything possible to
get him out.”
Carlucci said that although the search for Hig-
gins is primarily a “U.N. responsbiJity, not a U.S.
government responsibility.
.
. we are concerned
about our people and we’ll work with the U.N. on
it.”
Carlucci
also
said
the
United Nations
“has
fanned its forces throughout the area looking for
him.”
Higgins, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam
war as an infantry officer, was serving a one-year
tour on
the
Lebanon
observer
group.Named
chief of the unit in January, he was to serve as'
chief until his tour ended in June.
,
..
Pentagon officials said Higgins’ wife, Marine
Maj. Robin Higgins, who works for the Defenses
Department
public
information
office, had
re-
ceived no news of any search results yesterday.
,
,
[In Delray Beach,
Fla., Robin
Higgins’
par-
)
ents, Norman and Rhoda Ross, expressed deep;
pessimism about their son-in-law’s situation, re-v
j
ported the Fort Lauderdale News & Sun Senti-
nel.
(“It’s been
difficult
to handle
this,” Norman
Ross said. “It’s taken away peace of mind.”
[“It’s very, very distressful,” said Rhoda Ross,
50, a retired teacher.
[Their daughter and Higgins met
in
officer,
training school in Quantico, and were married at
a military wedding, the Rosses said.
[When Higgins went to Lebanon last June, “It
was the first time in a long time” they had been
apart
on
separate
assignments,
Rhoda
Ross
said.]
Says It Seized Marine South of Tyre
fined
to
their U.N.
headquarters
in Naqurah,
U.N. spokesman Mario Zamorano said
in New
York.]
U.S. officials have denied that Higgins has links
with the CIA. U.N. Undersecretary General Mar-
rack Gouklmg repeated the denial again today. “We
don’t recruit spies and we don’t accept spies for
this job,” he told a group of journalists in Naqurah.
Shiite religious and political leaders
in south-
ern Lebanon
said yesterday
that
Higgins was
kidnaped because he was an American and not
because he was working as a U.N. observer.
He was wearing his U.S. Marine Corps uni-
form along with the U.N. insignia and blue beret
at the time of his abduction, 7
The moderate Shiite Amal militia has launched
a full-scale hunt for Higgins’ captors. A number
of pro-Iranian fundamentalist activists have been
rounded up
for
questioning and
eyewitnesses
interrogated, the sources said. Moslem security
sources in southern Lebanon said 10 members of
the Iranian-backed Hezbollah were detained in a
raid
in
rural
villages.
Hezbollah
claimed
ir^ a
statement reported on local radios that 150 of its
.
supporters had been stopped by Amal militiamen^
in the countryside.
v-‘
7.\
Today’s statement by the Organization of the
Oppressed
of
the
Earth
warned
the
United
,
States to stay out of Lebanon and
the Middle
|
East. “Our choice has made
it imperative for cs
to let out a deafening scream in America’s filtliy
face and to
tell the Americans: get out of our
country you criminal colonialists
... We don’t
want your help or your peace,” the statement
said.
The group has claimed it killed four Lebanese
Jews since 1985. Today
it paid special tribute to
the fight of Lebanon’s Shiite southerners against
Israeli occupation.
Group Says
It Holds
U.S. Marine
Iran-Linked Group
Accuses Higgins
Of Being CIA Spy
By Nora Boustany
^gedahoTljeWash^
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R0004000400(Jf’
BEIRUT,
Feb.
19—An
under-
ground group believed to have links
with Iran claimed responsibility to-
day
for
kidnaping
a
U.S.
Marine
colonel serving
with
U.N.
peace-
keeping forces in Lebanon and pro-
vided photocopies
of two
identifi-
cation cards bearing his photograph
as proof.
The
Organization
for
the
Op-
pressed of the Earth accused
Lt.
Col, William R. Higgins of being a
spy
for
the
Central
Intelligence
Agency who used the United Na-
tions in southern Lebanon as a cov-
er for his activities.
fin
Washington,
the
Pentagon
acknowledged
that
Higgins was
a
junior military assistant
to former
defense secretary Caspar W. Wein-
berger from 1985
until he was as-
signed to the U.N. observer group
in Lebanon last June.
[Pentagon
officials said they
re-
leased the information because Ra-
dio Free Lebanon had broadcast a
story
in
Arabic
quoting unnamed
Amal Shiite Moslems as saying Hig-
gins had an “association with Wein-
berger.”]
A
typewritten statement,
deliv-
ered to a western news agency
in
West
Beirut,
said
“William
Hig-
gins,an agent for America’s Central
Intelligence Agency, who
is
using
the activities of United Nations ob-
servers as a cover for his dangerous
role of espionage, is now in the grip
of our heroic smugglers."
Accompanying
the
statement
were photocopies of two identifica-
tion .cards. One card
{fiat showed
his picture and signature was a pass
for crossing the Israeli border as a
liaison officer attached to the Unit-
ed Nations. U.N. spokesman Timor
Goksel said the number on one of
the cards matched the number of a
card that had been issued to Hig-
[ins by the United Nations.
3 See LEBANON, A18, Coi 1
CPYRGHT
R<ffieLst ^^^0^^^DP96-0e789ROO<i
Three Years in the Belly of Beirut
A freed French hostage recounts the horrors ofhis captivity
ney weren
t numan
I
They were nonhuman.” That was
how French Journalist Jean-Paul Kauff-
mann. quoting fellow hostage Michel Seu-
rat, described the pro-Tranian Islamic Ji-
had
terrorists who held him hostage for
three years. The wrenching account of his
kidnaping, captivity and release appeared
last week
in L'Evenement du
mgSgSmmmt
Jeitdi, the French newsmaga-
zine Kauffmann worked
for
Ipir^
'
when
he
and
French
Re-
searcher Seurat were abduct-
Ik'
ed in May 1985.
|||k
a
The two men became hos-
Ji
tages by chance aft ^r missing
||||1 jf
'
a Beirut airport bus and decid-
ing
to
take
a
taxi. When a
|$J|i rj
Mercedes pulled alongside
llpiS Vv
and
ordered
them
to
stop,
ppM
^
they expected a robbery.
In-
stead
they were
forced
into
'
the back of the gunmen's car.
What
followed was
three
years of intimidation and psy-
chologic a l torture.
Kauffmann
For more than a year, the
^ chilling
hostages never saw daylight.
Their
only
diversion
was
reading
the
handful of books provided by their jailers;
Kauffmann
read War and Peace more
than 20 times. At one point, he and Seurat
listened while their Shihte captors spent
eight days torturing an Arab suspected of
being a
spy. When
it was
over,
Kauff-
man n’s jailer joked, “I damaged him a lit-
tle. He had two broken
ribs. We broke
both his legs. Finally he talked, and we set
him free.” Freedom, Kauffmann learned,
was a euphemism for death.
In one of the most bizarre episodes.
1985 with his wife and daughters in Bei-
rut, and then returned to the cell loadec
dow
r n with sociology books. It was the las
time he saw his family. A month later, h<
was deathly
ill with hepatitis. A Lebanese
Jewish doctor, Elie Hallat, who was also £
hostage, pleaded
in vain
for Seurat’s re
(V
;
Slip
Kauffmann waves the copy of War And Peace that he read fc
A chilling tale ofbrutality, intimidation and psychologi
ding
the
lease. As his condition worsened, a Shiht
sir jailers;
commander
volunteered
a
transfusion
ace more
“You
are becoming
a
Shi‘ite,” joked
<
nd Seurat
captor
after Seurat was given blood.
Ii
ors spent
fact,
the researcher was dying. By
thei
ipected of
French
Hostages
Marcel
Carton
am
r, Kauff-
Marcel Fontaine had been added
to th
him a lit-
group. “So
I am going to die,” Seurat tol<
Ye broke
his friends.
md we set
In March 1986, the Islamic Jihad an
i learned,
nounced that
it had “executed” Seurat.
I
seems
likely,
however,
that
he
sue
episodes,
cumbed, at 39, to his disease. But the jail
CPYRGHT
140004000 1 -3
ers told the hostages he was alive and re-
covering in a
hospital. Kauffmann
later
learned from a radio newscast that Hal-
!
lat, doomed by
his captors’
rabid
anti-
j
Semitism,
had
been
executed.
Kauff-
!
mann,
Carton
and
Fontaine
were
j
continually moved
from
apartment
to
j
apartment. At one point Kauffmann was
wrapped
in
bandages
like
a mummy,
>
sealed in a metal box and bolted under the
chassis of a truck. When he banged on the
side, he \^as told he would be shot. “Kill
me,” he snapped back. “It doesn't make
any difference ”
l
At another
point
Kauff-
mann anq pontaine were tied
I
? together and placed
in a cof-
|
fin. When
they were
let out
for
a
moment,
Fontaine
peered
under
his
blindfold
and saw that they were near a
cement factory. “They’re go-
ing
to
kill
us
here,
put our
bodies
in cement and dump
us in the sea,” said Fontaine.
Later Kauffmann and Fon-
ta ^ ne were P ut in a new ce ii
and chained like animals to a
spike in the floor.
.. B
When
Kauffmann,
after
•diversion
dozens of false hopes, was
fi-
’dl torture
nally about
to be
released,
a
guard
approached
and
told
him
it was
all
over. “What
does
that
mean?”
he
asked.
“Liberty,”
said
the
guard. Given the double meaning of that
word,
Kauffmann's
greatest
fears
and
hopes ricocheted through his emotions un-
til the last second of captivity. Driven to an
empty field, Kauffmann was joined there
by Carton and Fontaine. Arriving a few
minutes later at a hotel
in
Beirut, Kauff-
mann
heard
a
French
voice
shout,
“French
intelligence
services'
Clear
the
way, for God's sake!” The ordeal was final-
ly over.
—By William DowelJ/Parls
diversion
'a l torture .
Shiite Against Shiite
I
n the killing ground that is Beirut, where savage death has
become commonplace,
the
brawls between
this
faction
and that stopped making headline news long ago. But last
week’s clashes between the pro-Iranian Hizballah and
its
more moderate Shiite rival, the pro-Syrian Amal, were hor-
rific even by Lebanese standards. Tn
six days of warfare,
Hizballah
militiamen
drove
Amal
fighters out of large
portions of Bei-
rut’s
southern
suburbs.
Using
tanks,
mortars,
rockets
and
artillery,
the
k -
combatants blasted buildings to rubble
and sent civilians scurrying for refuge
carrying
their
belongings
on
their
backs. Snipers
fired
at anything
that
moved, including ambulances. At
some hospitals, fighters forced doctors
^
at gunpoint
to operate on wounded
colleagues, and battles broke out in the
i
.
,
/
•
'***.--:
corridors.
j
By the time a truce was declared
y
Thursday, at least 188 were dead and
Amal fighters defend
hundreds more wc
ole nee since Syria
1987. The
hostilit
fighters in control
mi. district of cro
‘ites. Fighting was
between Syrian P
dent Ali Khamem
tween Damascus
Amal fighters defend their turf
inded, making
it the worst eruption of vi-
i troops mo\ed into West Beirut in early
es
left the surprisingly strong Hizballah
uf 70% of the disputed territory, a
16-sq.-
vded slums that
is home to 250,000 Shi-
suspended after telephone consultations
esident Hafez Assad and Iranian Presi-
i. But the next day, the fragile alliance be-
nd Tehran was taxed as Hizballah fight-
ers broke
the
truce, drawing
Syrian
*
troops into the conflict.
[
The
victory
of
Hizballah
came
S after
it had suffered a series of mili-
tary
setbacks
in
ShTite-dominated
Southern Lebanon,
first at the hands
of Amal, then Israel, which
killed as
many as 40 of its guerrillas
in a raid
two weeks ago. Hi/.ballah's new pow-
er
will complicate
efforts
to
free
the
remaining
foreign
hostages
in
Lebanon, most of whom are thought
to be
held
in
the
Beirut suburbs by
kidnapers
with
ties
to
the
militant
Shidte faction.
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R00040004000
r|^vp^ |_|T
CPYRGHT-Manhunt for USA's 9th hostage
i
INQUIRY
T
PPYPP.I-IT
_L°
••
I
<6
-«j£
>>
>
If
‘
-CTTTKUm
PPYPriMT
H usa^oday
I
Topic: TERROR IN LEBANON
Abducted Marine
wanted family to
‘always be proud’
By Peter Johnson
and Robin Garr
USA TODAY
When William Higgins grad-
uated from Southern High
School
in
Louisville,
Ky.,
he
wrote
that
his
ambition was
“for my family
to always be
proud of me.”
Wednesday, when word
came that the 43-year-old Ma-
rine lieutenant colonel had
been
kidnapped
in
Lebanon,
his uncle said the USA should
be proud of him, too.
“He loves his country,” said
Delbert Eagle.
“I
don’t think
they could bring enough pres-
sure or pain to cause him to be-
tray his country in any way.”
Outgoing,
Higgins was cho-
sen one of the top 10 students in
high
school, played guard on
the Trojans football team and
was senior class vice president
Friends say the trim, 5-foot-
8-inch
Higgins
jogged
in
the
snow before it was fashionable.
They were surprised when
he
joined
the
Marines
after
graduating from Miami
Uni-
versity
of
Ohio
on
a
Navy
ROTC scholarship.
“You think of the Marines as
being macho-types, and he
really wasn’t,” said high school
buddy Rudy Fischer.
Eagle, 86, said Higgins was
more studious than athletic —
a boy who “liked to hunt and
fish and romp in the woods.”
Higgins’ wife, Robin, is a Ma-
rine major at the Pentagon. He
has a daughter, Christine Lynn,
17, by a previous marriage.
Higgins’ father was near
death Wednesday
with
heart
failure,
too
ill
to understand
what had happened to his son.
The kidnapping, 1A, 7A
I h irsrr *
-
-
Defense Department fife photo via UPI
i
MIDEAST AMBUSH: Marine Lt Col. William Higgins
is the first
||J.S. serviceman to be kidnapped in Lebanon.
Captive part of peacekeeping efforts
Uey
questions —
and
an-
swers —
on
United
Nations
peacekeeping activities
in the
Middle
East and
the Middle
East peace process.
What was
Marine
Lt.
Col.
William Higgins doing when
he was ktfiappad?
He was acting as chief of the
U.N. observer force
in Leba-
non,
a 75-member group
charged with keeping an eye
on often conflicting groups —
such as the Shiite Amai. Pales-
tinian refugees and
Israeli-
backed Christian militia — and
noting signs of trouble.
How many
U.N.
observers
operate hi the area?
There
are
three
different
U.N. peacekeeping groups
there: the U.N. Interim Force
in Lebanon,
with about 5,800
people;
the
U.N.
Disengage-
ment Force, with 1,330 people;
and
the U.N. Truce
Supervi-
sion Organization, with 295
people. Higgins’ group belongs
to UNTSO.
How many
U.S. servicemen
are
involved
and what
do
they do?
The United States has 35 citi-
zens serving in truce supervi-
sion organization, none
in the
other forces. About half spend
most of their time at the
group’s headquarters
in Jeru-
salem while the others are in
Lebanon. They do
not carry
arms and largely have been re-
sponsible for liaison-type activ-
ities.
What else is going on In the
search for peace
in the re-
gion?
CPYRGHT
CPYRGHT
—
ing
to revive the “peace pro-
cess”
for ending violence be-
tween Palestinians and Israeli
soldiers in the West Bank and
Gaza Strip, seized by Israel in
the 1967 Middle East war.
Is there any relationship be-
tween these U.N. peacekeep-
ing forces and the current
U.S.-backsd
diplomatic
of-
fensive?
There
is no direct
relation-
8y Marty Baumann. USA TODAY
ed seriously that U.N. forces at-
tempt to stop protests by Pales-
tinians against
Israeli
rule
in
the occupied territories.
ship, no one has even
- Don Kirk
The
United
Nations’
5,800-
man
peace-keeping
force
in
Lebanon Wednesday mounted
one of the largest operations in
its
10-year
history,
hoping
to
find a kidnapped U.S. Marine.
U.N. troops are scouring
southern Lebanon
for Lt Col.
William Higgins, the USA’S
ninth hostage in Lebanon,
spokesman Timur Goksel says.
“We
are
using
helicopters,
we have blocked off the roads,
we have patrols, we are follow-
ing up all the tips,” Goksel tells
USA TODAY. He says mem-
bers of the nine-nation interim
force
are
covering
southern
Lebanon in “battalions.”
The White House and Penta-
gon are at a loss to explain the
kidnapping.
President
Reagan Wednes-
day said, “We’re still investigat-
ing”; White House spokesman
Robert Hall said, “We will hold
the kidnappers responsible for
his safety.”
Higgins,
43, was yanked
from his jeep — painted white
with black U.N. lettering — af-
ter falling behind another U.N.
vehicle 10 miles north of the Is-
raeli border. He had assumed
command a month ago
of a
special 75-member, unarmed
U.N. Observer Force.
Goksel says Higgins, a veter-
an of two combat tours in Viet-
nam and winner of a bronze
star, had just
left “a pleasant
conversation” with the leader
of the Shiite Amal militia in the
Lebanese coastal city of Tyre,
45 miles south of Beirut
The best lead: Two villagers
saw two men push Higgins into
a vehicle and speed away.
U.N.’s role m Lebanon, 4A
Profile of Higgins, 4A
USA’s hostages, 7A
CPYRGHT
Robert Kupperman,
52,
is a senior adviser at
the
Center for Strategic and In-
ternational Studies, a non-
partisan think tank
in
Washington, D.C. He has
written
several
books,
in-
cluding two on
terrorism,
and has served as an advis-
er on
counterterrorism
to
the
National
Security
Council. Kupperman
was
interviewed
by USA
TO-
DAY’S Paul McMasters
and Barbara Reynolds.
Robert Kupperman
Kidnappers often plan
for weeks in advance
USA TODAY: William Hig-
gins, the Marine colonel kid-
napped Wednesday in Leba-
non,
is the
first UR. hostage
taken in a year. Why haven’t
there been more?
KUPPERMAN:
There
are
really two reasons. One is that
there are fewer American tar-
gets.
But the most important
thing is that after the Iran-con-
tra matter, we really are living
up to our anti-terrorism policy.
That
is, no concessions to ter-
rorists. So
it hasn’t been
that
profitable for them.
USA TODAY:
What
does
that mean?
KUPPERMAN:
These
are
not inexpensive
matters. The
kidnappers have
to take care
of people. They have to deal
with
their
captives’
physical
isolation and their hea lth.
USA TODAY: So hostageJ
are a liability, toa
KUPPERMAN: The
hos-
tage-takers
are
in
a
double
bind. If they start to kill off the
hostages, we would go in
mili-
tarily. On the other hand, if our
intelligence sources learn thai
the hostages are being reason
ably treated, we’re very unlike-
ly
to do much. The terrorists
will gain nothing.
USA
TODAY:
Then
wfayl
don’t they just let the hostages!
go?
KUPPERMAN; There
is
a|
pride of ownership
that
they
have. I don’t think the hostages
I
will be released very soon.
Peacekeeping force p
Brian
Urquhart, a
scholar-in-resi-
dence with the Ford Foundation, de-
scribes hostage IX Col William Hig-
gins as “courageous* and says Higgins’
job is “vital to peace in Lebanon.”
Urquhart was assigned to the Unit-
ed Nations for 41 years. He served as
UK undersecretary general for
years with responsibility' for all UK
peacekeeping forces.
Urquhart says the U.N. Truce Su-
pervision Organization, where Lt Col.
William Higgins wad
sponsible for “patroand
peace, to talk to eveiirbldy, to go be-
armed. They’re very
c< people, they
do
a
terrific
job,
ai
i
hey’re very
proud of
it
It
requi es very steady
nerves,” he skys,
f
Urquhart
describe
] sacekeeping
CPYRGHT
USA TODAY: Who are
these terrorists?
KUPPERMAN: The Hezbol-
lah is a Shiite organization with
close ties to Iran and some ties,
by contrast
with
Syria. They
have been engaged
in terror-
ism —
hostage-taking,
for ex-
ample.
With
that
and
their
fights with leaders of Lebanese
factions led by Nabih Berri and
Walid Jumblatt, they have cre-
ated an atmosphere more
characteristic
of
factionalism
and terrorism than of any orga-
nized military structure.
USA TODAY: Are most of
these groups tied to Iran?
KUPPERMAN: I don’t think
there’s any question about
it
That doesn’t mean they don’t
act somewhat
independently,
that
they
aren’t semi-autono-
mous. But they have tremen-
dous allegiance to Iran.
A\fy
USA TODAY: Higgins was
part of a UK peacekeeping
force that presumably could
have used soldiers from other
countries. Did he really need
to be there?
KUPPERMAN: There are a
variety of military assign-
ments, one of which involves a
U.N.-like military post, that are
longerons. We undertake dan-
gerous missions from time
to
ime.
Diplomats
in
Lebanon
mdertake
severe
risks,
and
jeople clearly associated with
he CIA take more risks than
mybody.
USA TODAY: What do the
LA. forces do there? Do they
pave an impact?
KUPPERMAN: They are
nore symbolic than anything
ilse. They are effective
if one
ooks at the need for some sym-
bol
of international
influence.
Mpiomatically,
it’s potentially
omewhat effective in terms of
s ability to actually engage in
refights.
USA TODAYg Why
would
Higgins be takef? Was he Just
a target of oppc tunity?
KUPPERM/
M;
That’s
al-
ways
possible.
But
most
of
these groups dc a
lot of plan-
ning for weeks, rerrorist inci-
dents are not
( )ne purely
in
isolation — not
< ily the politics
involved
but a »
the groups
that do this hav
got to en^ge
in tactical planring If Col. Hig-
gins’ abduction!follows
in the
path
of
others) then
he
will
have been observed for quite
some time.
\
USA
TODAV:
There
are
those who say we should not
have anyone in Lebanon.
What do you say to them?
KUPPERMAN: I don’t think
the UR government as a gov-
ernment can afford to cower. It
needs to have some diplomatic
and
military presence
in
a
country where we
still have
some need fora substantial re-
lationship. And ala) in terms of
our
ability
to exercise some
control over the region and fur-
ther the listening posts for in-
telligence purposes.
USA TODAY: Do other
countries deal with hostages
the same way the USA does?
KUPPERMAN: Most of the
policies are identical, but the
question is How much do they
live up
to those policies?
It’s
clear that we had for the long-
est time an anti-terrorism poli-
cy, and the strongest one was
where we wouldn’t even talk to
the terrorists, when Henry Kis-
singer was secretary of state.
USA
TODAY: What
hap-
pened to that?
KUPPERMAN:
It was
re-
laxed. Now we have one where
we will not grant any substan-
tive or meaningful concessions
at this point in time. What this
says is that you can have a poli-
cy, yet you can violate Jt dra-
w
matically.
In
the case
of the
Iran-contra
matter, clearly
in
the swap of hostages for weap-
ons, we violated our own policy
very substantially.
USA TODAY: Was the vio-
lation worth
it?
KUPPERMAN: We endured
a lot of internal trauma and we
came out behind. We washed
our dirty linen before the
whole world. There’s no ques-
tion it damaged our credibility
with our
allies.
I think we’ve
probably recovered from it be-
cause
the
incident
occurred
long enough ago
that people
are now bored with iL
USA TODAY: Do you think
there’s any chance
that the
USA might be willing to trade
arms for hostages?
KUPPERMAN:
I assume
that
there
are
lunatics,
and
anyone who would assume that
would be a lunatic.
USA TODAY: How
should
we react to this kidnapping?
KUPPERMAN:
I think our
reaction ought to be at two lev-
els: doing all we can by intelli-
gence means, diplomatic
means to try to save Col. Hig-
gins from
a
very
unpleasant
time, at least —
to learn what
the
demands
are,
to
under-
stand the politics of
it and the
individual
grievances
of
the
particular organization
in-
volved. But most importantly,
I
think, the UR. government has
to lay the law. down in terms of
telling the American public it’s
dangerous there, and that the
UR.
is not going to give in to
bandits.
USA TODAY: Do you think
that CoL Higgins might face a
tougher time
of
it
because
he’s a military man?
KUPPERMAN:
It’s
always
possible.
I just hope he’s treat-
ed well.
ovides regionfs only stability
>JSr,pE.‘-
to keep the
tween the factions a:
f
things quiet”
Urquhart
calls
ft
force courageous. ~T ie} are
all um
“You would have
Urt
as a method of conflict ct
"Just next aoor
Lebanon,
'
where Hi^ins was
kidnapped, we
on both sift
try to keep
have a force in the Golan
I
tween Syria and Isra^f’:
'apHNBU
He says if ifte force
;re removed,
t
We:
what’s i
mies in the area -eyeball to eyebalL
Both those countries have a
,
ship with the two sjiperpower^^^^
tional force
Even
if peacekeeping forces don’t
bility that
solve the problem, they contain it, in
Tit.;;.
i, have huge armies
tdy’s been killed
iM very volatile
pon't think it’s as dan-
rirut, but you never
g to happen there.
1 5,000-man intema-
‘ a is the only sta-
^7 Don Kirk
USA
1 QDAY
IHURSDAY.
F EBRUARY IB, 1988- 7A
The other eight
held in Lebanon
Terry Anderson, corre-
spondent
for
Associated
Press, was kidnapped
March 16, 1985.
Edward Tracy, a writer
from Vermont who was liv-
ing in Beirut, was abducted
Oct. 21, 1986.
Thomas Sutherland,
agri-
Jesse Turner, a math
in-
cutture dean
at American
structor at Beirut University
University
of
Beirut, was
College, was kidnapped
seized June 9, 1985.
Jan. 24, 1987
Frank Herbert Reed, direc-
tor
of
Lebanese
Interna-
tional School, was kid-
napped Sept. 9, 1986.
Robert
Pothill, a business
professor at Beirut Univer-
sity
College, was
seized
Jan. 24, 1987.
Joseph
Cicippio, comp-
troller at American Univer-
sity
in
Beirut, was
kid-
napped Sept 12, 1986.
Alarm Steen, a journalism
professor at Beirut Univer-
sity College, was
kid-
napped Jan. 24, 1987.
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
: CIA-RDP96-00789R000400040001-3
CPYRGHT
USA
: ClA-RDIf96-00789R000400040001 -3
m® ©Eta
1 ©iguDt
held M IL©tan©sa
,
-ti
/
.
'
%f a
Thomas Sutherland,
agri-
Jesse Turner, a math
in-
culture dean
at Americar
structor at Beirut University
University
of
Beirut,
was
College, was kidnapped
seized June 9, 1985.
Jan. 24, 1987.
\h
:£f. \
Frank Herbert Reed, direc-
tor
of
Lebanese
Interna-
tional School, was kid-
napped Sept. 9, 1986.
VU-.
\u UUI
, wmm.
yj
W1/
^
Robert
Polhlll, a business
professor at Beirut Univer-
sity
College,
was
seized
Jan. 24, 1987.
K-
r.
..
v
f t:
,
.
•
,& v
f
•
-f.
;
j
LT. COL WILLIAM
I IIGGIL'S
Ik
from csr by gun;non
j::3
Sffsslagil
iJ
t Li
L Oj*
Y AXelfi
chiaf-Middle Eastcorre, _
J—
syipndent~o i -The AssociatedTress. Kidnapped -
s
^
-Marcias. TSB5.
I — Thomas Sutherland, 56, agriculture dean at the
|
.American University of Beirut. June 9, 19S5.
I \$s Frank Reed, 55, director of the Lebanon Interna-
i
tional School in Beirut. Sept. 9, 19S6.
—
Joseph CiOtppIO, 57, acting controller of the
|
American University of Beirut. Sept. 12, 1986.
j
Edward Tracy, 57, author. Oct. 21, 1986.
£ Josse Turner, 40, visiting professor of mathe-
mntics and computer science at Beirut Univer-
£
sity College. Jan. 24, 1987.
Robert Polilllf, 53, assistant professor of busi-
ly ness at Beirut University College. Jan. 24, 19S7.
‘r’ Alann Steen, 48, journalism professor at Beirut
,^lJniversitv College. Jan. 24, 1987.
(O
Marine Lt. Col. Wi}liara ijisgins. 43,headof a U.N.
V— observer group attached t^th^^
JQ
Force in Lebanon. Feb
, -17,1988,^-
^
Joseph
Cicippio. comD-
Alann Steen, a journalism
trcl-.r ?AlW*W£e(
t£IAeRD
sity
in
Beirut, was kid-
I
si ty College, was
kid -
napped Sept
12, 1985.
napped Jan. 24, 1987.
Illll 1 '3