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nctois Post
CPYRGHT
l_±^
FridaY) December 2, 1988 E5
JACK ANDERSON and DALE VAN A1TA
Swap of Spies, Hostages in the Works?
A
merican traitor Jonathan Jay Pollard and his
wife may be released from a U.S. prison and
sent to Israel in a three-way trade that could
mean freedom for one or more of the American
hostages in Lebanon.
U.S. intelligence sources tell us that the White
House and State Department are engineering the
swap, which also may involve a top Soviet spy who
has been secretly imprisoned in Israel for five
years.
Here is how the complicated trade would work:
The United States would send Pollard and his wife,
Anne Henderson Pollard, to Israel. Israel would
release a captured Soviet spy to the Soviet Union.
As the last link in the chain, the Soviet Union would
lean on Syria and Iran to negotiate the release of
one or more American hostages being held by
terrorists. Syria and the Soviet Union are allies,
and Syria controls Lebanon.
The Soviets are desperate enough for the release
of their spy, Marcus Klingberg, to consider pulling
some strings for U.S. hostages. Klingberg is
believed to have entered Israel as a Jewish
"immigrant” and then penetrated Israeli military
intelligence for the Soviet Union. His career as a
spy ended in 1983 when he was arrested by Israeli
counterintelligence. Klingberg's coup in
penetrating the inner workings of Israeli
intelligence and his arrest have been kept a secret
from the Israeli people and the world.
Pollard, an American citizen, is serving a life
prison term in-the United States for spying on the
United States for Israel from 1984 to 1985. His
wife is serving a five-year term as an accessory.
The Israeli government, embarrassed that it was
caught spying on the United States, claimed thatU
Pollard was part of a renegade operation. Israel lias
consistently denied any interest in having Pollard
released. But our sources say Israeli officials have >
been working behind the scenes, to get Pollard out.
The Justice Department, which has jurisdiction
v
.
over Pollard, has refused to consider a swap, so the
Israelis turned to the State Department and White
House to try to cut a deal.
-
‘
Two experts in the art of spy-swapping have
been recruited to make the arrangements—East
Berlin lawyer Wolfgang Vogel and an American
rabbi in New York.
Anne Pollard's father, public relations executive
Bernard Henderson, has led the public campaign in
the United States for the release of the Pollards
and has made much of the fact that his daughter is
suffering from a stomach disorder.
If the three-way swap is carried out, it is likely
that only the Pollards' side of the triangle will be
t acknowledged publicly. The United States could
explain the release of Anne Pollard as a
humanitarian gesture. The release of Jonathan* ^
Pollard would be harder to finesse* It would be the
first time a U.S.-born citizen and traitor was turned
over to another country.
,
v
’
Pollard gave the Israelis more than 1,000
ciassified'documents, and more th£n 800 of those
were top secret. His revelations included
intelligence about Syrian and Iraqi chemical
weapons, Palestine Liberation Organization radar
systems and Libyan air defenses.**
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CPYRGHT
Approved For Release 2000/08/08
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(a(?l'^GHT
The Washington Post
Wednesday, April 20, 1988 A29-
3 Iranian Mines Found: U.S. Shi
orts Silkworms Fired Monday
By Molly Moore
Washington Post Staff Writer
long
hostilities, Defense Department
offi-
cials said,
r
They identified the missing Cobra crew-
men as Capt. Stephen C.
Lfeslie,
30, and
Capt.
Kenneth
W.
Hill,
32,
assigned
to
Squadron HMLA-167
base<
at
the New
River, N.C., Marine Corps A r Station.
Pentagon officials said the re were no re-
ports of hostile fire
in the
; rea where the
Cobra was conducting patro’
> Monday. The
helicopter was reported miiing after dark
when it was 40 minutes late returning to its
base on
the
guided
missile
cruiser USS
base on
the
guided
missile
cruiser USS
Wainwright.
|
Iranian officials reported jthat 15 of their
sailors were killed and 29 wounded in Mon-
day's clashes.
f
A French minesweeper discovered three
additional mines yesterday as an
interna-
tional mine-hunting force continued comb-
ing the
central
gulf area where
the
U.S.
frigate USS Samuel B. Roberts hit a mine
Thursday, ripping a nine-foot gash in its hull
and injuring 10 crewmen.
Pentagon spokesman Howard
said
yes-
terday
that American, Dutch and French
vessels
have
found
eight
Iranian
mines
since then, excluding the one struck by the
Roberts.
“All are new and recently laid," he said,
adding that serial numbers have
identified
all of the mines as recently manufactured
Iranian
weapons. He
said
it
is unknown
whether
the
additional mines
have
been
sown since Friday.
Howard said Pentagon analysts are
sift-
ing through reports that are pouring in from
U.S. units involved in Monday's gulf battles.
Many of the details remain confusing and
contradictory, officials said.
The
most
controversial
issue
involves
reports from the
officers
of the Williams
that their radars tracked five Silkworm mis-
siles fired from Iran at three U.S. warships
that had exchanged missile attacks with the
Iranian
frigate SaApprmt®d lfioifi(EMe«sfs
e
the gulf.
*•
+ nf the r
^
worm attack was supplied by a pool of U.S.
reporters who were aboard the Williams,
but Pentagon officials say they have no pos-
itive proof that any Silkworms were fired.
The journalists'
pool reported
that
five
times the call went up on the bridge of the
Williams:
“Silkworm
incoming!"
after
the
ship's
radar
detected
the
missiles.
Each
time the frigate turned violently to put its
stern to the oncoming missile and fire metal
particles called chaff into the air to confuse
the missile’s radar guidance system.
“Everybody look astern! Everybody look
astern!" Lt. Augustino Ponturier, the officer
of the deck, shouted.
None of the first four missiles were close
enough
to be observed
visually from
the
Williams, according to reports. But the re-
ported fifth attack sent crewmen sprawling
flat on the deck as a missile crossed astern
of the ship and slammed into a nearby oil rig
with an orange-yellow flash.
Adm. William J. Crowe Jr., chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told President Rea-
gan and Republican leaders during a White
House briefing yesterday that “we have no\
positive evidence to indicate that Silkworms
were used," Howard reported.
He said the Williams and the other ships
in its group “were operating well within the
envelope
[range]
of
the
Silkworms.
Any
ship operating in such a circumstance that
gets a track on the scope has to assume a
worst-case scenario."
Pentagon
sources
steid
U.S.
reconnais-
sance aircraft patrolling over the Strait of
Hormuz detected no activity at known Silk-
worm
sites.
Officials noted
that
Iran has
never before fired Silkworm missiles from
its mobile launch sites along the Strait of
Hormuz, with the exception of one known
test-firing.
It
has
launched
several
Silk-
worms
from
the Faw
Peninsula
at
the
northern tip of the gulf—one of which hit an
American-flagged Kuwaiti tanker
last Oc-
ASSOCIATED PRESS
USS Wainwright takes part in search for helicopter that failed to return from a patrol Monday.
two
oil platforms at the Rostam field a
later.
Pentagon
officials speculated that in the
heat of battle the skipper and crew of the
Williams may hava misidentified the mis-
siles. The Chinesebuilt Silkworm
is essen-
tially the same weapon as the Soviet Styx
missile,
which
Inn
has
been
known
to
launch from surface ships.
Officials noted that half a dozen different
types of missiles md other weapons were
fired by both sides in a sea-and-air melee
that involved the Williams and two other
U.S.- ships, U.S. A5 attack planes, and two
of Iran's biggest varships, the sister frig-
ates Sabalan and Sahand.
Army Maj. Barr/ Willey of the U.S. Cen-
v;ho
was
accomPanying
journlists
aboard -he
Williams,
described
the scene from
the flying bridge atop the
ship as “both spectacular and frightening,"
adding that contrails from missiles could be
seen in all directions.
The Pentagon reported that the Sabalan
fired a surface-to-surface missile at the Wil-
liams and antiaircraft missiles at A6s from
the USS Enterprise. The planes responded
by dropping laser-guided bombs that hit the
Iranian ship, disabling it.
The Sabalan was reported in port yester-
day. Officials said
it
is believed to be seri-
ously damaged.
Meanwhile,
the Sahand was
struck ,by
laser-guided bombs and Harpoon
antiship
missiles from the A6s, and a Harpoon from
the USS Strauss, a frigate. Left a smoking
wreck, the Sahand “has disappeared” and is
presumed sunk, Howard said.
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T
T\
•
/
Iran Breaks Diplomatic Ties With Britain
Tehran Attacks British ‘Treachery,’ Cites Need to Defend Islam
/PYRGHT
By Jonathan C. Randal
Washington Post Foreign Service
LONDON,
March
7—Iran
se-
vered
diplomatic
relations
with
Britain today
at
the
expiration
of
Tehran's week-long grace
period,
during
which
the
two
countries
failed
to resolve
their three-week
dispute over British author Salman
Rushdie's
novel
"The
Satanic
Verses.”
In fiery language that echoed of
the
religious
fervor
that powered
Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, the
nation's
Foreign
Ministry
an-
nounced the rupture in a statement
that simultaneously accused Britain
of treacheries dating back centuries
and proclaimed
Iran
a
global pro-
tector of Islamic honor.
"In the past two centuries Britain
has been
in the front line of plots
and
treachery
against
Islam
and
Moslems,” the
ministry statement
said,
reiterating a view of British
manipulation
in Iranian affairs that
has been common in Iran since the
late
shah Mohamed Reza
Pahlavi
was ousted a decade ago.
"The Foreign Ministry considers
itself not just the executor” of; Iran-
ian foreign policy, the announdment
added, “but
in a
larger scope the
executor and protector of th^ for-
eign
policy
of
the
Islamic
world
against blasphemy and thus regards
defending Islam and its values as a
divine and legal responsibility.*
•
A British Foreign Office spokes-
man said today the government had
not yet received formal notification
of the Iranian action. That notifica-
tion would likely come by way of the
Swedish Embassy, which now .rep-
resents British interests In Tehran.
The spokesman added that the For-
eign Office would “make known its
response in due course.”
Britain
withdrew
its
five-man
:
staff
from
the
Tehran
embassy,
l
which had resumed normal opera-
!
tions only last November, after the
12-nation
European
Community
pulled out its top envoys from Iran
to protest an order of death against
Rushdie
that was
pronounced
by
Ayatollah
Ruhollah
Khomeini,
the
Iranian spiritual leader.
The British Foreign Office spokes-
man
sai(^ "the present situation was
entirely of ; Iran'$ making,” had been
"vigorously condemned
around
the
world” and “made
it
impossible
to
conduct normal business.”
Today's
announcement
seemed
to confirm the Iranian Foreign Min-
II charges in Iran for three years'
istry s
political
accedence
to
th^rll*^ [Reuter
reported
that
Jc
hard-line
policies of Islamic funda-
II Waite, cousin of Church of Engl
mentalists in the governnment. The
fundamentalists
have
used
the
Rushdie
crisis
to reinvigorate
the
Islamic
;
' revolution,
which
was
drained
by
Iran's
eight-year war
with
Iraq, and have attempted
to
prevent any diplomatic openings to
the WesU
' :u>
Khomeini
first
invoked
Iran's
claims to pan-Islamic responsibilities
on Feb. 14 when he issued the
decree against Rushdie, whose
he
declared
a
blasphemy
a
Islam.
Last week,
British
Foreign
retary Geoffrey Howe, in an eff
defuse the'crisis, criticized the
as "offensive” to Moslems, the
ish government and many Br
Iran, however, rejected the ge
as insufficient to
lift the death
tence against Rushdie, who ren
in hiding under police protectic
Britain.
The first consequence of the
lomatic
' break
with
Britain
Iran's refusal
to allow a prom
consular
visit today
to 53-year
businessman
Roger
Cooper,
\
has
been
detained
on
spy
envoy Terry Waite, who vanished
Beirut in 1987 and
is believed ht
by
pro-Iranian
kidnapers,
said
sympathized
with
Moslems
(
| fended by the book.
["But no one could condone
tl
order to kill Rushdie,” Waite said,
don't see that the British goverr
ment could have acted in any othe
way over this.”]
CPYRGHT
CKYKCiH
I
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se 2000/08/08
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.
<f
<f
One Peace-Keeper Not Free to Celebrate
By Richard Homan
Washington Post Foreign Service
While most of the 10,000 U.N.
peace-keeping
troops
were
cel-
ebrating their Nobel Peace Prize
yesterday, one of the forces' high-
est-ranking
American
members,
Marine
Lt.
Col. William
R.
Hig-
gins, was in his 226th day of cap-
tivity in the Middle East.
Higgins,
of Woodbrjdge,
Va.,
was kidnaped
last Feb.
17 near
Tyre,
in
southern
Lebanon,
where he was serving as head of a
76-member
unit
of
the
U.N.
Truce Supervision Organization.
U*
officials and Higgins' fam-
ily used
the
occasion
of
the
an-
nouncement
yesterday
to
renew
demands that his captors free him.
Higgins'
sister,
Mary
Fisher,
told United Press International
in
Louisville, Ky., "I hope this proves
to them
that
they are
holding
a
man who was on a peace mission.
We have been praying hard since
my
brother
was
abducted. We
hope this Nobel prize will bring an
answer to our prayers."
Higgins'
captors— he
Organ-
ization
the
Oppressed, on
gactb^acoused him
of using
his
U.N. post as a cover for U.S. es-
pionage,
a charge U.S. and U.N.
officials have strongly denied.
Higgins, 43, was seized by gun-
men who ambushed
his U.N. ve-
hicle after he left a meeting with a
senior official of the Shiite Moslem
Amal group, Amal officials said.
The U.N. group
in which Hig-
gins served
since June 1987 was
formed in 1948 to supervise armi-
stice
agreements between
Israel
and Arab
countries.
Earlier
Hig-
gins
served
here
and
lived
in
IIIIIIK
te;--:',
- r-: :iri
k
& *«JTvV
vf
'
•
. 3
R^nGGINS
. .
. 226th day as hostage
I
'
;
Woodbridge with his wife, Marine
Maj.
Robin
Higgins, who
is
as-
signed to the Pentagon,
i
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