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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 CHICAGO SUN TIMES SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM -- 26 JUNE 1984 21 May 1984 Pg. 7 Police HO a terrorist pushover—hice The headquarters of the Chi- cago Police Department is prob- ably the least secure against ter- rorists of any major police head- quarters building in the nation. That warning was sounded by Police Supt. Fred Rice in letters sent to Cook County Board members Jan. 20. Rice’s letter asked that the five Circuit Court branches in the building be moved as part of a plan to tighten security by limiting public access to upper floors. But after four months, he has received no official reply from the board despite the ur- gent tone of his correspondence. After obtaining a copy of the letter from a County Board source, we checked with Rice. He confirmed. he’d sent it and had received no formal reply. The letter notes, “As you may be aware, the emergency com- munication network for the City of Chicago, ie., its lifeline, the 911 [emergency phone] system, is located in the James J. Rior- dan Headquarters Building, 1121 S. State.” In the letter, Rice observed The Terrorist Threat to America @ Washington, May 6 — Assistant FBI Director Oliver B. Revell says that the Bureau is actively investiga- ting 19 U.S.-based groups suspected of terrorist activities and is cooperating with foreign intelligence and law en- forcement agencies to monitor 15 to 25 other terrorist groups. on the inter- national scene. Noting the difficulty in gauging the size of the terrorist threat, Revell says that “most often the groups are small, cellular, for se- curity purposes... . Terrorist move~ ments are not mass movements... . But the support apparatus can be ex- tensive.” He says that “the United States is the most vulnerable. . . country from the standpoint of size and constitutional guarantees. Inter- nationally, we're the target of more The Review of the NEWS Art Petacque & ‘Hugh Hough that Chicago police are keeping abreast of the terrorism problem and the efforts of other depart- ments to combat it. “In that light,” the letter says, “the Chi- cago Police Department Head- quarters facility is probably the least secure facility of any de- partment of a major city.” The letter says the primary reason for the lack of security is “public accessibility” to the headquarters building due to the presence of the courts. Rice’s letter says the head- quarters building was checked than 40 percent of all terrorist activi- ties.” Robert. Kupperman, a terrorism expert at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies, agrees that “this nation is extremely vulnerable, catastrophically vulner- able, to even a small terrorist attack. We are a nation of entwined networks and have little redundancy. If you hit three or four key components of the electrical power system you can knock out a section of the country for three to four weeks. There are no replace- ment parts.... There are similar problems in natural gas delivery.” More Threats From Libya's Qaddafl @ Tripoli, May 2 — Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi threatens to hurt the United States and Britain for harboring opponents of his regime. At a news conference, Qaddafi says 16 May 1984 on a floor-by-floor basis by “se- lected law enforcement adminis- trators and individuals knowl- edgeable in building manage- ment.”” They recommended removal of the courtrooms. That recommendation was concurred in by the department’s own Building and Safety Committee, which included First Deputy Supt. John J. Jemilo and Depu- ty Supt.” Matt Rodriguez, the committee chairman. The letter was sent after Je- milo and Rodriguez returned from London, where they ex- changed information on terror- ism with Scotland Yard. Rice sent them to Britain to represent the department at the funeral of two police officers slain in a terrorist incident earli- er this year. . FOOTNOTE: County Board Finance Committee Chairman John Stroger, reached yesterday, reviewed the letter and said the terrorism problem is so wide- spread he will consider making Rice’s request a top priority. that Britain and the United States are “harboring Libyan terrorists wanted by Interpol. Wherever we can hurt them, we shall hurt them. Every coun- try has its sensitive spots.” He accuses Britain of planting the weapons and spent shells found in a search of the evacuated Libyan Embassy in London and says that “this is barbarism that has no precedent. There is no compari- son between the behavior of Libya and the behavior of the British, be- cause we are civilized and they are barbaric, as is America.” Qaddafi al- so says that he might increase aid to Irish Republican Army terrorists, de- claring that “if Britain is dealing with masked terrorists and stray dogs who have escaped from Libyan law, how can we not be expected to meet honest and honorable leaders of the IRA?” Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5