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May 1984 Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 SPECIAL EDITION -- TERRORISM -- 26 JUNE 1984 group had been planning attacks on US targets and West German politicians and that the group was most probably respon- sible for the assassination attempt on US Gen. Alexander Haig in Brussels in June 1979—an assessment based on the dis- covery of detailed plans for the operation in one of the caches. These were the most significant successes West German au- thorities had enjoyed against ths RAF since the arrests in the early 1970s of the organization's founders. That the RAF was able to recover from the earlier blow is otten cited as the chief reason it should not be counted out now. German authorities also made consider- able progress in countering rightwing ter- rorism last year. Police in Berlin contiscat- ed guns, munitions, pamphlets, uniforms, and other supplies from the homes of suspected members of the German Work- ers Youth, a successor group to the Peo- ple’s Socialist Movement that was out- lawed in January 1982 because of its neo-Nazi status. Officials stated that sus- pected group members had participated in maneuvers and apparently were forming a paramilitary organization. State-Supported international Terrorism In 1982 some countries continued to sup- port international terrorist groups or en- gage in terrorist attacks to influence poli- cies of other countries, to establish or strengthen regional or global influence, and, in some cases, to eliminate or terror- ize dissident exiles and nationals from ad- versary countries. Since 1980 a large num- ber of international terrorist attacks — primarily assassinations—have been car- ried out by and for governments. Such attacks have proved to be an efficient method of achieving limited goals with very little repercussion. Our records for the past decade list 140 terrorist incidents conducted directly by national governments, but this tigure al- most certainly understates the importance of state-sponsored terrorism, Nearly 90 percent of the incidents occurred in 1980, 1981, and 1982, and more than one-third were assassinations or attempted assassi- Approved For Release 2000/08/07 No.899-20 Nations; this is nearly four times the per- centage of assassinations among al! non- state-sponsored terrorist incidents for the three-year period. Most of the targets of these state-sponsored incidents were for- eign diplomats and prominent leaders: more than nine-tenths of the incidents oc- curred in Western Europe and the Middle East, and Middle Eastern terrorists were responsible in more than 85 percent of the cases. Libya. Since the mid-1970s, support to terrorist groups—inciuding provision of camps and other training facitities—has been an important element of Libya's for- eign policy under Qadhafi. Libya has been linked by overwhelming evidence to terror- ist attacks and assassinations in Western Europe, the United States, and the Middle East and is known to support terrorist groups and liberation movements world- wide. In March 1982 the United States imposed an embargo on Libyan oil imports and curbed high-technology exports to Libya, citing Qadhafi’s influence over inter- national terrorism. Last October, Qadhafi publicly threatened violence against Libyan dissidents. Al- though some of Qachafi's past threats against dissidents have been carried out by assassination squads, we have seen no evidence that Qadhafi's most recent threat has been implemented. Syria. As a major supporter of radical Palestinian groups, Syria has provided training, logistic support, and use of diplo- Matic facilities to groups willing to do its bidding. Following the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and the displacement of Palestin- ians to Syria, Syria increased its influence over Palestinian terrorist groups such as the BJO. The Syrian Government has also been implicated in efforts to eliminate op- position elements abroad. After an April 1982 car bomb explosion in downtown Paris in front of the offices of a pro-traqi newspaper that had published a number of anti-Syrian articles, the government of France expelled two Syrian diplomats, and ordered its Ambassador to Syria home for consultations. : CIA4RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 WORLD: 0T2 Page 10