Reagan Warning: Hijackers, Beware : Security Advisers Tell President of Options in Crisis

In an oblique warning of possible U.S. military action, President Reagan on Sunday said that the hijackers of a TWA airliner should “for their own safety” release their mostly American hostages.

The President canceled plans to attend a Father’s Day picnic to return to the White House for a 75-minute meeting with his top security advisers. The meeting reviewed all possible options in dealing with the three-day-old crisis in which Shia Muslim militants were holding more than 30 Americans captive aboard a 727 jetliner at the airport in Beirut.

‘Turn People Loose’

“I think that we’re just going to continue doing the things that we’re doing and just hope that they (the hijackers) themselves will see that--for their own safety--that they’d better turn these people loose,” Reagan told reporters as he stepped off the helicopter which brought him back to the White House from the Camp David presidential retreat.

White House Deputy Press Secretary Larry Speakes later refused to elaborate on the apparent threat. Asked what the United States could do if efforts for a peaceful resolution of the crisis break down, Speakes said, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get there--it remains hypothetical at this time.”

The Army’s Delta Force anti-terrorist unit is understood to have been dispatched to the Mediterranean, probably to a base on Cyprus. The guided-missile frigate Kidd cut short a port call to Haifa, Israel, on Sunday and presumably is steaming off the Lebanese coast.

However, military analysts said that it would be virtually impossible to mount a successful military assault on the plane as long as it remains at the Beirut airport, which is under control of Shia Muslim militiamen at least nominally allied with the hijackers.

Any attempt to retake the plane by force would almost certainly result in the deaths of the hostages as well as the hijackers and at least some of the would-be rescuers.

Defense Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger said that the situation was made even more difficult because the hijackers apparently are “fanatical, suicidal people . . . willing to give their own lives for these causes, as they call them.”

Asked about possible military action, Reagan said, “I’m not going to comment on anything of that kind. . . . The very fact that it has gone on this long without any of their threats of violence or general destruction and massacre (being) carried out, naturally is encouraging.”

U.S. officials said that Reginald Bartholomew, the American ambassador to Lebanon, was in contact with Lebanese officials, presumably including Nabih Berri, the leader of Amal, the Shia Muslim militia. Berri is Lebanese justice minister. Reports from Beirut said that the hijackers have selected Berri to represent them in any negotiations.

TWA and U.S. officials confirmed reports that some passengers with Jewish-sounding surnames--TWA late Sunday fixed the number involved at seven--had been removed from the plane on an earlier stop in Beirut on Friday. Reports from Beirut said they were being held by Berri’s militia. White House spokesman Robert Sims said the government has contacted “Lebanese authorities” in an effort to secure their release.

JDL Telephone Threat

A person claiming to represent the militant Jewish Defense League telephoned United Press International to threaten retaliation against any Muslim people living in the United States if the Jewish passengers were harmed.

Speakes said the United States has requested the help of a number of governments, including Syria, which has close ties with some Shia Muslim groups. However, Speakes said that Reagan renewed his policy of refusing to give in to the hijackers’ demands.

Nevertheless, Speakes stopped short of urging Israel to reject the hijackers’ offer to trade the hostages for 700 to 800 Shia Muslims held in Israeli jails. Asked if his statement that the United States would not encourage other governments to make concessions to the terrorists was intended to be a signal to the Israelis, Speakes said, “No, that is the standard U.S. policy.”

Reagan said the matter “isn’t so simple as just trading prisoners--the decision is, at what point can you pay off the terrorists without endangering people from here on out once they find out that their tactics succeed.”

There was a growing demand from outside the Administration for some form of retaliation against the hijackers and their sponsors after the airliner drama plays itself out one way or another.

Sen. Patrick J. Leahy of Vermont, the senior Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said the Administration must match its tough rhetoric with actions. Asked on the CBS-TV program “Face the Nation” if the United States should retaliate, he said, “We have to.

“We keep saying that, boy, next time we’re going to come back, and we said this when (241 U.S. servicemen) got murdered in Beirut, when our embassies get blown up, our ambassadors are killed, our people kidnaped,” Leahy said.

“I mean, every year, there are more and more terrorist attacks, and every year we say, boy, we’re going to be tough on this, but we don’t do a darn thing.”

U.S. Should ‘Hit Back’

Lawrence S. Eagleburger, a career diplomat who retired recently as the No. 3 man in the Reagan Administration’s State Department, said that retaliation would be difficult because the United States does not know just who the hijackers are or who supports them, but he added, “I feel very strongly that we should in fact hit back at a group identified or closely identified with these terrorists.”

Weinberger, interviewed on the ABC-TV program “This Week With David Brinkley,” said he would not hesitate to order retaliation if the target can be identified precisely.

White House national security adviser Robert C. McFarlane said in a speech earlier this year that Shia Muslim militants are strongly influenced by Iran. He suggested possible retaliation against Iranian targets if Shia guerrillas attack U.S. targets.

When asked Sunday if Iran was involved in the hijacking, Speakes said, “I don’t think we can draw that conclusion yet.”

In Tehran, a government spokesman said, “Iran categorically denies any involvement in the hijacking.”