U.S. Planned to Keep Hijackers : Bid to Sidestep Italy Led to Confrontation

Contrary to public suggestions by the Reagan Administration that the capture of four Palestinians who hijacked the Achille Lauro was a matter of close cooperation between the United States and Italy, the U.S. plan actually called for sidestepping Italian authorities entirely and whisking the terrorists directly back to this country for trial, Administration sources said Friday.

Thus, when U.S. Navy F-14 jets intercepted an EgyptAir 737 over the Mediterranean and forced it to land at a joint U.S.-Italian airfield in Sicily on Oct. 11, members of the U.S. Delta Force anti-terrorist unit were there waiting under orders to seize the hijackers and put them aboard a waiting C-141 transport without involving Italian forces at all.

Tension on the Tarmac

So determined were the U.S. commandos to seize the hijackers that a tense confrontation took place on the tarmac at Sigonella air base between the Americans and a detachment of Italian soldiers--a confrontation that was defused only after hasty, high-level consultations between Washington and Rome.

The Administration intended to shut Italy out of the operation for two reasons, officials here said:

--First, the United States wanted to bring the hijackers to trial in this country for the murder of an elderly, partially paralyzed American passenger, Leon Klinghoffer, instead of letting the four become subject to the Italian judicial system.

--Second, aware of the delicate relations between Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi’s government and the Arab world, Washington hoped to shield Rome from potential problems by keeping it in the dark about the operation.

An Administration official, speaking on the condition that he not be named, said Washington wanted to bring the hijackers to the United States “so we could try them and bring them to justice for killing an American” before they entered the Italian judicial system.

“Not only do we have confidence in our judicial system, (but) we were thinking of the sensitivity of the Italians, in taking the problem away from them,” the official said.

Prepared to Argue

Indeed, some sources said the Administration had intended to announce the seizure only after the terrorists had arrived at a military base inside the United States. These sources said that the Administration was prepared to argue that the United States had primary jurisdiction over the case even though the hijacking involved an Italian ship because the murdered passenger was an American.

It was only after an Italian air traffic controller--unaware of what was going on--refused to give the Egyptian airliner permission to land that U.S. officials made contact with their counterparts in Rome and began to fill them in on the unfolding operation.

Initially, when the Egyptian airplane was denied landing rights at the air base, a crew member aboard the Navy E-2C command airplane overseeing the operation spoke to Italian air traffic controllers and said that the 737 “had a fuel emergency.”

But almost simultaneously senior Administration officials contacted high Italian authorities and lifted the veil of secrecy which had shrouded the U.S. venture.

Italians Take Custody

At that point, Italian authorities--and Italian troops at the Sigonella base--quickly took an active role, insisting that they, not the Americans, take custody of the hijackers and put them on trial. The resulting imbroglio irritated relations between the two allies and led to the downfall of the Craxi government this week.

Portraying a substantially more complex picture than the Reagan Administration gave immediately after the interception, U.S. sources said that the United States had yielded to Italy’s claim of jurisdiction only after an understanding had been concluded between the two governments that the four hijackers would be prosecuted and their two Palestine Liberation Organization escorts held pending further investigation.

The understanding was concluded between Reagan and Craxi even as members of the Delta Force and armed Italian troops surrounded the Egyptian plane in a dispute over custody of the Palestinians that went on for hours.

Assurances From Craxi

Both Secretary of State George P. Shultz and Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger talked with their Italian counterparts in an effort to end the standoff before Reagan received personal assurances from Craxi, sources said.

An agreement was reached under which the Americans would pull back, the Italians would seize the airplane’s passengers and the hijackers would be jailed while the United States would file extradition documents, an Administration official said.

“By the following day, the Italians had clearly moved to have first crack at the four pirates,” another Administration official said.

“The point is that we gave them up,” declared a State Department official who requested anonymity. “We reached an understanding about what the Italians would do and they (later) departed from it.”

Speakes Refuses Comment

After a week of talking about the affair openly and in detail, Administration officials Friday refused publicly to discuss anything that happened once the Egyptian airliner touched down at the Sigonella base. Asked why he would not respond to the account given by Craxi as he resigned Thursday as prime minister, White House spokesman Larry Speakes replied: “I just won’t.”

Craxi resigned after Defense Minister Giovanni Spadolini and the Republican Party, angry about the government’s release of PLO official Abul Abbas, withdrew from the five-party ruling coalition. The United States has insisted that Abbas, one of the PLO officials aboard the Egyptian plane, masterminded the operation that led to the hijacking.

As he offered his resignation, Craxi said that when the Egyptian plane touched down at Sigonella, it was accompanied not by the four Navy jets which had intercepted it but by the two transport planes, and that combat-equipped American troops got out and surrounded the airliner and about 50 Italian soldiers.

Even after the understanding was reached to gave custody of the four gunmen to Italian authorities, the American military commander on the scene ordered a jet trainer to follow the Egyptian plane when it was moved from Sicily to Ciampino airport outside Rome. Abbas and one of his aides were still on the Egyptian plane.

Craxi, denouncing the action, insisted that the jetliner and Italian fighter escorts had been shadowed by a U.S. F-14 jet fighter, but Pentagon officials said it was an unarmed trainer.

U.S. Stresses Cooperation

Apparently sensing that the episode could have serious repercussions in Italy as well as in Egypt, the Administration almost from the beginning went out of its way to emphasize Italy’s cooperative attitude.

On the day after the capture, Reagan denied that there had been any disagreement between Craxi and himself.

“We had a phone call last night,” Reagan told reporters in describing the finale. “He told me what his situation was with regard to them and I told him what ours was. And I told him that we would introduce an extradition request. He told me what their legal process was with regard to that, that it wasn’t something that he could just give an opinion on itself anymore than I could . . . if the situation were reversed. . . . We had full cooperation.”

Meanwhile, the Administration announced Friday that John C. Whitehead, the deputy secretary of state, would to to Egypt and Italy in an effort to soothe the feelings of Washington’s unhappy allies. He is expected to meet with both Craxi and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.