U.S. Tightens Security at Posts Abroad

The United States has detected “accelerated efforts in the last 48 hours” by terrorist factions linked to Col. Moammar Kadafi, the Libyan leader, and has tightened security at U.S. outposts in Europe, the Middle East and Latin America in anticipation of a terrorist strike, a U.S. intelligence official said Tuesday.

And, while any retaliation for U.S. Navy attacks on Libyan ships and a missile base is considered more likely to occur abroad than in the United States, federal agents have also pinpointed the locations of all 3,500 Libyan nationals in this nation and are tracking those believed to be hostile, law enforcement sources said.

Public Alarm in ’81

The domestic counterterrorism measures are not extraordinary, officials said, and are being played down to avoid the sort of public alarm generated in 1981 when rumors of a Libyan “hit squad” in the United States spread throughout Washington.

By contrast, the Libyan threat abroad is viewed as quite serious and could endanger military bases, embassies and other U.S. offices “beyond the couple of dozen cities where Libyan assets (agents) have been observed,” said the intelligence source, who refused to be named.

Among other preparations, intelligence reports indicate, Libyan operatives have walked directly into U.S. diplomatic offices in attempts to identify targets for sniper attacks and to study mail-handling facilities to which letter bombs might be sent.

Serious preparations for anti-U.S. terrorist acts began about three months ago but became “frantic” in the last two days, after Libya fired at least six surface-to-air missiles at Navy jets in the Gulf of Sidra and in turn saw its patrol boats and a missile control facility pounded by Navy missile strikes, the intelligence official said.

“The instructions have been disseminated to their personnel to go out and do something,” said the official, adding that U.S. knowledge of the preparations is “specific” in some cases. “We have to let them know publicly, and soon, that we know what they’re doing and that we assign them direct responsibility.”

The official described the latest terrorist activities as unsophisticated in comparison to the more secretive activities of some terrorists backed by the Palestine Liberation Organization, men such as Abu Nidal, the reputed architect of last December’s attacks at airports in Rome and Vienna that left 16 travelers, including five Americans, dead.

Embassies on Alert

State Department spokesman Charles Redman said that virtually all American embassies around the world had been put on security alerts before U.S. warships ventured past the so-called “line of death” that Kadafi has proclaimed as the seaward frontier of Libyan sovereignty in the Gulf of Sidra.

“In light of the subsequent developments, it is safe to assume they are continuing these precautions,” Redman said Tuesday.

Kadafi’s threats in the wake of this week’s military action have not been specific. But a statement read at a Libyan rally said that demonstrators have organized themselves into suicide squads, a phrase viewed by some as a warning of new assaults similar to those carried out at the Rome and Vienna airports.

Unaware of Specific Plans

Law enforcement and intelligence officials said Tuesday that they are aware of no specific plans for Libyan-inspired terrorism within the United States, although they refused to rule out the possibility.

“We’re very much aware of what’s happening there (in Libya), and we’re watching very, very carefully,” said a spokesman for the FBI, the agency in charge of counterterrorism activity in the United States.

But officials said that new anti-terrorist measures here have been confined largely to increased monitoring of Libyan nationals by surveillance and other methods, and to orders for greater vigilance.

Law-enforcement agents also are reported to be contacting Libyan political dissidents and other sources of potential information on terrorist activity in the United States to assess the extent of the latest threat.

No Increase in Guards

At the Capitol, where a November, 1983, bombing led to a massive security crackdown, the contingent of guards was not increased, but it was announced at roll calls “that things could get tough, so keep a wary eye on everybody,” one official said.

The Associated Press quoted Pentagon sources as saying bodyguards have been provided to Navy Secretary John F. Lehman and Adm. James Watkins, the chief of naval operations, because of “terrorist threats.”

An official in the office of Vice President George Bush said that Bush has no plans to change or postpone a scheduled trip to the Persian Gulf next week and that so far he has not been asked by gulf nations to change his plans.

About 1,600 of the 3,500 Libyan nationals in the United States are students, and many of the rest are students’ spouses and children, Duke Austin, a spokesman for the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, said.

Security at Border

Austin said he that knows of no move to expel any of these Libyans or to deny entry to those seeking to enter. However, he said, immigration officers have been told to take “tougher looks” at border crossings and other entry points for fake passports and visas that terrorists might use to sneak into the country.

Customs Service officers are taking similar precautions in inspecting materials entering the United States, a spokesman said.

Immigration officials’ greater worry, however, is that terrorists might cross unseen into the United States by way of the porous U.S.-Mexico border. U.S. officials scrutinized the Mexican border during the 1981 “hit squad” scare, and border guards have apprehended 16,000 non-Mexican foreigners at the border in the past month alone, Austin said.

“They know if they can get into Mexico that they have a very good chance of getting across the border,” he said. “That’s a real fear.”

In Touch With Mexico

Austin declined to say how that threat will be countered except to note that U.S. and Mexican intelligence experts are in regular contact on terrorism-related issues.

Kadafi has a “credible” network of agents and allies within the United States that could be tapped for domestic terrorist acts, said Yonah Alexander, a scholar at the Georgetown Center for Strategic and International Studies and a consultant on terrorism for the Defense Department.

“He has agents. They’re active. And unfortunately, you have soldiers of fortune or ideological mercenaries that also can be hired for activity here,” he said in a telephone interview from Binghamton, N.Y.

Alexander added, however, that Kadafi is unlikely to tap that network until easier opportunities for terrorist acts abroad have been exhausted. “It’s much more difficult for Kadafi to do it in this country. The FBI is doing a terrific job,” he said. “I’d anticipate action rather in the Mideast or a Third World country. The U.S. would be a last resort.”