Bonn Cites Threat to U.S., Expels 2 Libyan Diplomats

The West German government on Wednesday ordered the expulsion of two Libyan diplomats in the wake of U.S. demands for action in response to a weekend bomb explosion at a West Berlin discotheque in which a U.S. Army sergeant was killed and 64 other Americans, mostly servicemen, were injured.

The two Libyans were told to leave West Germany immediately on the grounds that they had been engaged in “impermissible activities” that threaten both American and West German security interests, a Bonn government spokesman said.

Friedhelm Ost, the chief government spokesman, quoted Chancellor Helmut Kohl as telling the West German Cabinet on Wednesday, “We will not let our American friends be bombed or terrorized out of the country.”

But Ost said West Germany so far has no firm evidence implicating the two men, middle-ranking diplomats in the Libyan mission here, in the Berlin explosion. The government was acting on the results of earlier police investigations into their activities, he said.

“The security interests of the Federal Republic of Germany and the protection of persons and installations of our allies, especially our American friends, make it urgently necessary to end these (two diplomats’) activities,” Ost said, declining to provide any details. He added that the expulsions were unanimously approved by the Cabinet.

The men were identified later by security sources as Ahmed Omar Issa and Mahmoud Ahmed Shibani, both believed to be Libyan intelligence agents.

When summoned to the Foreign Ministry, the Libyan charge d’affaires “rejected the accusations” of improper activities, Ost said.

Ost added that Bonn also has some information linking the Berlin attack to Col. Moammar Kadafi’s regime through the Libyan mission in East Berlin.

“We have indications, but no concrete evidence,” he told a press conference.

In addition to the American soldier, Sgt. Kenneth T. Ford, 21, a Turkish woman was killed in the explosion early Saturday, and nearly 200 people were injured at the popular La Belle nightclub.

Since the bombing, West Germany has come under intense U.S. pressure to take strong action against Libya, and the Reagan Administration has done little to hide its irritation at Bonn’s apparent reluctance to take a firmer stand against terrorism.

Welcomed by U.S.

The U.S. Embassy welcomed the move to oust the two Libyan diplomats. “We are continuing our intense consultations (with West German officials) to see that all steps are taken to ensure the full protection and security of American personnel in installations in the Federal Republic of Germany,” Robert C. Heath, an embassy spokesman, said.

Richard R. Burt, the American ambassador here, had voiced the Reagan Administration’s charges that Libya was responsible for the nightclub bombing and that the incident was the start of a series of such attacks on American targets worldwide. Burt called for firm retaliatory measures, including political and economic sanctions against the Tripoli regime.

But Bonn’s initial reaction was cautious, even hesitant, according to diplomats familiar with the discussions. There was little hard evidence yet of Libyan involvement, West German officials told the Americans as recently as Tuesday, and Bonn continued to doubt the effectiveness of sanctions.

Threat by Kadafi

Kadafi had threatened two weeks ago to launch terrorist attacks on American targets worldwide after the clashes between his forces and the U.S. 6th Fleet in the Gulf of Sidra.

While the nightclub bombing appeared to Washington to be the start of this terrorist campaign, diplomats here said Wednesday, Bonn seemed to be uncertain about the U.S.-produced evidence and also to feel that West German interests, different from American, must be put first.

After the United States intensified its pressure, according to a senior West European diplomat, “Bonn came to see the matter as a political and security issue important to its broader relationship with Washington and not simply as a juridical matter.”

In a related action, the United States, in conjunction with Britain and France as the allied supervisory powers in West Berlin, was reported Wednesday to be preparing to bar Libyan diplomats from the city as part of a series of “exceptional measures” to strengthen security there.

Described as Mastermind

A Libyan diplomat, Elamin Abdullah Elamin, 47, who was formerly stationed in Bonn but is now based in East Berlin, was described in West German newspapers as the mastermind of the discotheque attack.

Although Elamin is not believed to have planted the bomb, the deputy chairman of West Berlin’s police commission, Dieter Piete, said, “As to whether he is suspected as an organizer or had any other link, I will not say no.”

Meanwhile, the East German government, which maintains close ties with Libya, expressed its “disgust and indignation” over the bombing and denied any East German connection with it. “The hope is expressed that such criminal operations will not be misused to poison the international atmosphere,” the East German Foreign Ministry said after the press reports here of Elamin’s suspected involvement.

In Touch With East Berlin

Ost, the chief government spokesman here, made it clear that Bonn was in close contact with East Berlin over the role of the Libyan mission here and that it was taking advantage of the regular contacts between them to combat terrorism.

According to government and diplomatic sources here, the United States has given West Germany a full dossier of evidence gathered from its monitoring of radio messages between Tripoli and the Libyan mission in East Berlin. It has charged that the messages indicate a clear Libyan role in the nightclub attack.

The West German analysis of the material, however, is that it shows that Libya clearly knew of the bombing in advance but was not necessarily involved.