Libya Speeds Planning for Terrorism, U.S. Aide Says

Libya has stepped up the pace of planning for terrorist actions within the last six to eight weeks, possibly setting the stage for a new escalation of attacks, the State Department’s counterterrorism chief said Thursday.

L. Paul Bremer said that his assessment of increased Libyan terrorist planning is based on intelligence reports. He declined to provide details.

“The Libyans are becoming active again--I would say in the last six to eight weeks--in planning, and I would stress planning,” Bremer said in a speech to the Overseas Writers organization.

In a country-by-country rundown of the five nations on the State Department’s list of states that support terrorist activity, Bremer said the gravest offenders are Libya, Syria and Iran. He said that the other two countries, Cuba and South Yemen, have done very little recently.

“We have seen no signs the Syrians have changed their policy on terrorism,” Bremer said. He added that Iran continues to support terrorism, although most of it is directed against Iranian dissident groups or neighboring nations.

Libyan-backed terrorism declined sharply after the U.S. bombing of two Libyan cities, Tripoli and Benghazi, last April, Bremer said.

Several European nations further damaged Libya’s terrorist capabilities last year by expelling a long list of Libyan diplomats who had been linked to such activities, he said, adding that Libya was especially quiet last May, June and July.

“About the beginning of August, we began to pick up intelligence that the Libyans were beginning to get active again,” he said. “We think they probably played some kind of role in the Karachi hijacking (of a Pan Am airliner) on Sept. 5.”

Disinformation Debate

Bremer’s comments added a new twist to the debate over an Administration deception and disinformation campaign against Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi.

Administration officials confirmed last October that Vice Adm. John M. Poindexter, then White House national security adviser, had signed a memo last August outlining a program intended to keep Kadafi off balance, in part by suggesting that the United States might take additional military action against Libya.

Published accounts of increased Libyan terrorist planning that appeared in some newspapers in mid-August were described as part of the deception campaign.