From the archives: U.S. Attack on Terrorism Making Progress--at Last

WASHINGTON -- A decade after American citizens became major victims of Middle East terrorism, the United States and some of its Western allies finally are striking back and sometimes even winning in an unusual arena--the courts.

For years, such terrorists seemed to be far beyond the reach of normal legal process, but the conviction Wednesday in West Germany of Mohammed Ali Hamadi for the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847 is the latest of four Western legal victories this year against leading terrorists. The Lebanese Shiite Muslim extremist was convicted and given a life sentence on charges of air piracy and the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Dean Stethem.

Other recent Western victories include the convictions in this country of a Japanese Red Army bomber and another Lebanese hijacker. U.S. officials were also heartened by a Greek Supreme Court decision last week to extradite a Palestinian whom American counterterrorism agents have been tracking for seven years.

“Obviously, this is a treacherous area to assess favorably because tomorrow could bring another dreadful incident,” said Atty. Gen. Dick Thornburgh in an interview, “but there have been substantial breakthroughs both in effective prosecution . . . and greater international cooperation.”

In addition to these convictions, FBI officials told The Times, the United States has issued 20 further indictments of accused international terrorists whom they are now trying to track down and bring to justice. Half a dozen or so indictments of particularly notorious figures have been sealed to make it more difficult for the suspects to thwart efforts to capture them.

“In every one of those we are working with our intelligence counterparts in trying to put together arrest plans,” said Bob A. Ricks, the FBI’s deputy assistant director for criminal investigations, who oversees counterterrorism.

Among those secretly indicted are believed to be some operatives of the notorious Abu Nidal organization. Also believed indicted is Imad Mughniyah, a leader of Islamic Jihad, which has held several American hostages and been tied to assorted hijackings of Middle East and Western aircraft.

Modest Gains

Measured against the flood of terrorist activity around the world, these legal victories may seem modest, American officials admit. In the past decade, international terrorists have been responsible for 1,735 attacks involving U.S. interests worldwide, according to the State Department. Last year there were 185 such incidents, more than three times the number recorded in 1968, when data was first collected.

And in the majority of cases, counterterrorism officials concede, investigators have been unable either to determine responsibility or to accumulate sufficient evidence to build convincing cases against suspects.

Nonetheless, some officials say, significant progress has been made.

Efforts by U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies have become increasingly effective. And the level of international cooperation appears to have risen--in response to U.S. diplomacy and behind-the-scenes pressure, as well as to changing perceptions of the threat by allied governments that once were more inclined to try to placate radical groups.

Said Thornburgh: “1989 looks like the year when America fought back against terrorism using the rule of law.”

“The legal action we’ve been taking is finally producing results,” asserted a leading U.S. counterterrorism official. “It’s now giving terrorists cause to pause. They’re seeing that they can’t achieve their political goals through terrorism.”

Other specialists remain skeptical, arguing that the recent arrests and convictions are less than a drop in the bucket.

“We are looking at minor victories in the criminal arena to substitute or to solve major national security problems,” said Robert Kupperman, terrorism specialist at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.

“We may convict all the terrorists we can get our hands on, but it’s not going to make the foggiest bit of difference to terrorists or the pattern of terrorism. The reality is that we will have done nothing to thwart the actions of large countries that support terrorism.”

Unified Action Urged

Kupperman and others say that the government will not achieve real progress until it takes unified action with its allies against the nations that sponsor terrorism, using measures such as diplomatic and economic sanctions, military strikes and perhaps covert operations.

U.S. officials insist they have not discounted the need for broader efforts.

In June, the United States and the Soviet Union are scheduled to convene their first formal talks on joint efforts to fight terrorism. Soviet Ambassador Yuri V. Dubinin met here Thursday with Thornburgh to invite him for separate discussions on terrorism and drugs later this year.

“What we need is to develop a world view among all civilized countries that terrorism is out of bounds,” said a leading U.S. counterterrorism official. “Then we need to strengthen cooperation between countries so we agree that we have to extradite terrorism suspects and have sanctions against state sponsors.”

But meantime, Thornburgh said, “It would be a terrible mistake to forgo the investigation and prosecution of these cases from a criminal standpoint because, first of all, you incapacitate the actors,” he noted.

Although less of a factor with terrorism than with such crimes as bank robbery, the prosecutions also may constitute a deterrent, Thornburgh said. “You reach a point even in the irrational mind of the terrorist where they say, ‘This is too risky,’ ” Thornburgh said.

“How you measure that I wouldn’t begin to know,” he added.

After the frustrations of a decade, the four cases this year reflect the successes of U.S. counterterrorism policy--and the limits.

The White House Wednesday heralded the Hamadi verdict as an “action (that) demonstrates once again the effectiveness of the rule of law against terrorism.” But Press Secretary Marlin Fitzwater conceded that the Bush Administration would have preferred that Hamadi had been extradited to this country for trial.

“There was uneasiness over Germany’s reluctance to extradite Hamadi, but all’s well that ends well,” Thornburgh said.

Despite months of legal maneuvering and haggling between Washington and Bonn, West Germany in the end refused to hand over Hamadi--in part because two German hostages were still being held in Lebanon by Hamadi supporters and were considered likely targets for retribution.

“In dealing with terrorism, domestic political agendas are generally more important than foreign pressure or even international cooperation,” said a U.S. counterterrorism official. “It’s sad, but true. And it’s unlikely to change.”

With the abduction in Lebanon Wednesday of two German relief workers, U.S. sources also speculated about the possibility that Hamadi might serve less than a life sentence. The White House pointedly said: “We expect that Hamadi will serve the full sentence in accord with German law.”

Over the last two years, the release of prisoners--as well as financial payoffs and other concessions--have been used in striking deals for the release of French, German and South Korean hostages, according to both private and official counterterrorism authorities.

Allied disputes about extradition of terrorist suspects have been painfully evident in the case of Mohammed Rashid, whom the U.S. has charged with the 1982 explosion aboard a Pan American jetliner bound for Hawaii from Tokyo in which one person was killed and 15 were injured.

The Greek Supreme Court finally ruled last week in favor of extradition, which must still be approved by the Justice Ministry and the Greek leadership. The furor over the Hamadi extradition looked simple in comparison with the pressures being exerted over Rashid.

Greece’s longstanding trade and diplomatic relations with the Arab world have led to previous releases of terrorist suspects. Last year, Athens released Osama Zomar, a Palestinian wanted in Italy for the 1982 bombings of a Rome synagogue in which a 2-year-old was killed and 34 people were injured. Allegedly a member of the radical Abu Nidal organization, he was allowed to go to Libya.

The pressures have been even greater in the Rashid case. The Greek Supreme Court decision came only after several delays because of the assassination of two supreme court judges, the shooting injury of a third and the resignation of two others--all in conjunction with the case.

“The fact is that we don’t have the extent of cooperation from our allies that we need to be effective,” Kupperman said.

But William M. Baker, a former CIA official who is now assistant director of the FBI in charge of the criminal investigative division, cited Rashid as an “example of U.S. intelligence information being provided to the Greek government and ending up in his arrest.”

The Greek government’s final decision on Rashid is expected next month. If the extradition is blocked, U.S. officials already are discussing strong action against the Greeks, including travel advisories warning tourists to stay away from Greece and banning flights of Greek airliners to this country.

A refusal by the Greek government to extradite Rashid “will bring down a storm of criticism,” Thornburgh warned.

In addition to demonstrating that criminal prosecution of terrorists can work, the Hamadi case revealed that the system for catching terrorists in Europe has been upgraded.

“What led to his arrest in West Germany was a better system for identifying bogus travelers who are in fact terrorists,” said the FBI’s Baker.

The February sentencing of alleged Japanese Red Army member Yu Kikumura to 30 years in prison reflected a different kind of success--prevention of major terrorist incidents on U.S. soil.

Date Marked an Anniversary

Kikumura was apprehended by an alert New Jersey state trooper who saw him acting suspiciously on a turnpike and subsequently found three powerful bombs in his car. In a pre-sentencing memo filed with the court, the government contended that Kikumura, who denied any terrorist connections, had been working with Libyan agents and planned to set off the bombs at various U.S. locations on April 14, 1988. That date was the second anniversary of an attack by U.S. warplanes on Libya in retaliation for its role in a suspected terrorist attack on American soldiers in West Germany.

“There are a number of successes we can’t even discuss,” said the FBI’s Baker.

The 1987 capture and conviction in March of Fawaz Younis on three counts of air piracy and hostage-taking marked the United States’ first success in applying so-called “long-arm” jurisdiction in international terrorism cases--a product of legislation enacted in 1984 after a wave of suicide bombings in Beirut.

The prosecution has called for a life sentence for the 1985 hijacking of a Royal Jordanian aircraft. Younis is expected to be sentenced within the next two weeks.

Yet U.S. officials have conceded that tens of millions of dollars were spent in capturing a relatively minor figure. No one was killed during the hijacking and Palestinians, not Americans, were his targets. Younis also belonged to Lebanon’s Amal, the only Muslim militia that has regularly cooperated with Washington.

Private counterterrorism analysts contend that Younis was a low-level and comparatively accessible operative, but that it still took the United States more than two years to get him.

“One thing this takes is a lot of patience,” acknowledged Baker. “But we knew all along that we’d have to be patient, and that eventually we’d come up with solid examples and extradite them back here when possible.”