Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Terrorism

Senate Foreign Relations Committee—"Terrorism" Morning of 5Jul86 03:00:01 Ambassador Oakley being questioned. "Do you feel our Allies would be willing to cooperate to the extent that we might entertain establishing an international terrorist assault and pursuit type team which would have access internationally to go into all countries which would be signatories…or has it reached that cohesion state yet…similar to Interpol which knows no boundaries…likewise with terrorism we know where a lot of terrorists are but we don't have access to surveillance… Amb. "I would say we are a long ways away from being able to create a multi-national force of that sort. There's so much difficulty on agreeing upon actions at a particular time…take the United Nations Peace Keeping Forces for example, take our recent efforts to apply military pressure to Libya as self-defence… 03:03:33 Amb: Recently as you've seen, the Turkish Government and the French Government, working with our own intelligence and security services, were able to detect in advance, surveil and apprehend terrorists directed by Libya who were planning to carry out very bloody attacks against our Post Exchange in Izmir and the Officer's Club in Ankara in Turkey where there would have been hundreds of casualties and against the Visa lines in our embassy in Paris where there probably would have been scores of casualties. It was thanks to the good work with those two governments and the sort of cooperation that we have on a bi-lateral basis which is never talked about fortunately because if they were made public…we wouldn't be able to succeed. But as I said there have been 170-odd of those in the past 18 months. The difference between having that sort of cooperation between two countries and having a multi-national force….. 03:04:59 Amb: We have an assistance program which has been quite good in encouraging other governments to work quite closely with us which is run by the State Department…but we are not in a position to have this sort of multi-national force… 03:05:55 Amb: This is where extradition is quite important… (talking about extraditing from Columbia after Supreme Court Justices were shot and paper records were destroyed, etc.) 03:07:47 Sen. Lugar questions Amb. Oakley re ownership of assets (of FIAT) by Libya around the world. 03:09:25 Introduction of Mr. Parker Borg, Deputy of the Office of the Ambassador at Large for Counter-Terrorism, Department of State; and the Honorable Steven Trod (sp?) Assistant Attorney General, Criminal Division, Department of Justice. 03:10:00 Mr. Borge (State Dept) reads statement as to need for Congress to enact Legislation to give State Department to enhance Embassy security and counter-terrorism. 03:20:55 Mr. Trod (Dept of Justice) reads statement re gaps in criminal sanctions and our preventive measures. Speaks of overseas murders, hijacking, nuclear sabatoge, etc. Need for re-institution of death penalty for Federal offenses. 03:27:23 Borge continues: " …bilateral measures: We believe firmly that the United States must do everything on its own to improve its capability to fight terrorism, a successful effort that will require the assistance of many countries, especially our close allies. Besides improving with our allies our intelligence gathering and sharing mechanisms…. (talks about extradition problems). 03:28:03 …we believe that this bilateral approach with our sister democracies to outlaw the use of violence, with the ballot-box, allows orderly democratic change is an essential aspect of our anti-terrorism effort. The first country with which we have concluded such a revision is the United Kingdom…. 03:29:10 …we should realize that International Law evolves very slowly….we question whether an International Court would be useful at this time… 03:30:00 …crime until the 1950s evolved very slowly…just as the economy has become an international economy (problem of terrorism has become international also). 03:32:22 discussion of compensation for victims of terrorism. $4 billion currently (1986) for security enhancement. William Backus assists with State Department answering question about compensation for civilian contractors etc. 03:37:54 Commander Tom Robinson of US Coast Guard testifies briefly on legislation. 03:41:00 ??? talks about combating terrorism and getting allies to cooperate. He is reminded of Pres. Kennedy establishing a blockade as a means of avoiding war but to block missile placement. 03:43: Mr. Borge discusses why blockade wasn't established on Libya. 03:46: Senator Dodd?? re nobody disagrees with doing more about terrorism. Talks about "political offense" exception for extradition and "who" is a terrorist. Targets? Techniques used? 03:49:50 Mr. Trod talks about eliminating violence as a means when change is possible through the ballot box. Senator argues with him. …made his way to France. France refused to extradite Mr. Chakudrian to the US for trial. Certain countries do not agree. 03:52:55 Senator Dodd doubts that this is the right approach. 03:55:41 Mr. Trod on extradition with Colombia. 03:56:30 …airplane ticket to country with strong justice system would stop terrorists from commiting terrorism in that country. 03:58:2? Sen. Pell on what constitutes international terrorism in terms of the USA.