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Terrorism in the United States?
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14412 |
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Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
6 / 1988 |
1,937 Words |
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Robert Kupperman and Jeff Kamen
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A manhunt has been conducted for the past two months by the FBI and by intelligence agencies worldwide. They have been searching for members of the international terrorist gang that calls itself the Japanese Red Army (JRA).
The manhunt was triggered by the April 14 arrest of a known JRA member who was captured on the New Jersey Turnpike while carrying three live high-explosive bombs. He was the first member of the JRA to be arrested in the United States. Only the sharp-eyed, aggressive work of a lone New Jersey state trooper who did not like the furtive way the fellow looked stopped this terrorist from delivering his bombs to their undisclosed targets.
Other JRA members are believed to have set off the bomb that blew up the U.S. officer's service club in Naples, Italy. That blast killed a U.S. Navy enlisted woman--the first American servicewomen ever to die from a terrorist attack--and wounded half a dozen other servicepeople.
As the smoke cleared in Naples, alarms were ringing at the CIA headquarters in Virginia, at the Pentagon's hidden Intelligence Support Activity unit center, at the Navy's Intelligence Service, and at the FBI.
Following standard procedure, U.S. communications intelligence specialists quickly analyzed recordings of recent international phone calls, hoping to find clues that might lead to the bombers. And only hours later, the senior officials responsible for antiterrorism, received word that the JRA terrorist had infiltrated the United States at J.F. Kennedy Airport using a false passport.
Was he alone? If not, where were the others? Who are they? Why was he operating inside our country? If there are others, what are their targets? Why now? Who sponsored him? These are just some of the questions federal officials are still trying to answer.
What is known is that an international terrorist organization has sent an agent armed with bombs into the heart of America. Our long immunity to such groups is clearly over.
Efficient and sophisticated
The Japanese Red Army's sudden burst of activity signaled the end of another lull in terrorist actions against U.S. interests.
Only two weeks before the Naples bombing and the arrest in New Jersey, Middle Eastern terrorists had seized a Kuwaiti 747 jetliner. They murdered two passengers and took hostages, demanding the release of 17 Shiite terrorists imprisoned in Kuwait. Although the hijackers failed to win their stated goal, the seizure and holding of the aircraft demonstrated extraordinary command control, communications, and planning, making the Kuwaiti hijacking one of the most sophisticated acts of international terrorism to date.
And it did not occur in a political vacuum. In fact, it appeared at least as much a political gambit as it was an attempt at freeing convicted terrorists through the kidnapping of innocents.
Had the emir of Kuwait surrendered any of the 17 prisoners
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