Israel’s chief of military intelligence, Gen. Yehoshua Saguy, briefed the press on what he claimed was a large-scale military build-up by the Palestine Liberation Organization in south Lebanon and accused both Libya and Iraq of aiding the PLO there.
Saguy, who was dispatched secretly to Washington late last month to explain to American officials why Israel was seriously concerned over the situation in Lebanon, called military correspondents to a surprise press conference last night. Apparently, his intention was to respond to a State Department spokesman’s recent denial of any “significant” PLO military build-up.
Significantly, Secretary of State Alexander Haig, only yesterday, appeared to refute his own State Department’s assessment when he told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the PLO build-up was “unsettling” for Israel. According to Haig, the PLO is being re-armed with artillery, sophisticated rocketry and some “antiquated” tanks.
Saguy claimed last night that the PLO has more than doubled the number of its cannon in Lebanon since the cease-fire went into effect last July, increased its tank strength by 50 percent and has added appreciably to its arsenal of Katyusha rocket-launchers and mortars. Saguy also said that Libya recently sent a 500-man battalion equipped with SAM-9 anti-aircraft missiles to bolster PLO forces in Lebanon.
IRAQ STEPPING UP TERRORIST ACTIVITIES
At the same time, he charged Iraq with stepping up terrorist warfare against Israel. He said Iraq established a new terrorist organization, known as “15 May” in 1980 which, last year, was responsible for eight major attacks aimed at Israel. These included, Saguy said, placing a fire bomb aboard the Greek passenger vessel Arion which burned in Haifa harbor last December, and attacks on the El Al offices in Rome and Istanbul.
He further accused the Iraqis of supporting the Abu Nidal and Wadiya Haddad terrorist groups. The Abu Nidal group has been implicated in an attack on the Jewish community center and synagogue in Vienna last August which took two lives, and in the assassination last May of Vienna City Council member Heinz Nittel, a friend of Israel. Nevertheless, the Reagan Administration has just removed Iraq from the list of countries that support international terrorism, making it eligible for U.S. economic and military aid.
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