CIA director William Casey warned Thursday night that the Soviet Union is financing the Palestine Liberation Organization as part of its support for terrorist operations throughout the world.
In an address before the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, Casey described international terrorism as a “monster” which ranges across five continents. “The Soviet Union has provided funding to the PLO and, with at least tacit Soviet approval, many groups have trained together in Cuba, Libya, Iraq, South Yemen and Lebanon,” he said.
Casey spoke at an ADL dinner here at which James Finkelstein, president of the New York Law Journal and founder and publisher of the National Law Review, received ADL’s Human Relations Award from the Lawyers Division of the ADL Appeal.
In describing terrorist operations, the CIA director said that terrorist training camps have become “the largest industry in Libya, next to oil.” He added that “when enough terrorists are armed and trained, international terrorism takes on a life of its own.”
“From its headquarters in Lebanon, Libya and South Yemen,” Casey said, “this terrorism ranges across borders into five continents.”
To counteract terrorism Casey went on, the United States is “working with intelligence services of friendly nations … to track terrorist organizations and train quick-reaction and rescue forces.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
