THE INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM CONNECTION - 28-Jul-94

(Commentary by Ronni Shaked, 'Yediot Ahronot', July 28, 1994, p.1-6B)

The Israeli security establishment was not surprised by the two attacks which occurred in London on Tuesday. For several months, especially since the acceleration in the peace process, many pieces of information have been received about the intentions of the various Islamic organizations to carry out attacks against Israeli, Jewish, and American targets.

The objective: to obstruct the peace process. The security officers at Israel's Embassies, mainly those in Europe, have been instructed to increase their alertness. The information has pointed to intentions to carry out headline-grabbing attacks.

The infrastructure of extremist Islamic terrorism has been constructed, in recent years, in the United States, Europe, South America, and East Asia. Today, this infrastructure is at the service of Iran and extremist Islamic organizations, mainly Hizbullah. The Palestinian rejectionist organizations also have a broad operational infrastructure, but until now, the information has not pointed to HAMAS' involvement in attacks abroad.

Is there an international terrorist connection? Is there a roof organization for all of the Islamic terrorist movements? In recent months American and Israeli experts on terrorism have been struggling with this question. A clear answer still does not exist, but signs are pointing more and more to worldwide cooperation of terrorist activity.

An excellent example of this type of cooperation are Islamic conventions which over the past few years have been conducted more and more frequently in the U.S. and Europe. In the middle of December 1990, an Islamic Congress was held in the Kansas City Convention Center. Muslim immigrants, students, and guests from Arab countries attended. Apparently, it was a religious convention in which the participants, all Muslim fundamentalists, listened to lectures on religion.

But convention's significance lay in what occurred behind the scenes. Coordinating meetings were conducted between the leaders from Islamic movements from around the world. In side rooms, behind closed doors, to which entry was permitted only by giving the secret password, groups of youths gathered to learn how to use weapons and explosives. The instructors were from Arab countries, such as Libya and Lebanon. One of the groups was from the HAMAS. Similar congresses were held in Germany and London.

Experts point to Dr. Hassan Turabi, the leader of the Islamic movement in Sudan, as a key leader in the umbrella organization of terrorism. Since the early 1990's, training camps for Muslim terrorists have been established in Sudan with Iranian funding. HAMAS and the Islamic Jihad hold a position of honor at these camps. Hosni Mubarak, the President of Egypt, has publicly accused Iran and the Sudan many times for exporting terrorism to his country.

The blossoming of fundamentalist Islamic terrorism began just after the Khomeini revolution in Iran. Iran's new leaders saw themselves as the head of a link to a worldwide revolution. Their operations began in Arab countries and the territories. Their targets were, 'the American heretics and their Zionist allies.'

Iran established a group called 'the Supreme Council for the Coordination of the Islamic Revolution,' which established secret branches in Muslim communities all around the world.

Today, almost no country exists which does not have a flourishing Muslim community in it. Muslim immigrants from Arab countries, who arrive in the U.S. or Europe, have a hard time becoming part of the modern, Western community. They are then drawn into the Muslim enclave which offers them the comforts of home.

Thus, for example, the Muslim center in London was established, which was exploited very quickly by fundamentalist Islamic groups as a base for terrorist activity. A branch of Iranian 'al-Mujahadeen' was set up in the center. Palestinian movements also found patronage there. The Islamic Jihad had its headquarters in this center, from which it sent orders for operations in the territories.

Even HAMAS took advantage of the infrastructure set up in London. From 1992 until February 1993, the head of HAMAS' military arm, Mahmud Kazem Tzaulha, sent instructions and operational guidance to kill and murder Jews in the territories. The communications between HAMAS and Jihad commanders in the field were carried via the London Islamic center's telephone.

HAMAS also established operational branches in Stuttgart, Germany. The branch there operates from the Islamic center on Johannes street.

Israeli representatives requested this year that U.S. and European nations adamantly oppose and act against Islamic fundamentalism. But generally, the answer was that religious activity is permitted by law in Western democracies.

Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin took advantage of the political stage in Washington in order to make an issue of the Muslim danger.