Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: U.S. runs ads, offers $2 million to snag terrorists Date: Wed, 18 Nov 92 16:10:35 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD U.S. runs ads, offers $2 million to snag terrorists \BY FROM COMBINED DISPATCHES The United States is mounting an international search, including "wanted" ads and $2 million rewards, for Iranian-backed suspects secretly indicted for kidnapping and murdering Americans, officials said yesterday. The Justice Department has issued sealed indictments against several alleged terrorists identified this year as responsible for killing American hostages in Lebanon and blowing up at least one airliner, said a U.S. official who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Department spokesman Dean St. Dennis yesterday declined to comment on the indictments, first reported yesterday by CNN. One of the sealed indictments is against the suspected killer of either the CIA's Beirut station chief, William Buckley, or Marine Lt. Col. William Higgins, said another official who requested anonymity. Mr. Buckley died in captivity in Lebanon in 1985, and Col. Higgins was killed by his Shi'ite Muslim captors in 1988 or 1989. Another American, Peter Kilburn, was killed in 1986. The Associated Press had reported that members of the Lebanese kidnapping group, including its leader, Imad Mughniyeh, took refuge in Iran in the past year. "To bring these murderers to justice, the U.S. government offers rewards of up to $2 million," says one ad being placed in U.S. and foreign newspapers. It shows pictures of the three slain Americans and urges informants to contact the FBI or the nearest U.S. Embassy. The rewards are paid with tax money. Rewards can reach up to $4 million with matching money from U.S. airlines. The second official said that among the terrorists identified by the United States in the past year are those responsible for a bomb that exploded aboard a TWA plane over Greece in 1986; four passengers died when they were sucked from the plane. One ad shows a pair of baby shoes under the caption "$2 million won't bring baby Demetra back. But it may bring her murderers to justice." The infant and her mother were among the four killed in the TWA bombing. In the past two years, the U.S. government has paid more than $1 million for information about terrorists and has hidden some of its informants to protect them from retribution, a State Department official said. In 1989 the U.S. Customs Service offered up to $5 million for information leading to the arrests of the heads of the Medellin and Cali cocaine cartels in Colombia in a plan called Operation Paladin, after the bounty hunter in the television series "Have Gun, Will Travel." The Justice Department opposed the plan on the grounds that it encouraged mercenaries to kidnap drug dealers in foreign countries. Such abductions, department officials said, could have created legal and diplomatic headaches. The Customs Service targeted the "Dirty Dozen" cartel leaders, who were responsible for millions of dollars annually in cocaine shipments to the United States. The United States already had a standing $500,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of Medellin cartel boss Jorge Ochoa, who remains a fugitive. None of the Dirty Dozen was returned to the United States to stand trial. The new ads are the first to seek information on specific cases, reflecting what U.S. officials believe are improved prospects for apprehending suspects. "There's a better chance now that people will be willing to come forward with information," said Anthony Quainton, assistant secretary of state for diplomatic security. "We also want to get across the message that we haven't forgotten." Robin Higgins, whose husband was kidnapped in February 1988 while he served as a U.N. peacekeeper in south Lebanon, said she was "very pleased at the new life being breathed into the rewards program. . . . I'm very hopeful the ads can bring fruitful results." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM