Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris
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Revue <strong>de</strong> Presse-Press Review-Berhevoka Çapê-Rivista Stampa-Dentro <strong>de</strong> la Prensa-Baszn Öz<strong>et</strong>i<br />
ma<strong>de</strong> sick by exposure to Iraqi chemical<br />
weapons during the conflict.<br />
There were no reports of American<br />
troops' falling ill at the time of the explosions<br />
at Kamisiyah in March 1991,<br />
and scientists are divi<strong>de</strong>d on wh<strong>et</strong>her<br />
exposure to low levels of nerve gas can<br />
in<strong>de</strong>ed lead to any chronic health difficulties.<br />
But the CIA report - and dozens of<br />
<strong>de</strong>classified intelligence reports that<br />
were released along with it - show<br />
there was <strong>de</strong>tailed evi<strong>de</strong>nce before and<br />
durin~ the war about the presence of<br />
chemical weapons at Kamislyah.<br />
Mr. Walpole said the information was<br />
never properly analyzed or shared within<br />
the government in part because of the<br />
"tunnel vision" of intelligence analysts<br />
who convinced themselves that chemical<br />
weapons were not at Kamisiyah<br />
during the GulfWar, even though chemical<br />
munitions were stored there in large<br />
numbers during the Iran-Iraq war in the<br />
19808.<br />
~ an .introduction to the report, the<br />
actmg dIreCtor of ~ntral intelligence,<br />
George Ten<strong>et</strong>, SaId the 'documents<br />
proyed th~t "intelli~ence support as-<br />
SOCiatedWith operat1ons Desert Shield<br />
and Dese~ Storm! ~c~arly in the<br />
areas of mformation distnbution and<br />
analysis, should have been b<strong>et</strong>ter. "<br />
The release of the documents raised<br />
new questions about the credibility of<br />
CIA officials who insisted repeatedly<br />
last year that the government was with~<br />
holding no information about the inc~d«?~tat<br />
Kamisiyah or about the pos-,<br />
slblhty that American troops had been<br />
exposed to chemical weapons elsewhere<br />
in the Gulf.<br />
The issue is certain to be raised when<br />
Mr. Ten<strong>et</strong> testifies before the Senate<br />
Intelligence Committee at his confirmation<br />
hearings, which have not y<strong>et</strong> been<br />
scheduled. V<strong>et</strong>erans groups said they<br />
thought Wednesday's report was an ef-<br />
~<br />
fort to'head off some of the criticism of<br />
the CIA that could be expected at the<br />
Senate hearings.<br />
"This is evi<strong>de</strong>nce either of an unraveling<br />
cover-up or of an unprece<strong>de</strong>nt-<br />
.ed intelligence failure," said James Tuite,<br />
who led a 1993-1994 investigation of<br />
Gulf War illnesses for the Senate Banking<br />
Committee.<br />
The documents also provi<strong>de</strong>d dramatic<br />
support to the assertions of two former<br />
a~ency analysts, Patrick and Robin Eddington,<br />
who resigned from the CIA last<br />
year and who went public with their<br />
allegations that the agency was withholding<br />
evi<strong>de</strong>nce about chemical exposures<br />
during the GulfWar.<br />
Mr. Walpole, who said the documents<br />
ha~ resurfaced inrecent weeks pnly after<br />
an mtenslve search of the agency's files<br />
and computer banks, acknowledged at<br />
the news conference that the "CIA 's<br />
credibility has suffered in this effort."<br />
INTERNATIONAL HERALD TRIBUNE, FRIDAY, APRIL Il, 1997<br />
By William Drozdiak<br />
Washington Post Service<br />
BERLIN - A German court ruled<br />
Thursday that the highest levels of the<br />
Iranian government or<strong>de</strong>red the gangland-style<br />
slaying of three Kurdish dissi<strong>de</strong>nts<br />
and their translator in Berlin<br />
nearly five years ago.<br />
As Iran' s biggest trading partner and<br />
closest friend in the West, Borm has<br />
pursued business <strong>de</strong>alings with Tehran<br />
while treating such controversial issues<br />
as human rights an4 terrorism in a lowkey<br />
manner. After the court ruling,<br />
though, Germany recalled its ambassador<br />
- a move echoed hours later by<br />
the European Union.<br />
"The participation of Iranian state<br />
agencies, as found in the court verdict,<br />
represents a flagrant violation of internationallaw,"<br />
the Foreign Ministry said<br />
in a stat<strong>et</strong>nent in Bonn.<br />
A three-judge tribunal sentenced an<br />
Iranian lfOCer and a Lebanese accompliee<br />
to life in prison for their role in<br />
gunning down the K.roish exiles and<br />
the tranSlator at the Mykonos restaurant<br />
in 1992. Two accessories were given<br />
prison tenns of five and Il )'ears.<br />
The presiding judge, Fritbjof Kubsch,<br />
said the four men had harbored no<br />
personal motives but were fulfilling an<br />
assassination <strong>de</strong>cree issued by Tehran's<br />
Committee for Special Operations. The<br />
court did not cite names but said that the<br />
committee consists of Iran's presi<strong>de</strong>nt,<br />
its top religious authority, the minister<br />
of intelligence and other senior security<br />
officials.<br />
It was the first time that a Western<br />
court directly implicated Iran's fundamentalist<br />
lea<strong>de</strong>rs in the killing of Iranian<br />
dissi<strong>de</strong>nts in Europe. Iranian opposition<br />
figures say that at least 20 people irj<br />
Europe have been kilJec:tby hit squads<br />
operating on Tehran' s instructions since<br />
the Islamic theocracy took power in<br />
1979.<br />
The United States has often exhorted<br />
its European allies to isolate Iran for its<br />
alleged role in sponsoring terrorism<br />
abroad. But Chancellor Helmut Kohl's<br />
government has balked at jeopardizing<br />
the interests of corporations that do<br />
nearly $2 billion in annual tra<strong>de</strong> and<br />
hold $5 billion in <strong>de</strong>bts from Tehran.<br />
Judge Kubsch insisted that the three,<br />
judges were not seeking to indict thel<br />
Iranian government. But he said they.<br />
~hed an inescapable conclusion after<br />
months of sifting through evi<strong>de</strong>nce that<br />
the slaying of the Kurdish exiles was part<br />
of a terror campaign to eliminate dissi<strong>de</strong>nts<br />
abroad that could only be orchestrated<br />
by Tehran.<br />
"The Iranian political lea<strong>de</strong>rship is<br />
responsible," the judge <strong>de</strong>clared. "It is,<br />
proved that there was an officialliquidation<br />
or<strong>de</strong>r."<br />
Iran' s foreign minister, Ali Akbar<br />
Velayati, had warned that ~'a negative<br />
verdict in the Mykonos trial will have a<br />
negative impact on political and economic<br />
ties b<strong>et</strong>ween Tehran and Bonn."<br />
But he ,diSrtlissedthe possibility of reprisals<br />
and said, "German nationals will<br />
have full security."<br />
Last fall, when prosecutors frrst<br />
charged that Iran's spiritual lea<strong>de</strong>r,<br />
Ayatollah Sayed Ali Khamenei, and its<br />
presi<strong>de</strong>nt, Hashemi Rafsanjani, were<br />
personally involved in or<strong>de</strong>ring the<br />
killings, a wave of anti-German stre<strong>et</strong><br />
protests erupted in Tehran.<br />
As the verdict was read Thursday, hun-,<br />
dreds of Iranian exiles who had gathered<br />
in and around the courthouse cheered,<br />
clapped and danced in exultation.<br />
trän is particularly incensed that the<br />
prosecution based its case on testimony<br />
by such exiles as Aboi-Hassan Banisadr,<br />
a former presi<strong>de</strong>nt, and Abol-Hassem<br />
Mesbahi, a former security official. Both<br />
<strong>de</strong>fectors drew on their intimate knowledge<br />
of the Iranian hierarchy to assert in<br />
court that assassinations could be approved<br />
only at the highest levels of the<br />
government.<br />
Delivering the court opinion, Judgel<br />
Kubsch said the court was struck by<br />
boasts from Iran' s lea<strong>de</strong>rs whenever<br />
they wanted "to silence an uncomfort~,<br />
able voice." He cited a television interview<br />
~iven br Iran's intelligence minister,<br />
Ali Fallahiyan, in August 1992 - a<br />
month before the Mykonos killings - in<br />
which he bragged about Iran's ability to<br />
launch" <strong>de</strong>cisive strikes" against its opponents<br />
abroad.<br />
According to court docwnents, Mr.<br />
Fallahiyan was <strong>de</strong>legated by the special<br />
operations council to carry out the plan.<br />
He contacted Kazem Darabi, an Iranian<br />
181