Bulletin de liaison et d'information - Institut kurde de Paris

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