Page:Documents from the Den of Espionage.djvu/19



PARTICIPANTS: John D. Stempel, Political Officer, US Embassy, Yoram Shani, Israeli First Secretary

SUBJECT: Terrorists in Iran and Miscellaneous

DISTRIBUTION: Charge/ADCM, POL, POL/M, ECON, OR, USIS, BIO, NEA/IRN, INR/RNA, INR/OIL/B

DATE & PLACE: May 18, 1977, Xanadu Restaurant, Tehran

I briefed Shani on Secretary Vance's visit and indicated the trip had gone well. Shani said he had heard there was concern over the Secretary's comment which suggested the US and Iran did not agree on everything. I offered to provide him a transcript of the press conference to illustrate that this concern was unnecessary.

-- Shani said newspaper reports of an attempt by two terrorists to shoot their way into the Jewish Agency were only semi-correct. There were two men involved and both were killed. They had no connection with known terrorists movements, though one had served a prison sentence, allegedly for crimes against the state. Shani said it was not even clear that the pair were going to attack the Jewish immigration agency. Police stopped them on the street; the pair open fired and in the ensuing gun battle one terrorist took refuge in the Jewish agency where he was killed. The Iranians believe the pair were fanatical right-wing Muslims who may have been casing the Jewish Agency for future action.

-- Shani said friends of his reported there had been a terrorist shootout May 16 somewhere in Tehran when police cornered a group in two safe houses. The battle lasted two hours and security forces reportedly lost seven men when some of the terrorists were killed, but noted his friend said that all involved were eventually shot.

- Shani said a close friend of his, who said he had talked to a peripheral member of terrorist group which shot three Rockwell employees in August 196, told him the following story which is being spread by the terrorist group:

The terrorist group was really after just one of the men -- a CIA Major (sic) who had landed in Iran about 14 hours before the killing, ostensibly with a complete scheme for tapping Tehran's telephone lines. The two other people killed were shot because they drew revolvers, but the principal target of the operation was "the CIA Major". (Comment: All of the employees killed had lived in Iran for sometime though one had just returned the night before from leave -- none were carrying weapons. The flaws in this story suggest an obvious propaganda attempt.)