CIA Linked to ’86 Bombing

BERLIN TV TIES CIA, MOSSAD TO BERLIN TERROR ATTACK

German public television has made a compelling case that the CIA and 
Mossad were involved in the bombing of a disco in Berlin in 1986 to 
provide a rationale for attacking Libya.

Fifteen years after the terrorist bombing of a disco in Berlin, a German 
court has found four individuals guilty of the attack which killed two 
American servicemen and a Turkish woman.

But a documentary on German public television aired in 1998 disputes the 
case brought by German authorities against the group, presenting chilling 
evidence that the main suspects in the 1986 La Belle disco bombing worked 
for American and Israeli intelligence.

The bombing gave President Ronald Reagan the pretext to order the bombing 
of Libya. The bombs hit Libyan leader Mu am mar Qaddafi’s home, killing at 
least 30, including one of his infant children. Qaddafi was uninjured.

The TV documentary said its findings are significant today because the 
bombing of Libya is being cited as a precedent for America’s war on terror 
in Afghanistan and other countries around the world.

A Berlin court reached a verdict on four suspects on Nov. 14. A fifth 
individual was found not guilty.

Verena Chanaa, a 42-year-old German, accused of detonating the bomb, was 
found guilty of murder and sentenced to 14 years in prison.

Yassir Chraidi, a 42-year-old Palestinian, was convicted of multiple 
counts of attempted murder and accessory to murder. Musbah Eter, a 
44-year-old Libyan, and Ali Chanaa, a 42-year-old Lebanese-born German who 
is Verena Chanaa’s ex-husband were also found guilty of the same charges.

Chraidi was sentenced to 14 years. Eter and Ali Chanaa to 12 years each.
The fifth defendant, 36-year-old Andrea Haeusler, was found not guilty for 
lack of evidence. 

However, Zweites Deutsches Fernsehen (ZDF television) conducted its own 
investigation. According to the World Socialist Web Site (www.wsws.org), 
the documentary concluded:

• The lead defendant, Chraidi, is possibly innocent and is being used as a 
scapegoat by German and Ameri can intelligence services.

• At least one defendant, Eter, has been working for the CIA for many 
years, according to recently released East German and Soviet intelligence 
documents.

• Key suspects, who may have been involved in the bombing or had knowledge 
of it, have not appeared in court because they are being protected by 
Western intelligence services.

• At least one of the people who never appeared, Mohammed Amairi, is an 
agent of the Mossad, Israel’s secret service.

CIA ASSET

Chraidi, one of the men accused of masterminding the bombing, was a driver 
at the Libyan embassy in East Berlin in 1986. He later moved to Lebanon 
and was extradited to Germany in May 1996.

ZDF-TV interviewed the two Lebanese responsible for Chraidi’s extradition: 
the former public prosecutor Mounif Queidat and his deputy, Mrad Azoury. 
Both said German authorities used deceit to obtain Chraidi’s extradition.
Azoury said he found no evidence that Chraidi was involved in the attack 
but only “hints.”

“The Americans were behind this demand,” Queidat said. “This was obvious. 
They spurred the Germans to speed up the extradition.”

A Berlin judge found the evidence so weak he threatened to release 
Chraidi. At this point, another man was brought into the case who “was 
obviously supposed to be spared by the prosecution until then,” ZDF-TV 
said.

On Sept. 9, 1996, the day the judge had threatened to release Chraidi, 
Berlin public prosecutor Detlev Mehlis, Berlin police inspector Uwe 
Wilhelms and a “Mr. Win ter stein” of the German Federal Intelligence 
Service met Musbah Eter in the Mediterranean island state of Malta.

The meeting had been arranged by German intelligence, which maintains 
close connections to the CIA. Eter was running an international business 
in Malta, which, ZDF-TV said, served as a cover for CIA operations.

Eter was wanted by German law enforcement on mur der charges. Eter was 
offered immunity in exchange for testifying against Chraidi. The next day, 
Eter testified at the German embassy, the warrant against him was scrapped 
and he was allowed to return to Germany.

According to the German program, Eter was a key figure in the disco 
bombing. 

At the time of the attack, Eter worked for the Libyan embassy in East 
Berlin but visited the U.S. embassy frequently. This highly unusual fact 
was uncovered when communist intelligence notes were discovered af ter the 
fall of East Germany extensively documenting Eter’s visitations.

The German reporters tracked down another key figure in the terrorist act, 
Mohammed Amairi.

Amairi lived in Germany but had left for Norway when a warrant was issued 
for his arrest in 1990. ZDF-TV interviewed Amairi in Bergen. His lawyer, 
Odd Drev land, said Amairi “was a Mossad man.” The Mos sad, he said, had 
the charges dropped.

“These secret service intrigues present a task for the Berlin court that 
is almost insoluble,” the TV documentary concluded. “But one thing is 
certain: the American legend of Libyan state terrorism can no longer be 
maintained.

“It may come as a shock to many Americans, all the more so given the 
utterly venal and lying role of the U.S. media, but U.S. intelligence 
services are well versed in the most unscrupulous and bloody methods,” the 
German report says. No analysis of terror attacks carried out by Islamic 
groups can “rule out the possibility of a provocation, organized either 
directly or indirectly” by U.S. or Israeli intelligence. *