Anti-terrorism moves

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33032, 27 September 1972, Page 15

Anti-terrorism moves

(N.Z. Press Assn.—Copyright) WASHINGTON, Sept. 26.

President Nixon todayannounced the formation of a special Federal committee to combat international terrorism.

The new committee is to be headed by the Secretary of State (Mr William Rogers), who earlier made an appeal to the United Nations General Assembly for vigorous world action against terrorism.

In a memorandum to Mr Rogers, President Nixon said that the task of the committee would be to co-ordinate anti-terrorist activity by various branches of the Administration. “This will include such activities as the collection of intelligence world wide and the physical protection of United States personnel and installations abroad, and foreign diplomats and diplomatic installations abroad, and foreign diplomats and diplomatic installations in the United States.” the memorandum said. Mr Nixon asked the Sec-

retary of State to maintain constant contact with foreign governments and world bodies to promote international co-operation against terrorism.

Apart from Mr Rogers, the committee will include the Defence Secretary (Mr Melvin Laird), the Attorney-Gen-eral (Mr Robert Kleindienst), President Nixon’s national security adviser (Dr Henry Kissinger), and the heads of the Central Intelligence Agency (C.1.A.) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (F. 8.1. To the General Assembly on the first day of its annual policy debate, Mr Rogers said that political passion, however deeply held, could not be a justification for criminal violence against innocent people. Citing the hijacking of aircraft, the Lydda airport massacre, the murder of the Israeli Olympic athletes, and the firing of shots at the Soviet-U.N. mission, among other violent incidents, Mr Rogers said that everyone had a stake in taking decisive action to “suppress these demented acts.”

They must be universally condemned whether the

cause the perpetrators invoked was considered noble or ignoble, legitimate, or illegitimate. Mr Rogers proposed a convention which would oblige States party to it to undertake to apply severe penalties against terrorists and establish a three-member conciliation commission to try to settle any dispute arising out of the application or interpretation of the treaty. “In this year alone 25 airliners from 13 countries have been successfully hijacked, and 26 other attempts have been frustrated,” Mr Rogers told the 132-nation Assembly.

“In this year alone 140 airplane passengers and crew have been killed and 97 wounded in acts of terrorism.”

“In five years 27 diplomats from 11 countries have been kidnapped and three assassinated. In New York Arab and other missions have been threatened,” he said. Apparently alluding to Arab and African reservaitions to inclusion in the Assembly’s agenda of an item on terrorism and the amendment of its title to cover the "underlying causes” of violence, Mr Rogers said that the issue was not war

or the strivings of people to achieve self-determination and independence. “Rather it is whether millions of air travellers can continue to fly in safety each year. It is whether a person who received a letter can open it without the fear of being blown up. It is whether diplomats can safely carry out their duties,” he said. “It is whether international meetings, like the Olympic Games, like this Assembly, can proceed without the ever-present threat of violence,” he added. Mr Rogers urged all States which had not ratified the anti-hijacking conventions to do so. He said that a draft treaty calling for the prosecution or extradition of those who attacked or kidnapped diplomats and public officials should be completed and opened for signature at this Assembly session.

A treaty providing for the suspension of all air service to countries which failed to punish or extradite hijackers or saboteurs of civil aircraft should be promptly completed and opened for signature. And anv nation which harboured hijackers should be ostracised.