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(b)(3),

Tracing Terrorist Explosives

Explosives stolen from a quarry in Ecaussines, Bel- the CCC. We do not know how the “Iranian People's gium, in 1984 appear to have been dispersed widely Fedayeen Guerrilla Organization" obtained the 6 throughout Europe, and we expect there will be more kilograms of explosives, but Belgian police found terrorist incidents using these explosives. After a fingerprints of two of the group's members in the number of bombings in 1984 and 1985 conducted by apartment of a key CCC leader who was arrested in four West European terrorist groups using the explo- June 1986. This was the first indication the explosives sives, French and West German authorities in 1986 stolen in Ecuassine

€(b)(3)gone to a non-European began to find more of the explosives that had been

terrorist group. cached for future use. At least 550 of the 815 kilograms stolen remain unaccounted for and proba- Who Was Responsible? bly are in terrorists' hands(b)(3)

Police have never made any arrests for the theft, but

there is plentifUL circumstantial evidence that memThe explosives have been used in attacks by the bers of one or more of the terrorist groups that used French group Action Directe (AD), West Germany's the explosives were involved in the theft. Witnesses Red Army Faction (RAF), the Belgian Communist reported seeing RAF hardcore member Sigrid SterneCombatant Cells (CCC), as well as another Belgian beck near the quarry at the time of the attempted group, the Revolutionary Front for Proletarian Action break-in on 1 May. Furthermore, a CCC communi(FRAP). This common use represented the strongest que correctly identified the commercial names of the evidence of cooperation among these groups in a dynamite and the amount stolen. They went on to Euroterrorist campaign that reached its peak in late claim “internationalist revolutionaries" stole the exgroup explosives in 1986, to the best of our knowledge. bility.

(3)

1984 and early 1985. There were no attacks using the plosives, b(b)(3);roup did not directly take responsi(1) (3)

The most recent discoveries have been linked to AD and the RAF. French police found some of the dynamite during a raid on a farmhouse near Orleans, France, in which four key leaders of AD were arrested on 21 February. The discovery in Orleans marked the first time any of the explosives have been tied directly to one of the groups since January 1986. That month, Belgian police uncovered a large quantity of the explosives during raids on CCC safehouses

police in Duesseldorf, West Germany, arrested two French Corsicans on 4 March 1987 in possession of 1,5 kilograms of explosives that may have come from the quarry in Ecaussines. Local authorities believe the Corsicans intended to sell the explosives to the RAF, but the dynamite has not yet been conclusively tied to the quarry theft

The timing of the groups' attacks following the theft and the links among members of the groups also suggest the break-in was carried out by one or more of the groups. The RAF, AD, CCC, and FRAP launched a coordinated campaign against NATO that ran from August 1984 through. December 1985 and used the explosives stolen from the Belgian quarry in as many as 18 of their attacks. Before the campaign, in July 1984, West German authorities had discov. ered documents indicating that the RAF intended to embark on a three-pronged effort, suggesting planning was well along before the Ecaussines theft. Although we do not know when the groups.began planning their activities, the complexity, pace, and duration of their.operations suggest they needed a significant amount of time to prepare, including locat. ing and acquiring the explosives for the bombings.

(b)(3)

)(3)

French police also found a small quantity of the dynamite in September 1986 in a cache associated with a Marxist Iranian group that possibly has ties to

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Secret DI TR 87-006 26 March 1987

Approved for Release: 2017/09/13 C05922886