Seeking the Smoking Fuse

Uncle Sam is always listening. With high-tech spy satellites, ships jammed with electronic gadgetry, super- sophisticated listening posts around the globe and eavesdropping devices--and sometimes with the help of plain old- fashioned human spies--the U.S. constantly monitors many of the key telephone conversations and cable traffic of its friends and foes alike. The U.S. intelligence community does not want to reveal which of these methods it used to listen in as Colonel Gaddafi sent orders from Tripoli to his far-flung terror network. But U.S. officials insist there is little doubt that a fortnight ago the U.S. intercepted communications that specifically link Gaddafi with the bombing of a West German disco that claimed the life of a U.S. serviceman and injured 230 people, including dozens of off-duty American soldiers.

Indeed, it appears that the U.S. almost learned about the bombing plot in time to warn American soldiers to stay out of Berlin's nightspots before & the terrorists struck. Military police were already moving to alert G.I.s in the streets of Berlin when the bomb decimated La Belle disco. "We were about 15 minutes too late," NATO Commander General Bernard Rogers told a school audience in Atlanta last week. According to high-ranking intelligence officials, the U.S. intercepted a message from Gaddafi's headquarters to his henchmen in the Libyan "people's bureau" in East Berlin informing them that terrorists, probably Palestinian, would strike at locations in West Berlin where Americans are known to congregate. U.S. intelligence also reportedly picked up a communication from Tripoli offering "congratulations" after the blast. Asserted a top National Security Council official last week: "We have Gaddafi up to his ears in this bombing operation."

The U.S., of course, needs to be able to prove Gaddafi's complicity in order to justify reprisals, particularly military measures. The lack of "hard evidence" is constantly cited as a pretext by uneasy allies seeking to sidestep firm measures against the supporters of terrorism. Not everyone was satisfied with what Washington felt it could safely reveal. West German intelligence officials, who were provided with abbreviated and heavily edited summaries of the intercepted transmissions, accepted that there was some Libyan complicity in the Berlin bombing but were unwilling to hang all the blame on Gaddafi.

American intelligence officials faced a familiar dilemma: by disclosing too much they risked compromising their secret sources and methods of gathering intelligence. In fact, by revealing that they had broken the Libyan diplomatic code, they inevitably caused the Libyans to change it and become more careful about using the telephone. "The leaks have caused us a setback," conceded one National Security Agency official last week. "It will now take us more time to break the new codes, and in the meantime, we will be kept in the dark."

U.S. officials are somewhat doubtful of finding a Gaddafi link to the bombing of a TWA jet two weeks ago that cost four lives. The evidence so far remains sketchy, though intelligence experts were at least familiar with the type of bomb used to blow a hole in the airliner's fuselage. The timing device of the highly sophisticated bomb is activated by pressure--in this case, when a passenger sat on the seat under which it was placed. A similar bomb had exploded aboard a Pan Am flight from Tokyo to Honolulu in 1982. According to < intelligence reports, only one terrorist is known to have the expertise to make this kind of bomb: a man who goes by the code name Rashid. Already a legend in the international terror network for his talents, Rashid was believed to be working for a terrorist group called the May 15 or Abu Ibrahim organization. The May 15 group works for the Syrian intelligence service, not Gaddafi, say U.S. officials. Indeed, a prime suspect in the case, May Elias Mansur, who is believed to have planted the bomb's detonator under the seat before getting off the flight during a stopover in Athens, has been linked to Syrian terrorist groups. But why would the Syrians get involved in this particular terrorist operation? One NSC official admitted that the U.S. is "still fishing" for clues--and still hoping that they will ultimately lead to Gaddafi's doorstep.