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The Southern Israelite The Weekly Newspaper For Southern Jewry • Since 1925 Vol. LXII Atlanta, Georgia, Friday, January 3, 1986 No. 1 •H 2 C c r~ X X' ex C. x tx Cl m >- rn c C ~< LT, X > > C rn > Jury finds racist group guilty in Seattle trial It’s a deal Ivory Coast President Felix Houphouet-Boigny shakes hands with Prime Minister Shimon Peres in Geneva last month. After a secret meeting the two leaders announced the decision to restore diplomatic relations between Israel and the Ivory Coast. SEATTLE (JTA)—Ten members of The Order, a violent anti-Semitic and white supremacist group based in the Northwest, were convicted Monday of racketeeringcharges that included murder, armed robbery and counterfeiting as part of their plot to kill Jews, deport non-whites and overthrow the government. The verdict in the trial, which began in September, was reached after the jury deliberated for two weeks. Each of the nine men and one woman convicted of violating the 1972 federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations(RICO) Act was found guilty of at least two offenses. The 10 who were on trial were among 23 members of The Order indicted in April on similar charges. Eleven made plea-bargain arrange ments and never stood trial, another was convicted of the murder of a highway patrol officer, and one is still at large. The jury heard from 370 witnesses and received approximately 1,500 pieces of evidence to support the prosecution’s contention that the purpose of The Order was to over throw the “Zionist-controlled” government. The Order was charged with the 1984 murder of Alan Berg, the Jewish radio personality who was outspoken in his condemnation of anti-Semitic and rightwing indivi duals and outfits. Convicted of racketeering Monday were Bruce Carroll Pierce, who was captured last spring in Rossville, Ga.; Randolph Duey, Gary Yarbrough, Andrew Barnhill, Richard Kemp, David Lane, Andrew McBrearty, Randall Evans, Frank Silva and Jean Craig. Pierce, Duey, Yarbrough, Kemp and Barnhill were also found guilty in an assortment of charges relating to armored car robberies, while Duey and Silva were convicted of harboring a fugitive and Duey was found guilty of various firearms counts. Richard Scutari, reportedly the Order’s security chief, has not been caught. David Tate, who was among those originally indicted, was found guilty in November of killing a Missouri state trooper. The founder of the group, former tax protester Robert Mathews, was killed in a shoot-out with federal agents. Israel focuses on Li by i in wake of latest attac by Yaacov Ben Yosef Special to The Southern Israelite JERUSALEM — The terrorist attacks in Rome and Vienna last Friday have raised the distinct possibility of an Israeli retaliation against PLOtargets. Major pressure— both for and against such a retaliation— has been building on Prime Minister Shimon Peres. Meanwhile, the potentially dangerous situation created by the emplacement of Syrian ground-to-air missiles in positions threatening Israel’s intelli gence overflights of Lebanon has taken a step for the worse. The terrorist attacks, staged at Rome’s Da Vinci Airport and at Vienna’s Schwecat Airport, left 18 dead (15 in Rome, 3 in Vienna) and another 1 12 wounded (75 in Rome, 37 in Vienna). The terrorists, using hand grenades and automatic weapons, launched their attacks within minutes of each other, in essentially public areas, but near the El A1 check-in desks. One Israeli was killed; a second was in critical condition. Credit was taken by the Abu Nidal group, a breakaway unit once part of the PLO, now under the auspices of Libya. Hawks in the Israeli cabinet are reportedly insisting to Peres that he take action since to do otherwise would create the impression of Israeli diffidence to terrorism; but American Assistant Secretary of State Richard Murphy urged the Israeli government to check carefully just who was responsible for Friday’s attacks before retaliating. Peres on Sunday evening gave the impression that Libya was the focus of Israel’s attention as far as identifying those who carried out the twin attacks. In a Jerusalem speech, the prime minister accused Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi of “drumming up hatred and extremism.” Peres called Libya “the world center of international terrorism;” he charged Libya with “the indiscriminate killing of men, women and children.” While the Abu Nidal group took credit for the airport attacks, Israel tended not to be impressed with such acknowledgements. “It’s irrelevant who eventually claims responsibility for the attacks,” stated the prime minister on Sunday evening. “Whether it is Abu Nidal, Nayef Hawatme or George Habash, we must not give in to the PLO. As long as that organization stands for terror, we will fight them all the way.” But there was one important restraint on Israel’s wish to retaliate for the Friday assaults and that was the continuing, tense situation with regard to the Syrian missiles. Were the Israelis to carry out an air Yaacov Ben Yosef attack against terrorist elements in the Beka’a Valley in Lebanon, the Syrians might then be tempted to call upon their SAM-2 missiles recently deployed in Syria but near the Lebanon-Syrian frontier. That could lead to a serious deterioration in the general military situation between Israel and Syria. The missile situation took an even more serious turn last week with the news that the Syrians had reintroduced their SAM-6 and SAM-8 ground-to-air missiles into Lebanon. The Syrians oppose Israel’s reconnaissance overflights of Lebanon but Israel insists that such flights are vital for its intelligence gathering. Israel has stopped its intelligence overflights of Lebanon which are within range of the Syrian missiles now that the Syrian missiles are in threatening postures to those flights. The Israelis had hoped that, after quiet diplomacy had failed to persuade the Syrians to remove the missiles they had introduced into Lebanon on Nov. 20, a public campaign which began Dec. 15, would have the desired effect. But with the reintroduction of those missiles into Lebanon, it was now clear that the public campaign had had no effect either. In fact, it The body of a second kidnapped Jewish man was found in west Beirut Wednesday. The discovery of the body of Isaac Tarrab, 53, followed by a week the finding of the body of 39-year-old Haim Cohen Halala, said to be an Iranian Jew doing business in Lebanon. A Moslem fundamentalist group which calls itself the Organization of the Oppressed in the World took took only two days after the IL went public—on Dec. 15—with the fact that the Syrians had introduced missiles into Lebanon on Nov. 20, for the Syrians to go ahead and reintroduce those missiles into Lebanon. Israel had kept this news quiet until late last week, hoping to keep the already-high tension on the border from getting out of hand. But Prime M inister Peres confirmed it at a meeting with Israel’s editors in Tel Aviv on Dec. 26. Noting that the Syrians had moved the missiles back into Lebanon (“but not to the same locations”), Peres added that Israel wanted to avoid an escalation of tensions with Syria by engaging in “an exchange of rhetoric which may lead to something more severe. “It seems,” the prime minister went on, “the best policy is a policy of status quo. nobody will move, nobody starts moving, yet the move occurred and we are watching the situation very closely.” Some Israeli military analysts gave the Syrians the benefit of the doubt, arguing that they had put the missiles back into Lebanon to defend their SA M-2 missiles in Syria near the Lebanese- Syrian frontier. “It stems more from Syrian fears that we are going to attack them,” said former Deputy Chief of Staff and Air Force Commander David Ivri over Israel Radio last Friday. With the reintroduction of the missiles in Lebanon, the chances of an Israeli move to wipe out the missiles seemed to grow. And, indeed, some Israel’leaders began to sound more threatening. Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin told a Tel Aviv audience that Israel would deal with the problem “in its own time and according to its needs.” Foreign Minister Yitzhak Shamir said that the failure of Israel to retaliate might be construed as weakness on Israel’s part. responsibility for the killings and is reported to be holding hostage at least two other Lebanese Jews. The group said the killings were in retaliation for shelling of the southern Shiite villages by Israelis and their Christian allies of the South Lebanon Army. Israel has denied involvement in the shelling. Earlier, the organization, believed to be composed of Shiite activists, offered to release the Lebanese Jews if 300 Lebanese prisoners, mostly Shiites, in a southern village of A1 Khiyam were freed. Another kidnap victim found dead in west Beirut Horn wire reports x X c Li. rn Lj O x •—i