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Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP96-00788R000100330001-5 WASHINGTON POST 1 June 1984 Pg. B-4 ‘Terrorism _ Of Words Oliver Banks The. -reviewer, a New York art consultant, is the author of two mystery novels, “The Rembrandt Panel” and “The Caravaggio Obses- sion.” The year is 1977, the place is Rome, and the title of Michael Mew- ‘shaw's-new novel, “The Year of the Gun,” is borrowed from journalists’ apt description of the chaotic period Book World YEAR OF THEGUN. By Michael Mewshaw (Atheneum. 273 pp. $14.95) when the Red Brigades made urban terrorism’ a serious (even deadly) as- pect of Italian life. David Rayborne, a young. American expatriate and the hero of .Mewshaw’s tense and rather bleak thriller, mocks.the phrase, calling it-the “Year of the Fun” instead. The reader is aware that Rayborne’s flip- ig a’ serious mistake long before borne himself does. Rayborne is a journalist who man- ages to eke out a marginal existence working for an expatriate newspaper. Realizing that he needs more money simply to survive, he allows himself to be pressured into writing a book about the Red Brigades—‘from the inside.” Conning his American agent into a belief that he hes important sources in the Red Brigades, Rayborne: accepts a hefty: advance on the premise that he can infiltrate a terrorist cell. In reality, what. he intends. to write is a. literary hoax, a totally fictional account based on other published accounts as well as -his own invention. Even before Ray- borne “invents” the kidnaping of the “CONTINUED NEXT PAGE Approved For Release 2000/08/07 : CIA-RDP$6-00788R000100330001-5 -- TERRORISM -- 26 JUNE 1984 BOOKS — ali: SPECIAL EDITION RUSI March 1984 The complexities of terrorism The War Against Terrorism By Neil C. Livingstone (Lexington Books/Gower, Aldershot, 1983) £19.50, 291 pages Neil Livingstone is an unabashed Republican and has written a rum-tum-tum Republican book. Not for him the “moralistic binge” of the Carter Administration, staffed by ‘singularly guileless and untutored . . . appointees” furthermore he laments that despite Reagan's strong rhetoric, at the end of his first year in office little in the way of substantive policy dealing with the problem of terrorism had emerged. So, a 14 point programme provides the book's conclusion. Among the proposals is the revitalisation of the CIA with a paramilitary capability, . linkage in negotiations with the Soviets so as to reduce terrorist violence, the overthrow of Colonel Qaddafi, as "the financier of more than 40 terrorist groups ranging from the PFLP to the IRA, the addition of a covert dimension to anti-terrorist strike units and the payment of a £250,000 bounty by any US embassy for terrorists named by US intelligence as having contributed to the death of US representatives. , Mr Livingstone understands that the USSR views terror- ism as a low cost strategy for achieving geopolitical goals, he does not see that the USA is making similar experi- ments in central America. The problem of containment is not as simple as he makes out. Nor are the origins of the phenomenon, nor indeed the reasons for escalation. It is simply not true to say that PIRA has become a doctrinaire Marxist organisation, whose leaders travel frequently to the USSR, receive arms and training from Libya, Cuba and the PFLP and who maintain effective links with the Soviet KGB and the Cuban DGI. When speaking more generally, Livingstone can also be read mistakenly. For instance kidnapping is not a principal source of finance for terrorists, although in some few cases it has been, nor do terrorist groups generally traffic in drugs and they are certainly not responsible for their appearance in Spain. Attempts to generalise often lead the author into mislead- ing assertions which are half truths: the fact is that terrorism is too complex a phenomenon on which to generalise. Further chapters deal with the terrorist profile, where no common traits between different groups can be discerned; the media connection, where stiff sanctions for journalists who abuse a strict professional code are recommended; hijacking; weaponry, where nothing extra- vagant is predicted; and targets. Part two is concerned with the war against terrorism, both from the point of view of the state and the private sector. There is an alphabetical bibliography and an index. The author is president of the Institute for Subnational Conflict and Director for Terrorism and Low-Level Warfare at the American Security Council. PETER JANKE