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723 FEDERAL SUPPLEMENT, 2d SERIES
training and ideological support and resources provided by defendants. North
Korea used the JRA and the PFLP as
proxies to do its bidding, in that way allowing North Korea to avoid having to take
responsibility for the massacre.
Rather than reiterate many of the findings presented by Prof. Rubin set forth
above, the Court will focus on trial and
affidavit testimony presented by Prof. Bechtol which further highlights defendants’
role in the attack.
B.
Prof. Bechtol stated in his affidavit testimony that the JRA, almost from its inception, maintained client relationship with
the CGIB. (Exhibit No. 4, ¶ 17) North
Korean agents passed instructions to their
JRA cadres and provided them with various material resources, including training
and various weapons. Some JRA members sought and were provided refuge in
North Korea itself, where they were supported by the North Korean government.
(Exhibit No. 4, ¶ 18)
Testimony of Professor Bruce Bechtol
Plaintiffs presented both affidavit and
trial testimony by Bruce Bechtol, Professor of International Relations at the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
Prof. Bechtol also has served as an Assistant Professor of National Security Studies
at the Air Command and Staff College, an
adjunct Visiting Professor at the Korea
University Graduate School of International Studies and an adjunct Professor of
Diplomacy at Norwich University. He received a Ph.D. in National Security Studies
from the Union Institute, a master’s degree in international affairs from the Catholic University and a bachelor’s degree
from Excelsior College. (Exhibit No. 3)
Prof. Bechtol has extensive experience
in military affairs, having served on active
duty for 20 years in the United States
Marine Corps at various locations in the
western Pacific and East Asia. From 1997
until 2003, he was an Intelligence Officer
at the Defense Intelligence Agency, and
also served as the Senior Analyst for
Northeast Asia in the Intelligence Directorate (J2) on the Joint Staff in the
Pentagon. Prof. Bechtol has been published in 19 peer review journals and also
authored a comprehensive study of North
Korea, Red Rogue: The Persistent Challenge of North Korea (Potomac Books
2007), and has edited or been a contributing editor to several other books on North
Korea. More recently, Prof. Bechtol authored another book about North Korea,
whose publication is forthcoming, entitled
Defiant Failed State: The North Korean
Threat to International Security. (Exhibit No. 3)
Prof. Bechtol stated that Habash’s official visit to North Korea in September
1970 constituted a watershed event in the
tri-partite relationship between defendants, the PFLP and the JRA. He explained that the chain of evidence connecting the North Korean government to the
PFLP (and ultimately the JRA as well) is
further cemented by evidence that during
his stay in North Korea, Habash was able
to procure both weapons and funding from
defendants. (Trial Transcript, Dec. 2,
2009, p. 95, ln. 3)
The reasons behind North Korea’s interest in promoting a terrorist attack against
Israel were described in Prof. Bechtol’s
affidavit testimony. Prof. Bechtol outlined
various reasons for North Korea’s active
support of state and non-state terrorists
who, like North Korea, were hostile to the
United States and its allies. As explained
by Prof. Bechtol, North Korea has always
regarded the United States as its primary
enemy and its main threat to national survival. (Exhibit No. 3, ¶ 19) Israel is one of
Washington’s key allies and its most important democratic buffer in the Middle
East. Thus, supporting terrorist groups