Kadafi Seen as ‘More Dangerous’ : U.S. Analysis Says He Seeks Personal Revenge on Reagan

WASHINGTON — Libyan leader Moammar Kadafi is “more dangerous” now than before the U.S. retaliatory raid against Libya and is seeking personal revenge against President Reagan, according to a State Department intelligence analysis, the contents of which became known Thursday.

When asked about the assessment, which was first reported by ABC television, department spokesman Charles Redman said one account--that the President’s four children would be prime targets if Kadafi were to exact retribution in the Arab tradition for the reported death of an adopted daughter in the April 15 raid--”is something that I’ve not seen.”

According to an official who spoke on condition that he not be identified, the assessment emphasized the personal character of the revenge the Libyan leader hopes to achieve. The threat to the Reagan family was not specified, he said, although the inference could be drawn.

Redman, stressing that no final approval of the report has been made, said that “there are many assessments, many analyses of all kinds of issues being made by many experts.” He pointed out that Secretary of State George P. Shultz had not passed judgment on the report.

At the White House, spokesman Edward P. Djerejian said he is unaware of any added protection for the presidential family since the Libyan raid. “I am sure every precaution is being taken,” Djerejian said.

Meanwhile, Shultz on Thursday publicly repeated Reagan’s warning to Syria and Iran the day before that they, too, could suffer U.S. retaliation if they are proved to be sponsors of anti-American terrorism.

Asked About Reprisals

In a satellite-linked news conference broadcast by the U.S. Information Agency’s “Worldnet” program, the secretary noted that the United States has shown in the bombing attack on Tripoli and Benghazi that it will use military power in combatting terrorism.

However, when a French questioner asked about possible military reprisals against Syria and Iran, Shultz said that “we don’t have any plans for such operations.”

But the secretary of state, in a comment that could apply to both Syria and Iran, was quick to add that “when the terrorists have the support and connivance of a state, it’s particularly ominous” and that “you have to focus on that and the President has set that out in clear and stark terms.”

Asked by a Canadian journalist about Kadafi’s control over Libya, Shultz acknowledged media reports that Kadafi has been forced to share power with other military leaders, but was less than specific about the issue, on which there are varying opinions in Washington: “I assume that he’s the dominant figure, but I don’t have any basis for making a judgment.”

Last week, Administration officials had said there were indications that a coup attempt against Kadafi had been aborted. The Times of London reported Wednesday that a five-man military junta may have wrestled away some of Kadafi’s control over Libya since the U.S. raid. Other media sources have pointed out, however, that Libya long has had a military council form of government, at least nominally.

Although the Administration considers Syria and Iran as states that support terrorism, its focus in recent months has been primarily on Libya, well before the March 24 military confrontation over disputed waters of the Gulf of Sidra and the subsequent bombing of Libyan sites. The Administration said it bombed Libya because it had proof of Libya’s role in the April 5 bombing of a West Berlin discotheque.

Shultz, pointing to the discotheque bombing, which killed an American serviceman, said that “the evidence is very clear that it was a Libyan operation.”

‘Unequivocal Evidence’

“And they tried to disguise that fact by recruiting people and by the method through which they carried it out,” he added. “But our evidence of the fact that it was a Libyan-planned and executed and supported operation is unequivocal.”

The secretary sought to downplay difference with the allies in Europe over the U.S. military action against Libya, saying that the threat of global terrorism, as well as the “involvement and culpability” of Kadafi’s regime, generally recognized on an international level. He said he was optimistic that any difference with the allies could be resolved at the Tokyo economic summit next month, which will be attended by seven leading industrial nations.

“We’re moving ahead together, right now with our friends in Europe, and I think the things the Europeans have done and are saying now are very much on the mark,” Shultz said.