Posted on 04/04/2002 8:44:13 PM PST by knak
Concern is mounting among U.S. officials and military experts that the suicide bombings increasingly being used by Palestinians against Israel could spread to other parts of the world, including the United States.
"We're very concerned about the violence in the Middle East having ramifications elsewhere, including in this country, and it's something we're certainly watchful about," said Susan Neely, chief spokeswoman for Tom Ridge's Office of Homeland Security.
Unlike large-scale terrorist operations, suicide bombings are almost impossible to prevent by security measures, she said. As a result, the "new level of intensity" of suicide bombings in recent weeks has spurred U.S. officials to shore up precautions by tracking potential terrorists and studying intelligence reports from around the country and beyond.
"One of the things you try to do is get a tip-off that somebody is going to do something before it happens, and you thwart that attack," Neely said.
Suicide attacks already hit the United States with the plane crashes into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on Sept. 11. Now, military authorities are watching for smaller-scale attacks of the sort that are happening in Israel.
"Right now, our concern is to make sure we have a variety of mechanisms, both within the Department of Defense and other agencies, to hopefully prevent that from happening," said the Pentagon's Lt. Col. Rivers Johnson.
Ivo Daalder, a former official with the departments of Defense and State, says the planning is warranted.
"I think the United States, by being closely identified with Israel, may well turn out to be the next target, by blowing up Americans here at home or in the region," he said.
The worries among those involved with defense and security issues stem from three factors:
- Suicide bombings are easy and inexpensive to carry out, require little planning and are difficult to prevent.
- The use of this tactic has increased so rapidly in the past few weeks.
- In many ways, the campaign is succeeding.
"It's a very real concern, because we have more enemies than anyone else, and we have interests all over the world," said James Lindsay, director of the terrorism project at the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank.
"I think the last few weeks in the Middle East suggest that we're actually losing ground in our battle against terrorism. What we've seen in the Palestinian conflict is that terrorism is becoming a mass movement."
Most alarming, Lindsay said: "They're winning. They feel the Israelis are on their heels."
Not only are the suicide bombers killing large numbers of Israelis, they're also inflicting fear on the population, creating doubts about the future and disrupting the normal pattern of life. They've also provoked a military response from Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon that has scuttled an Arab peace proposal that many of them oppose and have made their grievances the lead topic around much of the world.
Daalder said: "There is now widespread support not just in the Arab street but also in Arab governments about this as an approach to get Israel's attention. This has become an acceptable mode of behavior among Palestinian youth. In fact, it's one that's being actively encouraged now."
Ra'ana Gissin, a senior adviser to Sharon, said other countries are at risk.
"We are facing a new type of terrorism," he said. "If Israel is not successful in stopping it, it will spread around the world."
Some analysts downplayed the notion that suicide bombings stand apart from other types of terrorist attacks, pointing out that a terrorist could just as easily kill 15 or 20 or more people by walking into a hotel lobby with a machine gun and spraying bullets in all directions.
"My own impression is that this particular tactic of blowing yourself up isn't likely to spread," said Michael Scardaville, homeland security expert at the Heritage Foundation, another Washington think tank. "It takes a certain type of fanatical person to go ahead and do that."
Terrorists could easily "park a truck bomb outside a building, go get a cup of coffee across the street and watch it blow up," he said.
The real danger, said John Wolfsthal of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, is not that suicide bombings will spread to this country but rather that with the impact the attacks in Israel are having, terrorists will be emboldened, whatever their tactics.
But Brookings' Lindsay said that suicide bombings hold a particular attraction for those who deploy this method.
"In the West Bank, you could have a bomb in a satchel and throw it into a hotel lobby and run away, but they're not doing it, because the action has some social, cultural, religious and personal value," Lindsay said.
Suicide bombings also inflict a specific kind of anxiety and fear on the targeted nation, Daalder said, in part because there is no possible defense, as opposed to the chance, for instance, of an armed guard shooting a gunman.
"Yes, it could take a different form," he said. "You could drive cars over people or shoot people. But that's less dramatic than walking around and being a human bomb. It's the psychology of terror that is invoked by this."
And shortly thereafter Muslims and mosques in America would face the wrath of enraged vigilates.
And this was how hard to figure out????
Shame I'm quite friendly with an Iranian exile rug importer here and I know he hates the Muslim fundies.
NEWS ALERT! They already have! Can you say 9/11?
I wonder fine conservatives,,,,,if the Palis suicide bomb us /// should we:
Declare a cease-fire and negotiate?
Should Israel join the Arabs and sponsor a UN Resolution against us?
Should we appease??
Media person asks a stupid question and gets an appropriate non-answer.Media person persists and still gets non-answers to stupid questions.
Finally media person says "What would be your reaction to the violence in the Middle East having ramifications elsewhere, including in this country?"
Government spokesperson says "We're very concerned about the violence in the Middle East having ramifications elsewhere, including in this country, and it's something we're certainly watchful about."
Voila! Now the story is written sounding like the government spokesperson called a press conference to make this startling announcement.
I'm not joking .... I've seen this sort of thing happen.
And remember that We ( My President) don't officially consider Arafat and his supporters as terrorists!
So suicide bombings that have already occurred and will occur because of the PLO issu are not terrorism but rather a struggle of a people for self determination!
Perhaps the PLO may apply for some US funds in their struggle for self determination.
BARF BARF BARF
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