Posted on 10/25/2001 3:40:20 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
`If it were a snake, it would have bit you.'' That's the age-old response for failing to see the obvious. I think of that adage as our undivided attention is riveted on the other side of the world. The fact is, one of the biggest bastions of terrorism is not a world away, but right under our nose. A two-hour flight from Miami will land you in Colombia, the most dangerous country in the world.
Nearby, the tri-border area of Argentina, Paraguay and Brazil is a lawless place where members of Hamas, Hezbollah and other groups linked to Osama bin Laden are probably planning other terrorist attacks. And from the bottom of South America straight up to U.S. border cities flows a pipeline of illegal drugs and weapons.
This is not the far-away, distant Middle East; this is our neighborhood in the Western Hemisphere.
As my predecessor, the late Sen. Paul Coverdell, often stated: We ignore our neighbors at our own peril. Our foreign policy in the Americas has been conducted in fits and starts, driven mainly by crises.
We have failed to tend to the region, and cracks have appeared in what just five years ago was an emerging shield of democracy, security and economic opportunity. Today Argentina is on the verge of financial collapse. Oil giant Venezuela has a president who is openly hostile to the United States. Nicaragua is on the verge of electing a former communist with strong ties to Libya and Iraq. Civil unrest, unemployment and crime are on the rise in many Latin American democracies.
But what should concern us most is that this region is home to well-established, well-financed criminal networks -- with better resources than the governments that are trying to stop them. A third of the world's identified terrorist groups have operations in Latin America. In 1993, surface-to-air missiles were found in the suburbs of Managua. This summer, Irish Republican Army bomb-making experts were seen ca- vorting with Colombian rebels.
So, what can we do?
Install a strong diplomat for the top Western Hemisphere post at the State Department. The Senate needs to send the message that we understand this region and that we take seriously the security threat it poses. It is deplorable that we have stalled in filling this critical job when our president and secretary of state have been urging us to do so.
Continue increasing security along our borders. Just think what might have happened if authorities had not stopped an Algerian terrorist at the Canadian border in December 1999, before he had a chance to carry out his plan -- bin Laden's plan -- to blow up a millenium celebration with his carload of explosives.
Obtain better intelligence and greater cooperation among our allies in the region. We should focus on isolating terrorists and their backers with economic weapons and strategic alliances. Coverdell agreed with current Western Hemisphere Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd that we should establish a regional security alliance patterned after similar arrangements we formed after World War II. I am encouraged that the Organization of American States recently passed a similar resolution of security cooperation in support of the United States. We should build on this momentum.
Hit drug and terrorist groups through strong money-laundering legislation, such as that just passed by the Senate Banking Committee. The Treasury Department now is implementing the drug-kingpin legislation passed last year. This legislation targets American individuals and companies that willingly do business with drug dealers, terrorists or other enemies of the United States. Now we must back up this law with enough resources to make it a viable tool.
While bin Laden is hiding in Afghanistan, his lesser-known lieutenants are two hours away from Miami. Soon, this snake is going to bite us. It is time to shift some of our focus closer to home, on these volatile, hostile countries harboring terrorists right under our nose.
Zell Miller is a Democrat U.S. senator from Georgia. ©2001 The Washington Times
Nuke um.
--Boris
(November 5, 2001)National Review In Castro's Service By John J. Miller
The last three paragraphs of Miller's article:
Then there's the bizarre case of Mohammed Raza Hassani, Nez Nezar Nezary, and Ali Sha Yusufi-three Afghan men recently detained in the Cayman Islands. They carried fake Pakistani passports and claimed to have gotten off a boat bound for Canada from Turkey. The police commissioner, however, determined that they actually had arrived by plane from Cuba. They were still in the Caymans on August 29 when a local radio station received an anonymous note saying that they share an association with Osama bin Laden. "The three agents are here organizing a major terrorist act against the U.S. via an airline or airlines," said the letter. The station gave it to the authorities. Soon after September 11, they tracked down its author, Byron Barnett, a local building contractor, who says his note was "pure speculation" and based on "a premonition." This incident has received scant attention from the media.
It's a startling story, perhaps even revelatory; then again, maybe there's nothing to it apart from amazing coincidence. But what is beyond doubt is that even though the Wasp Network has been busted and Ana Belen Montes is under arrest, those Cuban numbers stations continue to broadcast their coded messages several times each day.
Who is listening to them? [End Excerpt]
Children's Code--Links to other news stories and columns about Castro and Communism.
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