Posted on 10/12/2004 10:13:54 AM PDT by BenLurkin
BAKERSFIELD - Terrorism and the battle to fight it did not begin on Sept. 11, 2001, and the battle will not be quickly or easily won. That was the message of Robert Gates, former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, to his audience at Saturday's Bakersfield Business Conference.
"Terror is a global challenge that will take many years and many forms to defeat," Gates said. "What amazes me is how long it took for us to react to terror against us."
The only officer in CIA history to rise from entry-level employee to director, Gates served as director from November 1991 to January 1993. Before that, he was assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser.
Through luck, terrorists' mistakes and good police work, earlier terror attacks on the United States were thwarted throughout the 1990s, Gates said. Similar victories were won abroad during that period, although some attempts were successful: attacks on the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, the U.S. embassies in Africa and the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen.
In the 1970s and 1980s, most terror activities were orchestrated and supported by countries, Gates said, making them easier to track and squelch. Now, however, most are independent, freelance organizations with religiously motivated, "profoundly revolutionary" aims.
"Al-Qaida and other radical Islamists are very different than the foes we have fought before," he said. "This struggle will go on for a very long time.
"We can be certain terrorists will hit America again, as well as our allies, with weapons of mass destruction."
As for those weapons of mass destruction, "the world is awash in this stuff," Gates said.
Included in that category are thousands of unsecured nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union and a global network for smuggling nuclear weapons hardware and technologies.
The first line of defense against these threats is intelligence, he said. However, lack of coordination, information-sharing and resources have hampered this defense.
In addition, the nation's leadership failed to heed warnings of a growing threat in the 1990s, Gates said. "(Leaders) failed to show the citizens these things mattered and should be paid for."
However, "with all its faults, American intelligence is still the best."
ping
"Al-Qaida and other radical Islamists are very different than the foes we have fought before," he said. "This struggle will go on for a very long time. "We can be certain terrorists will hit America again, as well as our allies, with weapons of mass destruction."
As for those weapons of mass destruction, "the world is awash in this stuff," Gates said. Included in that category are thousands of unsecured nuclear weapons from the former Soviet Union and a global network for smuggling nuclear weapons hardware and technologies.
..........Hong Kong need NEVER worry
.............
Go Brits .....
?........FYI.......ping.
Thanks for the ping.
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