Posted on 12/31/2002 3:09:11 AM PST by kattracks
Capitol Hill (CNSNews.com) - One homeland security advisor to the Bush administration charged Monday that the U.S. could not rely on defensive measures to gain victory in the war against terrorism. Other experts warned that terrorists will attempt another mass casualty attack against the U.S. in 2003.
Dr. David Kay is a counter-terrorism expert with the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies (PIPS), which sponsored a seminar Monday on the success of U.S. efforts to respond to terrorism and to deal with future threats. The chief U.N. nuclear weapons inspector in Iraq following the Gulf War, Kay believes the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks provoked an important change in the attitudes of government officials.
"I think 2002 ... was the tipping point when the metaphor for dealing with terrorism changed from 'terrorism is a crime' and the appropriate institutions for dealing with it are the police, law enforcement, and the judiciary," Kay said, "to 'terrorism is war,' and the appropriate tools for dealing with terrorism as war are completely different."
Such a shift in mindset is absolutely essential, Kay warned, for dealing with a threat he believes is eminent.
"Although we have often talked in the past ... about weapons of mass destruction or mass disruption, chemical, biological," Kay recalled, "I think 2003 will see terrorists finally making offensive use of technology to do us great harm."
Because of the potential for that threat to become a reality, Paul Bremer, chairman and CEO of Marsh Crisis Consulting, said the U.S. must fundamentally change its primary response to terrorist threats.
"This war cannot be won on the defensive," Bremer said. "No matter how good we make our homeland security, there is virtually no way we can defend all of the targets that terrorists can come after."
A member of the Bush administration's Homeland Security Advisory Council, Bremer served as ambassador-at-large for counter terrorism under President Reagan after spending 23 years with the U.S. Diplomatic Service. In 1999, House Speaker Dennis Hastert appointed him chairman of the National Commission on Terrorism.
Bremer believes terrorists' motivations have changed over the past 20 years from attracting attention for their causes to exacting retribution and revenge for perceived wrongs. That, combined with the potential for access to weapons of mass destruction, means the U.S. must abandon any ideas of responding to terrorism as a law enforcement problem.
"Wait and respond is no longer acceptable," Bremer explained. "We have to move from 'wait and respond' to 'detect and destroy.'"
Because potential targets are unlimited, terrorists would only need to seek out a "weak link" in U.S. security to launch a successful attack. That, Bremer said, leaves the administration with only one option.
"We have to go on the offensive," he said. "To be blunt, we have to kill the terrorists before they come here and kill us."
Michael Swetnam, CEO and chairman of the board of PIPS, offered his assessments of U.S. efforts to accomplish that and other counter-terrorism goals in 2002.
"I think that we can give ourselves a full bevy of mixed grades in our war against terrorism," he said.
Swetnam - co-author of Usama bin Laden's al-Qaida: Profile of a Terrorist Network , and a member of the technical advisory group to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence - gave the U.S. the following "grades" for its counter-terrorism efforts:
- A to A-minus: Assembling world coalitions in the fight against terror. Swetnam noted aid provided by Syria, Yemen and Pakistan, nations that have traditionally harbored terrorists;
- B to B-minus: Efforts to fight al Qaeda. While the U.S. has disrupted the organization, seized some of its money, and captured or killed many of its leaders, more then three-fourths of the group's leadership is alive and attempting to regroup;
- C-minus: Reconstructing domestic civil defense. While the federal government has created a Department of Homeland Security, state and local governments have, Swetnam believes, been given little direction and no money;
- D: Addressing the root causes of terrorism. Swetnam believes the U.S. is losing the propaganda war to bin Laden and other Muslim extremists who promote hatred of Americans;
- F: Addressing shortcomings of the intelligence community: Swetnam believes the problems in U.S. intelligence agencies, which allowed the 9/11 attacks to be planned and executed without detection, still exist;
"We have a mixed grade this first year of our war on terrorism," Swetnam concluded. "Unfortunately, we will probably have many years yet to improve upon these grades before this war on terror is fought to the point where we can feel comfortable again."
E-mail a news tip to Jeff Johnson.
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Bill
In the context Dr. David Kay used it, "eminent" is wrong. The proper word would have been "imminent".
Right!
You must move further from 'destroy' to deter. You must make the price so high that it becomes a deterrent. Otherwise this war cannot be won. They have a billion to recrute from. They believe they will go to the highest heaven if the die as martyrs. Death alone is not a deterrent to them but a reward.
The only thing they are afraid of is to die in contaminated condition, such as having contact with a pig or similar forbidden object when they die. This, they believe, will prevent them from entering into heaven.
I have read of an old Muslim uprising against the British, I believe in India. A British officer in charge simply made it known that his soldiers were rolling the bullets they were going to use in pig fat.
This, from what I heard, stopped the conflict. As they are not actually sacrificing themself for a cause, but view this as a shortcut to heaven, where tons of virgins wait for them.
Think about this simple but effective solution!
There are other military option that will rise the stakes fro them, but I think politically no one is yet ready to discuss, but will soon...
I agree 100 per cent. Just because our innocents are being slaughtered right now does not mean they are not in jeopardy.
Why, oh why, must we wait for the the next attrocity before we do what we need to do?
Why are we still allowing non-citizen Muslims civil "rights" to operate freely as a fifth columnn behing our borders? Why are we still importing Muslims whom we have no idea whether they are peaceful of sleeper al Quaida?
Are we really at war or not?
Yes, I do. And that's the problem. We shouldn't be in our current Anti-Constitutional form.
Lincoln was treasonous.
capacity to act QUICKLY and DECISIVELY is of paramount importance.
And outside of the Constitution and moral law.
My point in bringing all that up was that in each of those cases THE CONSTITUTIONAL REPUBLIC SURVIVED.
The Republic died in the Civil War. China and Russia called themselves Republics also.
Statement Warns of More Attacks (Stop support for Israel, Russia, and convert to Islam or else) Yahoo! ^ | Nov. 16, 2002 | ALAA SHAHINE
Posted on 11/16/2002 9:15 PM CST by Michael2001
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) - A statement attributed to al-Qaida threatened more attacks in New York and Washington unless America stops supporting Israel and converts to Islam, an Arab TV reporter who received the unsigned document said Saturday.
Yosri Fouda, correspondent for the satellite station Al-Jazeera, told The Associated Press he received the six-page document on Wednesday. That was a day after the TV station broadcast an audiotape purportedly made by Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).
Fouda, who is known for good contacts within al-Qaida, would only say that the statement came from his sources with the group. But he insisted he was certain it came from the terrorist movement's leadership.
Fouda, speaking by telephone from London, said the statement called on Americans to stop supporting Israel and other governments that "oppress" Muslims or face more attacks. The statement also called on Americans to convert to Islam, he said.
Fouda quoted the statement as saying: "Stop your support for Israel against the Palestinians, for Russians against the Chechens ... for corrupt leaders in our countries ... (and) leave us alone or expect us in Washington and New York."
He added the statement demanded U.S. troops leave the Arabian Peninsula, and justified the killings of American civilians because they pay taxes that finance military operations.
WE MUST NEVER FORGET!!!!!
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