Free Republic

In its National Strategy for Combating Terrorism (Feb. 2003) the White House outlined a policy that calls for "direct and continuous actions against terrorist groups, the cumulative effect of which will initially disrupt, over time degrade, and ultimately destroy the terrorist organizations." The plan also recognizes that "the more frequently and relentlessly we strike the terrorists across all fronts, using all the tools of statecraft, the more effective we will be." If this is to be the measure of an effective counter-terror policy, then the Bush Administration must begin to apply its tenets more aggressively against the increasing number of...

Much of South America is spiraling into a political and economic morass that invites not only further demographic dislocation but an unprecedented haven for terrorism and political extremism. Yet in the Bush administration, only the Department of Defense (DoD) seems to be presenting a plan to salvage a democratic future for the region, even as the State Department and the National Security Council (NSC) offer only what one observer calls "bureaucratic bromides." U.S. inattention to its neighbors is reaping a bitter harvest: * Colombia, under a new, pro-U.S. president committed to smashing his country's two Marxist-Leninist narcoterrorist groups and eradicating...

CIUDAD DEL ESTE, Paraguay: The so-called Triple Frontier, where Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay meet, has long been South America's busiest contraband and smuggling center, a chaotic place where just about anything from drugs and arms to pirated software and bootleg whisky are available to anyone who can pay the price. Its reputation has brought the area under close surveillance by the police and foreign intelligence services for decades. But since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Triple Frontier has been transformed into a sort of Casablanca, a center of intrigue scrutinized more intensely than ever for its suspected links...

Al Qaeda and Hezbollah Plot a Dangerous Alliance By Tom Knowlton In an interview with The Sunday Times of London on Dec. 15, 2002, Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat unwittingly provided the U.S.-led coalition against terrorism with a major insight into the evolving strategy of Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda terrorist network. Arafat asked Times interviewer Marie Colvin, "Why is Bin Laden talking about Palestine now? Bin Laden never, not ever, stressed this issue. He never helped us. He was working in a completely different area and against our interests." Arafat gave the interview after statements attributed to al Qaeda's...