ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95051007.LAR
DATE:05/10/95
TITLE:TERRORISM SEEN AS NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT AFTER OKLAHOMA
TEXT:
TR95051007 (Bombing raised awareness) +eg (520)
By Eric Green
USIA Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- The bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City last
month, which killed 167 people, has increased U.S. public awareness
that terrorism is a major national security threat, according to
federal officials involved in the issue.
Speaking May 10 at a forum here on global and domestic terrorism
sponsored by George Washington University, Michael Vatis of the
Justice Department said "we can be fairly sure there will be more
terrorist attacks within this country and against Americans abroad."
He added, however, that the "one hopeful thing coming" from the
Oklahoma City bombing is that "there is now a consensus outside a
small circle of terrorism experts that terrorism is a major national
security threat and that effective measures must be taken consistent
with our civil liberties to improve our ability to prevent" such
incidents.
Vatis, deputy director for Justice's executive office for national
security, said the administration's counter-terrorism bill before
Congress would make it easier for the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI) to conduct investigations against international terrorists, as
well as make it easier and faster to deport alien terrorists from the
United States.
The bill, he said, would add 1,000 new agents and prosecutors to
handle terrorism cases. It would also provide clear federal
jurisdiction for international terrorism acts committed within the
United States and for federal jurisdiction over terrorists who use
this country as their base for plotting terrorist acts abroad.
Vatis said his agency is studying how to improve the safety of every
federal building to prevent another Oklahoma City from occurring.
However, he said, "there is no way to make sure every federal building
is absolutely invulnerable" to a terrorist act. As in Oklahoma City,
Vatis said, a building can be destroyed by a bomb out front without
the terrorist having to go inside.
Vatis said the administration's bill would increase the government's
ability "to get intelligence on the plans and capability of terrorist
organizations by infiltrating and increasing our surveillance of those
organizations."
Michael Kraft, director of special projects for the State Department's
office of counter-terrorism, said his agency's $15 million
anti-terrorism training program helps other countries fight terrorist
acts, and by doing so, helps protect Americans traveling and living
abroad.
But American security officials, he noted, cannot be put in every
foreign airport to protect American citizens from such acts as the
Dec. 21, 1988, bombing of a Pan American World Airways plane over
Scotland that killed 270 people.
"It's up to the host government" to protect U.S. citizens who are in
foreign countries, Kraft said.
The United States, he said, has made "pretty good progress" in having
other countries bring terrorists to trial and added that the
administration's anti-terrorism bill will help bolster international
treaties to further protect the public safety.
Yonah Alexander, director of the terrorism studies program at George
Washington University, said international terrorism must receive a
global response.
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