Military

DATE=02/27/2002

TYPE=EDITORIAL

NUMBER=0-09730

TITLE=EDITORIAL: AL QAIDA TODAY

INTERNET=YES

CONTENT=THIS EDITORIAL IS BEING RELEASED FOR USE BY ALL SERVICES.

Anncr: Next, an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government:

Voice: Military operations in Afghanistan by the United States-led coalition have seriously hurt the al-Qaida terrorist network. Its capacity to inflict harm has been greatly reduced.

Osama bin Laden made a fatal mistake when he launched terrorist attacks against the United States on September 11th. He thought he had a safe haven in Afghanistan, a country then ruled by the oppressive Taleban. But bin Laden underestimated the response by the U.S. - and the world.

Anti-Taleban forces, supported by the U.S.-led coalition, removed the Taleban from power. The al-Qaida network in Afghanistan -- its numerous training camps, arms caches, and cave complexes -- was destroyed. Many al-Qaida terrorists were killed. Others were captured or are in hiding. Afghanistan was the one place where the terrorists had complete freedom of action. Now it is no longer available to them. And the defeat of al-Qaida and the Taleban in Afghanistan puts other countries that support terrorists on notice.

The defeat of al-Qaida in Afghanistan has destroyed the group's aura of invincibility. The terrorists had launched murderous attacks, including the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, the attack against the U.S.S. Cole in Yemen in 2000, and the September 11th attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. But now al-Qaida is losing. Prospective terrorist recruits should think twice about whether they want to wind up dead or in a detention facility like the one at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

It is estimated that some one-thousand terrorist suspects in sixty countries have been arrested since September 11th. From Europe to Asia, al-Qaida terrorist plots have been foiled and their perpetrators arrested.

The U.S.-led war on terrorism is a global effort. "Every nation has a choice to make," said President George W. Bush. "In this conflict [with terrorism], there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves. And they will take that lonely path at their own peril."

Anncr: That was an editorial expressing the policies of the United States Government. If you have a comment, please write to Editorials, V-O-A, Washington, D-C, 20237, U-S-A. You may also comment at www-dot-ibb-dot-gov-slash-editorials, or fax us at (202) 619-1043.