17 May 2002
Annual Terrorism Report Highlights Dramatic Global Campaign
(Patterns of Global Terrorism to be released May 21) (620)
By Merle D. Kellerhals, Jr.
Washington File Staff Writer
Washington -- The U.S. State Department's annual report on terrorism
will focus extensively this year on the global campaign against
terrorism, what the U.S. approach has been, and how positive the
world's response to the threat has been, Ambassador Francis Taylor
says.
Secretary of State Colin Powell and Ambassador Taylor, the State
Department's coordinator for counterterrorism, will release the
"Patterns of Global Terrorism 2001" report May 21 at a media briefing
in Washington. The report -- which is double the size of previous
editions with extensive tables, case studies and overviews -- is
required by the U.S. Congress to provide a full and comprehensive
accounting of terrorist activity and terrorist groups for a specific
calendar year.
"What we've tried to do in this report is to capture the world's
response to 9/11 in a way that explains the global campaign against
terrorism, our approach to that campaign, and uses specific case
studies to highlight how the world has come together," Taylor said in
an interview for the Washington File May 17.
"I think the attacks of 9/11 exposed the absolute evil of terrorism in
a very graphic way the world has never seen before," he said. "In my
memory, it's the first time that a terrorist event was actually
captured as it was happening on international television. And I think
the world has responded appropriately to the evil that they saw with
commercial jets being used as cruise missiles, and flying into
occupied buildings and killing thousands of innocent civilians."
A significant message in the report's introduction is that "citizens
of 78 countries perished at the World Trade Center site [in New York
City]."
"The worst international terrorist attack ever -- involving four
separate but coordinated aircraft hijackings -- occurred in the United
States on September 11, 2001," the report's introduction says.
In total, last year 3,547 persons were killed in international
terrorist attacks, the highest death toll ever recorded, the report
says.
Taylor also said the four essential tenets of U.S. anti-terrorism
policy remain unchanged:
-- First, make no concessions to terrorists and strike no deals;
-- Second, bring terrorists to justice for their crimes;
-- Third, isolate and apply pressure on states that sponsor terrorism
to force them to change their behavior; and
-- Fourth, bolster the counterterrorism capabilities of those
countries that work with the United States and require assistance.
"In fact, this is what this campaign is all about, helping the world
come together to embrace and implement those four basic principles on
how we deal with terrorism," Taylor said.
Taylor said Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria
remain on the state-sponsored terrorism list in this report.
"The law really dictates how we treat them in terms of their
designation and what we're able to do," he said. "Certainly, we expect
state sponsors of terrorism to cease activities which place them on
the list. And if there is any change, we expect to see that kind of
change in behavior that could be seen as renouncing terrorism and
moving on with the majority of the nations in the world and rejecting
this type of political tool."
Taylor said, for example, that Sudan has made great progress in
working with the United States and the campaign against terrorism
worldwide even before September 11th.
(The Washington File is a product of the Office of International
Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site:
http://usinfo.state.gov)
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