08 October 2002
Weapons of Mass Destruction Are Major Terrorist Threat
(Say co-chairs of U.S. Commission on National Security) (760)
By David Pitts
Washington File Staff Writer
Boston -- The major terrorist threat in the 21st century will be from
weapons of mass destruction -- chemical, biological and nuclear --
despite the fact that the 9/11 attacks were conventional in nature,
former U.S. Senators Gary Hart and Warren Rudman, co-chairs of the
bipartisan U.S. Commission on National Security, a
Pentagon-established body, said at a September 24 forum held at the
John F. Kennedy Library in Boston.
The commission, which consists of seven Republicans and seven
Democrats, released a report precisely two years before the 9/11
assault titled, "New World Coming," that predicted a major terrorist
attack on the United States. Two followup reports were issued, the
last in February 2001, that also warned of the specter of terrorism
and called for an overhaul of the U.S. national security
infrastructure established in the aftermath of World War II to respond
to the Cold War. The reports are available online at www.nssg.gov.
"We're dealing with a form of evil genius we're not used to dealing
with that is rewriting the rules of war established in the 17th and
18th centuries," said Hart, a Democrat and former presidential
candidate. "This terrible enemy is both suicidal and fiendishly
clever. As a result, we're going to have to think differently in the
21st century; it's going to be a dramatically different century," he
added.
Terrorist organizations, as opposed to governments that sponsor
terrorism, are shadowy groups that are difficult to trace and
penetrate, Rudman, a Republican, said. "The old Soviet Union was a
threat, but we knew the phone numbers and addresses of our opponents
there. We even knew what cars they drove," he noted. "But this is a
very different situation. It is a very difficult task for the
intelligence organizations no matter how we reform and streamline
them."
Rudman also stressed that command and control in terrorist groups is
very different than in governments. "They are highly decentralized.
Perhaps eight people in al-Qaeda knew what was going to happen on
September 11." He compared the terrorist threat to guerrilla warfare,
but noted that terrorism is more difficult to combat even than that
"because it is more shadowy. And it is not that difficult now to
assemble and deliver weapons of mass destruction."
Both Hart and Rudman urged congressional approval of the Department of
Homeland Security called for by President Bush as one of the major
reforms necessary at the federal level. The general need for an
umbrella department of this kind was foreseen in the pre-9/11
Rudman-Hart commission report, although it lacked details about its
makeup, saying these decisions should be made by the president. Asked
what he thought of the agencies and functions that Bush included in
his detailed proposal for the new department submitted to Congress,
Hart said, "I think he has it about right." Hart did not comment on
the current controversy about labor protections for the employees of
the proposed new department.
In his message to Congress that accompanied his proposal, Bush spoke
of the far reaching nature of the change that, in his view, is
required. "I propose the most extensive reorganization of the federal
government since the 1940s by creating a new Department of Homeland
Security," he remarked. "For the first time, we would have a single
department whose primary mission is to secure our homeland," he added.
The Bush administration has pointed out that currently
responsibilities for homeland security are dispersed among 100
different government organizations.
Hart stressed that democratic governments have a particular problem in
combating terrorism because it is difficult to sustain public interest
and attention, absent further terrorist attacks. He also said this is
not just a matter for central government. Local governments and
agencies as well as volunteer organizations that would immediately
respond to any attacks, "must rethink their plans and operations. They
should not just wait for the federal government," he added.
Both Hart and Rudman said that the terrorist threat should not be seen
as coming exclusively from one part of the world, from one ideology,
or from one set of religious beliefs. "People should remember," said
Hart, "that the second worst terrorist attack in the United States was
perpetrated by Timothy McVeigh, an American."
In response to one question, Hart said more should be done to combat
the hopelessness and poverty that can be a breeding ground for
terrorism. "But there will always be a core group of terrorists no
matter what we do," he said. "And the point we want to stress is that
in the 21st century, they will have access to weapons of mass
destruction."
(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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