Listening to some of the analysis of the recent terrorist attacks on the
United States prompted me to do a little research.
Some of the analysts on the various TV news networks would seem to force
some undue burden of proof on the United States to justify retaliation
for what is clearly (to
me anyway) an act of war. Those same analysts talk about bringing those
responsible "to justice." That line of thinking couldnÕt be more wrong.
This was not a crime. It was an act of war. The perpetrators are not to
be apprehended, tried and convicted. Those responsible are the enemy. As
Newt Gingrich and Lawrence Eagleberger have both said, nothing short of
a declaration of war is needed to free up our forces and our
intelligence services to do that which needs to be done
and galvanize our nation.
I agree wholeheartedly.
Now that weÕre in agreement that we are indeed at war, there are enemy
forces and allies that we should declare war on and attack. There are
other allies of our enemies
who should be targeted with economic and diplomatic sanctions
accompanied by a warning to cease and desist.
All the public evidence points to Osama Bin Laden and his organizations
as the culprits in this particular act. However, they are not the only
terrorist group that targets
the U.S. and its citizens. And given that terrorist organizations have
always acted in an informal network, there is no reason to distinguish
between various enemy forces.
We fought Germany and Japan and didnÕt waste any time worrying about
their different ideologies.
The U.S. State Department maintains a list of 29 known foreign terrorist
groups and supplies descriptions of them. The United States of America
should declare war on six
of them, starting with those associated with Bin Laden.
Those of you who doubt the necessity of waging a war against all of
these groups, even those not directly involved in the most recent
attacks, may be surprised by a few facts:
Bin Laden himself is responsible for bombing the US embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania in 1998. I ask one simple question: Why is Bin Laden still
breathing?
Given that terrorist organizations have committed acts of war against
the United States and its allies for 3 decades and have gotten away with
it, should we really be surprised that they have escalated the war and
brought it to our shores? Surely our failure to punish them has
emboldened them. It is time to change that. It is time to bring the war
to them.
Now on to the list of immediate enemies and their backgrounds, courtesy
of the U.S. State Department.
1. al-Qaida
Established by Osama Bin Ladin in the late 1980s. Current goal is to
establish a pan-Islamic Caliphate throughout the world by working with
allied Islamic extremist groups to overthrow regimes it deems
"non-Islamic" and expelling Westerners and non-Muslims from Muslim
countries. Issued statement under banner of "the World Islamic Front for
Jihad Against the Jews and Crusaders" in February 1998, saying it was
the duty of all Muslims to kill U.S. citizens Ñ civilian or military Ñ and
their allies everywhere.
Plotted to carry out terrorist operations against U.S. and Israeli
tourists visiting Jordan for millennial celebrations. (Jordanian
authorities thwarted the planned attacks and put 28 suspects on trial.)
Conducted the bombings in August 1998 of the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi,
Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed at least 301 persons and
injured more than 5,000 others. Claims to have shot down U.S. helicopters
and killed U.S. servicemen in Somalia in 1993 and to have conducted three
bombings that targeted U.S. troops in Aden, Yemen, in December 1992.
Linked to the following plans that were not carried out: to assassinate
Pope John Paul II during his visit to Manila in late 1994, simultaneous
bombings of the U.S. and Israeli Embassies in Manila and other Asian
capitals in late 1994, the midair bombing of a dozen U.S. trans-Pacific
flights in 1995, and to kill President Clinton during a visit to the
Philippines in early 1995. Continues to train, finance, and provide
logistic support to terrorist groups in support of these goals.
May have several hundred to several thousand members. Also serves as a
focal point or umbrella organization for a worldwide network that
includes many Sunni Islamic extremist groups such as Egyptian Islamic
Jihad, some members of al-Gama'at al-Islamiyya, the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, and the Harakat ul-Mujahidin.
Al-Qaida has a worldwide reach, has cells in a number of countries, and
is reinforced by its ties to Sunni extremist networks. Bin Ladin and his
key lieutenants reside in Afghanistan, and the group maintains terrorist
training camps there.
Bin Ladin, son of a billionaire Saudi family, is said to have inherited
approximately $300 million that he uses to finance the group. Al-Qaida
also maintains moneymaking front organizations, solicits donations from
like-minded supporters, and illicitly siphons funds from donations to
Muslim charitable organizations.
2. Abu Nidal organization (ANO),
a.k.a. Fatah Revolutionary Council, Arab Revolutionary Brigades, Black
September, and Revolutionary Organization of Socialist Muslims
International terrorist organization led by Sabri al-Banna. Split from
PLO in 1974. Made up of various functional committees, including
political, military, and financial.
Has carried out terrorist attacks in 20 countries, killing or injuring
almost 900 persons. Targets include the United States, the United
Kingdom, France, Israel, moderate Palestinians, the PLO, and various
Arab countries. Major attacks included the Rome and Vienna airports in
December 1985, the Neve Shalom synagogue in Istanbul and the Pan Am
flight 73 hijacking in Karachi in September 1986, and the City of Poros
day-excursion ship attack in Greece in July 1988. Suspected of
assassinating PLO deputy chief Abu Iyad and PLO security chief Abu Hul
in Tunis in January 1991. ANO assassinated a Jordanian diplomat in
Lebanon in January 1994 and has been linked to the killing of the PLO
representative there.
Al-Banna relocated to Iraq in December 1998, where the group maintains a
presence. Has an operational presence in Lebanon, including in several
Palestinian refugee camps. Financial problems and internal
disorganization have reduced the group's activities and capabilities.
Authorities shut down the ANO's operations in Libya and Egypt in 1999.
Has demonstrated ability to operate over wide area, including the Middle
East, Asia, and Europe.
Has received considerable support, including safehaven, training,
logistic assistance, and financial aid from Iraq, Libya, and Syria
(until 1987), in addition to close support for selected operations.
3. Hizballah (Party of God)
a.k.a. Islamic Jihad, Revolutionary Justice Organization, Organization
of the Oppressed on Earth, and Islamic Jihad for the Liberation of
Palestine.
Radical Shia group formed in Lebanon; dedicated to increasing its
political power in Lebanon and opposing Israel and the Middle East peace
negotiations. Strongly anti-West and anti-Israel. Closely allied with,
and often directed by, Iran but may have conducted operations that were
not approved by Tehran.
Known or suspected to have been involved in numerous anti-U.S. terrorist
attacks, including the suicide truck bombing of the U.S. Embassy and U.S.
Marine barracks in Beirut in October 1983 and the U.S. Embassy annex in
Beirut in September 1984. Elements of the group were responsible for the
kidnapping and detention of U.S. and other Western hostages in Lebanon.
The group also attacked the Israeli Embassy in Argentina in 1992 and is
a suspect in the 1994 bombing of the Israeli cultural center in Buenos
Aires. In fall 2000, it captured three Israeli soldiers in the Shabaa
Farms and kidnapped an Israeli noncombatant whom it may have lured to
Lebanon under false pretenses.
Operates in the Bekaa Valley, the southern suburbs of Beirut, and
southern Lebanon. Has established cells in Europe, Africa, South
America, North America, and Asia.
Receives substantial amounts of financial, training, weapons,
explosives, political, diplomatic, and organizational aid from Iran and
Syria.
4. Japanese Red Army (JRA)
a.k.a. Anti-Imperialist International Brigade (AIIB)
An international terrorist group formed around 1970 after breaking away
from Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction. The JRA was led by
Fusako Shigenobu until her arrest in Japan in November 2000. The JRA's
historical goal has been to overthrow the Japanese Government and
monarchy and to help foment world revolution. After her arrest Shigenobu
announced she intended to pursue her goals using a legitimate political
party rather than revolutionary violence. May control or at least have
ties to Anti-Imperialist International Brigade (AIIB); also may have
links to Antiwar Democratic FrontÑan overt leftist political
organizationÑinside Japan. Details released following Shigenobu's
arrest indicate that the JRA was organizing cells in Asian cities, such
as Manila and Singapore. Has history of close relations with Palestinian
terrorist groupsÑbased and operating outside JapanÑsince its
inception, primarily through Shigenobu.
During the 1970s, the JRA carried out a series of attacks around the
world, including the massacre in 1972 at Lod Airport in Israel, two
Japanese airliner hijackings, and an attempted takeover of the U.S.
Embassy in Kuala Lumpur. In April 1988, JRA operative Yu Kikumura was
arrested with explosives on the New Jersey Turnpike, apparently planning
an attack to coincide with the bombing of a USO club in Naples, a
suspected JRA operation that killed five, including a U.S. servicewoman.
He was convicted of the charges and is serving a lengthy prison sentence
in the United States. Tsutomu Shirosaki, captured in 1996, is also
jailed in the United States. In 2000, Lebanon deported to Japan four
members it arrested in 1997, but granted a fifth operative, Kozo
Okamoto, political asylum. Longtime leader Shigenobu was arrested in
November 2000 and faces charges of terrorism and passport fraud.
Location unknown, but possibly traveling in Asia or Syrian-controlled
areas of Lebanon.
5. Al-Jihad
a.k.a. Egyptian Islamic Jihad, Jihad Group, Islamic Jihad
Egyptian Islamic extremist group active since the late 1970s. Close
partner of Bin Ladin's al-Qaida organization. Suffered setbacks as a
result of numerous arrests of operatives worldwide, most recently in
Lebanon and Yemen. Primary goals are to overthrow the Egyptian
Government and replace it with an Islamic state and attack U.S. and
Israeli interests in Egypt and abroad.
Specializes in armed attacks against high-level Egyptian Government
personnel, including cabinet ministers, and car-bombings against
official U.S. and Egyptian facilities. The original Jihad was responsible
for the assassination in 1981 of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat. Claimed
responsibility for the attempted assassinations of Interior Minister
Hassan al-Alfi in August 1993 and Prime Minister Atef Sedky in November
1993. Has not conducted an attack inside Egypt since 1993 and has never
targeted foreign tourists there. Responsible for Egyptian Embassy
bombing in Islamabad in 1995; in 1998, planned attack against U.S. Embassy
in Albania was thwarted.
Operates in the Cairo area. Has a network outside Egypt, including
Yemen, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Sudan, Lebanon, and the United Kingdom.
The Egyptian Government claims that both Iran and Bin Ladin support the
Jihad. Also may obtain some funding through various Islamic
nongovernmental organizations, cover businesses, and criminal acts.
6. Palestine Liberation Front (PLF)
The Abu Abbas-led faction is known for aerial attacks against Israel.
Abbas's group also was responsible for the attack in 1985 on the cruise
ship Achille Lauro and the murder of U.S. citizen Leon Klinghoffer. A
warrant for Abu Abbas's arrest is outstanding in Italy.
Now based in Iraq.
Receives support mainly from Iraq. Has received support from Libya in
the past.
None of these terrorist groups should ever feel safe again. We should
declare war on each of them and pursue them to the ends of the
earth Ñ until they are all dead or agree to unconditional surrender.
No terrorist group could survive for long without a host state. Even the
wealthy Bin Laden could not gather the resources and logistics necessary
to carry out a sustained terror campaign without the assistance or
tolerance of the Taliban authority in Afghanistan. Other terrorist
groups are even more dependent on sponsor states to conduct warfare.
I was very heartened to hear President Bush state emphatically that the
United States will make no distinction between those who commit
terrorism and those who harbor terrorists. As such, there is a ready
made list of nations against whom we must take action. The most obvious
is Afghanistan. The Taliban should be told to give up Bin Laden or face
the consequences. However, other nations are even bigger problems in the
war on terrorism than Afghanistan. The State Department publishes a list
of nations who sponsor terrorism. Those 7 nations are: Iran, Iraq,
Syria, Libya, Cuba, North Korea, and Sudan. Each of these 7 should be
targeted with various degrees of military, economic and diplomatic
pressure due to their activities:
1. Iran
Iran remained the most active state sponsor of terrorism in 2000. It
provided increasing support to numerous terrorist groups, including the
Lebanese Hizballah, HAMAS, and the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which
seek to undermine the Middle East peace negotiations through the use of
terrorism.
Despite the victory for moderates in Iran's Majles elections in
February, aggressive countermeasures by hardline conservatives have
blocked most reform
efforts
Its Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) and Ministry of Intelligence and
Security (MOIS) continued to be involved in the planning and the
execution of terrorist acts and continued to support a variety of groups
that use terrorism to pursue their goals.
Iran has long provided Lebanese Hizballah and the Palestinian
rejectionist groupsÑnotably HAMAS, the Palestine Islamic Jihad, and
Ahmad Jibril's PFLP-GCÑwith varying amounts of funding, safehaven,
training, and weapons. This activity continued at its already high
levels following the Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon in May and
during the intifadah in the fall. Iran continued to encourage Hizballah
and the Palestinian groups to coordinate their planning and to escalate
their activities against Israel. Iran also provided a lower level of
supportÑincluding funding, training, and logistics assistanceÑto
extremist groups in the Gulf, Africa, Turkey, and Central Asia.
2. Iraq
Iraq planned and sponsored international terrorism in 2000. Although
Baghdad focused on antidissident activity overseas, the regime continued
to support various terrorist groups.
Czech police continued to provide protection to the Prague office of the
U.S. Government-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which
produces Radio Free Iraq programs and employs expatriate journalists.
The police presence was augmented in 1999, following reports that the
Iraqi Intelligence Service (IIS) might retaliate against RFE/RL for
broadcasts critical of the Iraqi regime.
Several expatriate terrorist groups continued to maintain offices in
Baghdad, including the Arab Liberation Front, the inactive 15 May
Organization, the Palestine Liberation Front (PLF), and the Abu Nidal
organization (ANO). PLF leader Abu `Abbas appeared on state-controlled
television in the fall to praise Iraq's leadership in rallying Arab
opposition to Israeli violence against Palestinians. The ANO threatened
to attack Austrian interests unless several million dollars in a frozen
ANO account in a Vienna bank were turned over to the group.
3. Syria
Syria continued to provide safehaven and support to several terrorist
groups, some of which maintained training camps or other facilities on
Syrian territory. Ahmad Jibril's Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command (PFLP-GC), the Palestine Islamic Jihad (PIJ),
Abu Musa's Fatah-the-Intifada, and George Habash's Popular Front for the
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) maintained their headquarters in
Damascus. The Syrian Government allowed HAMAS to open a new main office
in Damascus in March, although the arrangement may be temporary while
HAMAS continues to seek permission to reestablish its headquarters in
Jordan. In addition, Syria granted a variety of terrorist
groupsÑincluding HAMAS, the PFLP-GC, and the PIJÑbasing privileges or
refuge in areas of Lebanon's Bekaa Valley under Syrian control. Damascus
generally upheld its agreement with Ankara not to support the Kurdish
PKK, however.
4. Libya
Despite all the happy horse manure coming out of Tripoli recently, Libya
has yet to comply fully with the remaining UN Security Council
requirements related to Pan Am 103: accepting responsibility, paying
appropriate compensation, disclosing all it knows, and
renouncing terrorism. The United States remains dedicated to maintaining
pressure on the Libyan Government until it does so. Qadhafi stated
publicly that his government had adopted an antiterrorism stance, but it
remains unclear whether his claims of distancing Libya from its
terrorist past signify a true change in policy.
It continues to have contact with groups that use violence to oppose
the Middle East Peace Process, including the Palestine Islamic Jihad and
the Popular Front for the Liberation of
Palestine-General Command.
5. Sudan
Sudan continues to be used as a safehaven by members of various groups,
including associates of Osama Bin Ladin's al-Qaida organization,
Egyptian al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya, Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Palestine
Islamic Jihad, and HAMAS. Most groups used Sudan primarily as a secure
base for assisting compatriots elsewhere.
Khartoum also still had not complied fully with UN Security Council
Resolutions 1044, 1054, and 1070, passed in 1996Ñwhich demand that
Sudan end all support to terrorists. They also require Khartoum to hand
over three Egyptian Gama'a fugitives linked to the assassination attempt
in 1995 against Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Ethiopia. Sudanese
officials continued to deny that they had a role in the attack.
6. Cuba
Cuba continued to provide safehaven to several terrorists and U.S.
fugitives in 2000. A number of Basque ETA terrorists who gained
sanctuary in Cuba some years ago continued to live on the island, as did
several U.S. terrorist fugitives.
Havana also maintained ties to other state sponsors of terrorism and
Latin American insurgents. Colombia's two largest terrorist
organizations, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia and the
National Liberation Army, both maintained a permanent presence on the
island.
7. North Korea
In 2000 the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) engaged in
three rounds of terrorism talks that culminated in a joint DPRK-U.S.
statement wherein the DPRK reiterated its opposition to terrorism and
agreed to support international actions against such activity. The DPRK,
however, continued to provide safehaven to the Japanese Communist
League-Red Army Faction members who participated in the hijacking of a
Japanese Airlines flight to North Korea in 1970. Some evidence also
suggests the DPRK may have sold weapons directly or indirectly to
terrorist groups during the year; Philippine officials publicly declared
that the Moro Islamic Liberation Front had purchased weapons from North
Korea with funds provided by Middle East sources.
No terrorist should ever feel safe or secure in any of these countries
again. Obviously, these nations should not be dealt with in the same
fashion. Cuba, for instance, is isolated and weak. There is no immediate
need for bombing. Other problems exist with regard to North Korea that
require careful dealings as well. Iraq, Iran, Syria, Sudan and Libya,
however, are another story entirely. Either they should hand over
terrorists residing within their borders and cease all support for these
organizations, or they can expect military action directed at them and
possibly even declarations of war. The price for involvement in
terrorist activity needs to go so high that no nation would be willing
to pay it.
At this point I should say something about Red China. The State
Department makes no claim that Red China sponsors any foreign terrorist
organization. Keen observers should look past that. The seven nations
who the State Department says do sponsor foreign terrorist organizations
all have one chief arms supplier: Red China. Some of these
nations Ñ Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya and North Korea Ñ have received
ballistic missile technology from Red China. Iran and North Korea are
believed to have received assistance from Red China with their Weapons
of Mass Destruction (WMD) programs.
Capitalists who are so fired up about Permanent Normal Trade Relations
with Red China should apply the principles of supply side economics
here. Let's all hope and pray that this ballistic missile and WMD
technology don't "trickle down" to terrorist organizations.
If we are truly serious about winning the war against the terrorists, we
need to get serious with the ultimate source of weaponry, namely Red
China. And, these days, the most vulnerable spot is their pocketbook.
Christopher Holton is the president of Blanchard and Company and has been
writing about geo-political issues, economics, and defense topics for more than
10 years.