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U.S. agencies can't agree on a definition for terrorism

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Tuesday, July 23, 2002

The U.S.-led war against terrorism has been stymied by the failure of federal agencies to agree on what exactly terrorism means.

A report by the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence subcommittee on terrorism and homeland security cites the disagreement as a key element in the failure by the United States to foil Al Qaida and its successful suicide attacks on New York and Washington on Sept. 11.

"The subcommittee has found that practically every agency of the United States government with a counterterrorism mission uses a different definition of terrorism," the report said. "Without a standard definition, terrorism might be treated no differently than other crimes."



The House subcommittee did not detail the conflicting definitions of terrorism issued by U.S. agencies, Middle East Newsline reported.

The report presented the subcommittee's definition of terrorism.

"Terrorism is the illegitimate, premediated use of politically motivated violence or the threat of violence by a subnational group against persons or property with the intent to coerce a government by instilling fear among the populace," the report said.

The report recommended a restructuring of the U.S. intelligence community in the fight against Al Qaida. This included deeming human intelligence a priority at the CIA.

The CIA was criticized for its failure to imbue its agents with proficiency in Middle East languages. The report said that less than one third of graduates of the CIA's most recent training course had any proficiency in a foreign language.

The lack of foreign language skills is said to be worse at the FBI. The report said the FBI has thousands of documents relating to Islamic insurgency groups gathering dust because nobody can translate them.

The panel released a brief unclassified summary of its investigation into the Sept. 11 attacks by Al Qaida. The classified report was 140 pages.

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