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.
