Transcript

Print Print Email Email Share Share

The Challenges of Countering Global Terrorism

November 12, 2001
Council on Foreign Relations

[Note: A transcript of this meeting is unavailable. The discussion is summarized below.]

November 12, 2001

Not for Attribution

Dallas, Texas

The Dallas Roundtable held its first session on November 12, 2001 to discuss the challenges of countering global terrorism with 18 Council members and other local leaders. Oliver “Buck” Revell, Founder and President of Revell Group International, Global Business, and Security Consultants and former Associate Deputy Director of the FBI, led the discussion and Lee Cullum, Columnist of the Dallas Morning News, chaired.

The Dallas Roundtable addressed the following questions:

  1. What do we know about the nature and scope of terrorism and the terrorist threat? Specifically, what do we know about those who planned and executed the attacks of September 11? How are they organized and how do they operate? What don’t we know and what more do we need to learn?

  2. What are the challenges we face in dealing with global terrorism?

  3. What changes do we need to make to better link our intelligence collection and analysis with our operational agencies (i.e. FBI, Customs, INS) to address our vulnerabilities and prevent future acts of terrorism?

  4. How should the United States balance civil rights and law enforcement/national security in this environment?

  5. What should the role, responsibility, and scope of the Office of Homeland Security be?

Findings and Key Points

The roots of September 11 can be traced back to 1979 when:

  1. The Shah in Iran fell and the Ayatollah Khomeinicame to power.

  2. The new Iranian government rejected Western global culture and established a fundamentalistIslamic state.

  3. The Soviets invaded Afghanistan. The United States used Pakistan as a base and aided freedom fighters, like Osama bin Laden and Ramzi Yousef.

  4. Russians withdrew in 1989, and so did the United States. Both left Afghanistan to deal with its own problems.

A campaign of terrorism has continued against the United States since the early 1990s:

1993: Somalia.

1993: The World Trade Center bombing executed by Ramzi Yousef and authorized by Egyptian

Cleric Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman.

1995: Car bombing outside of the U.S. military compound in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

1996: Truck bombing outside of U.S. Air Force housing area Khobar Towers in Dhahran.

1998: Bombing of American Embassies in Nairobi and Tanzania.

2000: Bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.

2001: The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center.

  • The old paradigms of terrorism no longer apply to the “new” terrorists. They are driven by a different set of motives, including the infliction of mass casualties. They are international in their activities and no longer constrained by national boundaries. They are achieving global support in cooperative ways with crime and narcotics organizations. This increased cooperation between crime, narcotics, and terrorist groups is providing the means for terrorists to raise money and a marketplace for them to shop for nuclear, biological, and chemical weaponry and high tech equipment.

  • Out of the first attempt to destroy the World Trade Center, the FBI was able to penetrate the terrorist network and detect the plan to bomb all the tunnels and bridges in New York on July 4, 1993. They also established a connection between groups in the Dallas/Richardson area and those directly involved in the World Trade Center bombing of 1993. These actual and imminent acts of terror revealed a global conspiracy and should have been a wake-up call to the United States. Instead, the New York trials in 1995 were overshadowed by the O.J. Simpson trial.

  • The coalition of Al Qaeda was formed around an ideologywithout a geographic base. There is a global infrastructure of Islamic fundamentalism, including a substantial network in the United States. Given our open society and civil liberties, the United States was and is the safest place for terrorists to operate.

  • The war in Afghanistan may have disrupted and confused Al Qaeda, but it could lead to more recruits. The war on terrorism will require the continued support of nations and moderate Islamic states. The United States does not have the support of clerics, the media, and others in the Muslim world, and most do not know that the United States supported Muslims in Kosovo.

  • The Central Intelligence Agency and FBI are respectively foreign and domestic intelligence gatherers. The FBI does not have the authority to collect information on groups that openly espouse the use of force and violence—they need a criminal predicate to investigate. As a result, the FBI is reluctant to pursue a network that appears to be involved in the political process or religious activity—both of which are protected under our Constitution and could infringe upon freedom of speech and movement.

Recommendations

Five ways to deal with the challenges of countering global terrorism:

1. Political cooperation.

2. Economic sanctions.

3. Military action.

4. Covert action.

5. Law enforcement.

  • Maintain support from Arab-Muslim states in the war in Afghanistan and on Al Qaedaand build a consensus to go after other terrorist groups, i.e. Hezbollah, Hamas, Armed Islamic Group (GIA).

  • Turn to nation building after the war in Afghanistan.

  • Empower our law enforcement agencies to protect us. The CIA operative will not infiltrate terrorist groups, but they can recruit informants. They need to deal with unsavory people in order to get access to these networks.

  • Allow the FBI to take a defensive approach that is balanced in its ability to protect against terrorism and protect civil rights.

  • Move law enforcement from the Justice Department and put it under Tom Ridge’s office of Homeland Security. We need prevention of terrorist acts, not the collection of information for prosecution.

  • Take the Homeland Security Office seriously and give it statutory authority so the agencies can coordinate to develop a strategy.

  • Return detainees with immigration charges to their country. Don’t support or advocate the use of torture, but accept information that will help wage the war on terrorism.

Follow-On Questions

  1. What is it about our society that made us a target?

  2. How do we engage the Islamic world in an honest debate and discussion?

  3. How do we isolate the terrorists?

  4. How can the media help us get at the fact that this is not a short-term problem?

  5. How do we stay engaged in the long-term issues?

  6. How are we structured to deal with threats of the 21st century?