emse232

Institute for Crisis, Disaster, and Risk Management

Crisis and Emergency Management

April 2005 Volume 8 - Number 3

Perspectives...

Terrorism Threat

Kashif J. Javaid

The September 2001 terrorist acts left the nation in fear. Television stations, newspapers and magazines coved the tragic scene for months. It is 2005 and there is still fear in our daily lives. People’s perception of safety has changed. We do not feel safe any longer. Fear is what terrorism causes and it did exactly that on September 11, 2001. President Bush took three actions to act in response to the terrorist attacks.

First, the terrorist training camps in Afghanistan were destroyed. As a result, the terrorist network dispersed and became invisible. The dispersed Bin Laden associates have launched terrorist acts in Pakistan, Turkey, Bali, Madrid, and Riyadh. In Iraq they are supporting the Nationalist rebels against U.S. military. This response has resulted in more terrorist attacks and terrorist recruitment in countries that supports U.S. or has U.S. presence.

Secondly, President Bush created Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and passed Patriot Act to penetrate and destroy terrorist cells within U.S. soils and to fortify the homeland. Sleeper cell have not been discovered. However, American Muslims have been detained and sent abroad for investigation purposes (torture); most of them have not been convicted. This violates liberty - a cherished American value.

Thirdly, Mr. Bush ordered military invasion and occupation of Iraq to destroy Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). This was a pre-emptive war waged in violation of the Geneva Convention and is impacting America’s economy. No WMDs were found, instead of bringing the troops back home, the administration decided to liberate and spread freedom in Iraq. Present U.S. policies towards Islamic nations are unfair as America unilaterally supports Israel and this occupation is foreseen to provide military support to Israel. Iraqis and Muslims deserve justice that U.S. policies with mutual interests can provide. Today’s wars are more vicious and petrifying; they not only parallel but supercede acts of terror as air raids and heavy artillery assaults kill and cripple civilians. Some view this as an act of terror that will cause more hatred and casualties on both sides.

Internationally, these counter terrorism measures have improved al-Qaeda recruitment ability and has increased terrorist attacks world wide. Domestically, we are heading towards economic recession, national security is at higher risk and for some of us our civil liberties are being violated.

Three years and seven months later, our maritime and air ports are no safer than they were before September 2001. Recently at Newark airport, a man with a butcher knife went through airport security check and made it to terminal A. The distressing fact is that airport security has been the first priority and 80% of Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) $5.3 billion budget goes towards airport security.

Sea ports are the heart of our commerce and receive nearly seven million cargo containers every year. With “Just in Time” commerce it is not realistic to inspect each and every container. Even if all containers were checked, new sophisticated technologies have made explosives and detonating devices harder to detect. Highly complex Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) are undetected. An undetectable IED was used by Libyan agents to destroy Pan Am Flight 103.

Numerous reports indicate a growing threat from terrorist groups that already are linked to and are supported by the drug traffickers and smugglers in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and the Northern Ireland. The drug traffickers already know how to penetrate our borders; terrorist groups with ties to drug traffickers will commit major terror acts on our homeland.

According to Benjamin Friedman “It is time to stop indulging the myth that risks geographically distributed, time to abandon feel-good security, and time to accept reality: some risk is inevitable, some of us should be more scared than others, but our fear is what our enemies intended.”

From a supply and demand perspective, we are presently fighting to reduce and eliminate the supply of the terror element. This war can be better fought and victory can be expedited if the demand for terror is eliminated or at least reduced. However this requires change in policy. Politicians and policy makers should change the way we are fighting the war on terror. Our military should leave Iraq and the Palestinian policy needs restructure to be fair and to stop supporting Israel unilaterally. Finally, there needs to be checks and balances in place so that federal agents upon their own discretion do not abuse the Patriot Act. Such steps will make this less fearful, at least from our side.

Reference:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200501/fallows

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/nj/schneider2001-12-18.htm

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200501/clarke

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200501u/fb2005-01-14