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The Terrorists'
Half-lit World
by
Jack Anderson
Pulitzer
Prize-winning investigative journalist and Meridian senior editor,
Jack Anderson, has spent part of his career delving below the radar
screen into the world of the terrorist. Ten years ago he created
a television documentary on the vulnerability of the White House
to a terrorist attack. His reasoning? Reagan National Airport may
be convenient for travelers to Washington D.C., but is even a greater
convenience for a terrorists who would like to attack the White
House, the Capitol, or the Pentagon. A plane can appear to onlookers
to be landing at Reagan, take a turn, on dive at the most critical
seats of government. The documentary attracted a large national
audience then, but he had not idea just how prophetic it would be.
In my job as
an investigative journalist, I have been keeping a wary watch on
terrorism ever since it become a serious threat. Discussion is brewing
in Washington on whether terrorists constitute an enemy force, but
in my opinion there is no question that they do. They may seem like
a vague enemy, but in reality terrorists dwell together in a subterranean
world of half-light. You may not see their association or read about
it in the news on your front porch, but they are a diabolical, secret
network spreading their arms of destruction around the world.
They associate
with one another. They attend one another's schools in terrorist
training. There is traffic between them. They sometimes belong to
each other's organizations. We are not looking after a single criminal
and his cohorts, but an underground web on which we can declare
war.
If we wage this
war, however, there are only two ways to win. First, terrorists
play a deadly game of hide-and-kill. To vanquish them we have to
squeeze them from their hiding places, force them out of their mountain
and desert retreats. That is not as easy to achieve as it is for
me to strategize, but it can be done. Second, they cannot operate
without money. Where do they get their money? Certainly some, like
Osama bin Laden with his millions tucked away in secret bank accounts,
are wealthy. Some money comes from their followers, but this is
not enough to sustain them. Make no mistake, these terrorists could
not exist and thrive without state financing. States have to provide
the two things terrorists need to survive-a place from which to
launch their operations and money in their jeans.
Which are the
rogue states which house and feed terrorists? We know very well
which ones. The worst-and it has been since the late Ayatollah Khomeini
grabbed the reins-- is Iran. The Khomeini had the look of revolution,
the brooding angry appearance that made him the personification
of doom and gloom. He exercised a certain amount of dramatic showmanship,
mixed with his own prejudice, which built a climate that persuaded
people to put his cause before their lives. Young children were
indoctrinated in Khomeini's particular language to die. He magnified
his hatred into a holy war, and his goal was to achieve great victories
and "conquer the world" for religion's sake. From the Japanese,
he borrowed the idea of the kamikaze pilot, and to those he recruited,
he promised the rewards of heaven.
There had been
terrorist groups operating in loose affiliation before the late
Ayatollah Khomeini, but he injected a certain wild-eyed fanaticism
into the operation. It was an ugly, remorseless hate that fomented
the terrorists. Before him, terrorists had not been able to carry
out more than a few local attacks but the Ayatollah laid the groundwork
for an Assume bin Laden who believed he could expand a holy war
to decimate the United States.
What we see
now is the classic confrontation between good and evil. On the one
hand you have the American dream which has inspired us and has had
a tolerable effect for good upon humanity. The torch that the Statue
of Liberty upholds has lit the fires of freedom around the world.
Every generation needs a dream to inspire it, and the American dream
of freedom, good will, justice, and rule by law has inspired us.
A crisis like the bombing of New York and Washington only tends
to stir our inner fire. Sometimes, in fact, we need a crisis to
ennoble us.
On the other
side of the dream is exactly the opposite. It is a nightmare that
motivates the terrorist. They are promised they'll go marching right
through the Pearly Gates into Allah's own heaven. That is not where
they are going to end up. The closer they will get, the more they
will catch the whiffs of fire and brimstone, for these are the devil's
disciples. The Allah they preach is not the God of the Koran, as
worshiped by Moslems everywhere. The Allah embraced by the fanatic
fringe is really the devil in disguise. He is masquerading as God.
When you start describing the two, the differences could not be
more epic.
Khomeini used
this religious fanaticism to stir the rabid fringe of the Arab world,
able to succeed because of the psychology of this group. Of all
the people of the world, they have the worst inferiority complex,
and at the same time are the most boastful. I've had access to the
secret conversations between some of the heads of states who affiliate
with the fringe. Their talk is macho, tough, but they are really
weak. They can't back up their tough talk, and that's the frustration.
They implode with frustration. The Arabs even have their own word
for this feeling that runs through the sunlit curve of the crescent
along a dozen capitals of Islam that stretch from the Middle East
to Asia. That word in English is nahda. It's this closing of horizons,
this dark cloud that blocks their dreams of gain and glory, this
cooling of their macho aggressive blood with the chill of caution.
This is an important factor. This makes them the biggest boasters
and the smallest achievers when it comes to warfare.
This explains
why kids dance in the streets when they heard about the attack on
New York. The idea of kicking the United States in the gut is truly
exciting to their suppressed dreams.
Of all the terrorist
groups, probably the most dangerous is not bin Laden's group, but
that of the Iranian terrorist groups. These gangs are Shiites who
hang out in Mecca. They are the ones who work with Iran's revolutionary
guard, and they specialize in airplane hijacking, kidnapping and
all the terrorist operations.
From these beginnings,
Bin Laden made a quantum leap in strategy. He declared war upon
the United States; he's attacked our embassies, he almost sank one
of our warships, he bombed our Marine barracks, and he is supported
by the other terrorist groups who let him carry out their dreams
of gain and glory. They dream and he carries it out.
According to
my sources, among those who bin Laden has embraced is Saddam Hussein,
not because they are friends, but because bin Laden is willing to
accept help from wherever it comes. The old Arab saying, "The enemy
of my enemy is my friend," probably applies here. Saddam Hussein
has a great enemy that towers in his mind-George Bush Sr., who handily
blocked him from conquering the Middle East. Hussein would like
revenge and he's fanatical. He began his career as an assassin and
he has little regard for human life. He seems a likely candidate
to be a major sponsor for bin Laden.
I have pieces
of a jigsaw puzzle which form only part of a picture. We have no
proof of it, but a great deal of contributing evidence, that Saddam
Hussein made a diabolical deal to furnish bin Laden with his terrorist
tools not only to get back at America in general, but also George
Bush in particular. That is why the White House was one of the critical
targets. The specific attack on the White House was urged and yearned
for with a burning fervor by Hussein.
I don't believe
the terrorist organizations that bin Laden heads are capable of
pulling off this sophisticated attack on America without Hussein.
They just don't have the moxy.
Our problem,
now, is not going to be only if we can find bin Laden. Our intelligence
operation is better than it is being credited for right now. We
have known where bin Laden is almost day-by-day. Part of our problem
is that the military has prided itself on having low casualties,
and the only way they can maintain that is by fighting in low-risk
battles. The Gulf War only produced a handful of casualties, which
is good. An attack in this war will be much more costly.
Yet do we have
much of choice? The die is cast. We're at war. The war is real.
The war could get worse. We know that the rogue nations that support
these terrorists are busily trying to produce biological and nuclear
weapons, and we know they are very close to achieving that. This
includes Iraq and Iran. We have do be on guard against suitcase
terrorism. Our long borders and shorelines are very difficult to
stop a suitcase filled with deadly bacteria, nerve gases or nuclear
parts from getting into the United States.
Now is our
chance to show that those who live in the light of day can protect
themselves from those who would attack by stealth.
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© 2001 Meridian
Magazine. All Rights Reserved.
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