Posted on 01/23/2005 2:14:13 PM PST by Pikamax
AP: U.S. Foresaw Terror Threats in 1970s
1 hour, 7 minutes ago U.S. Government - AP
By FRANK BASS and RANDY HERSCHAFT, Associated Press Writers
WASHINGTON - Nearly three decades before the Sept. 11 attacks, a high-level government panel developed plans to protect the nation against terrorist acts ranging from radiological "dirty bombs" to airline missile attacks, according to declassified documents obtained by The Associated Press.
AP Photo
"Unless governments take basic precautions, we will continue to stand at the edge of an awful abyss," Robert Kupperman, chief scientist for the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency, wrote in a 1977 report that summarized nearly five years of work by the Cabinet Committee to Combat Terrorism.
The group was formed in September 1972 by President Nixon after Palestinian commandos slaughtered 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games (news - web sites). The committee involved people as diverse as Henry Kissinger to a young Rudolph Giuliani, the once-secret documents show.
"It is vital that we take every possible action ourselves and in concert with other nations designed to assure against acts of terrorism," Nixon wrote in asking his secretary of state, William Rogers, to oversee the task force.
"It is equally important that we be prepared to act quickly and effectively in the event that, despite all efforts at prevention, an act of terrorism occurs involving the United States, either at home or abroad," the president said.
The full committee met only once, in October 1972, to organize, but its experts did get together twice a month over nearly five years to identify threats and debate solutions, the memos show.
Eventually, the group's influence waned as competing priorities, a change of presidents ushered in by Watergate, bureaucratic turf battles and a lack of spectacular domestic attacks took their toll.
But before that happened, the panel identified many of the same threats that would confront President Bush (news - web sites) at the dawn of the 21st century.
The experts fretted that terrorists might gather loose nuclear materials for a "dirty bomb" that could devastate an American city by spreading lethal radioactivity.
"This is a real threat, not science fiction," National Security Council staffer Richard T. Kennedy wrote his boss, Kissinger, in November 1972.
Rogers, in a memo to Nixon in mid-1973, praised the Atomic Energy Commission's steps to safeguard nuclear weapons. Rogers, however, also warned the president that "atomic materials could afford mind-boggling possibilities for terrorists."
Committee members identified commercial jets as a particular vulnerability, but raised concerns that airlines would not pay for security improvements such as tighter screening procedures and routine baggage inspections.
"The trouble with the plans is that airlines and airports will have to absorb the costs and so they will scream bloody murder should this be required of them," according to a White House memo from 1972. "Otherwise, it is a sound plan which will curtail the risk of hijacking substantially."
By 1976, government pressure to improve airport security and thwart hijackings had awakened airline industry lobbyists.
The International Air Transport Association said "airport security is the responsibility of the host government. The airline industry did not consider the terrorist threat its most significant problem; it had to measure it against other priorities. If individual companies were forced to provide their own security, they would go broke," according to minutes from one meeting.
Thousands of pages of heavily blacked out records and memos obtained by the AP from government archives and under the Freedom of Information Act show the task force:
_discussed defending commercial aircraft against being shot down by portable missile systems;
_recommended improved vigilance at potential "soft" targets, such as major holiday events, municipal water supplies, nuclear power plants and electric power facilities;
_supported cracking down on foreigners living in and traveling through the United States, with particular attention to Middle Easterners and Arab-Americans;
_developed plans to protect U.S. diplomats and businessmen working abroad against kidnapping and attack.
Though the CIA (news - web sites) routinely updated the committee on potential terrorist threats and plots, task force members learned quickly that intelligence gathering and coordination was a weak spot, just as Bush would discover three decades later.
Long before he was mayor and helped New York City recover from the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center, Giuliani told the committee in May 1976 that he feared legal restrictions were thwarting federal agents from collecting intelligence unless there had been a violation of the law.
Giuliani, who at that time was the associate deputy attorney general in President Ford's Justice Department (news - web sites), suggested relaxing intelligence collection guidelines — something that occurred with the Patriot Act three decades later
Other committee members said that obstacles to intelligence gathering were more bureaucratic than legal.
Lewis Hoffacker, a veteran ambassador who served as chairman of the terrorism working group, told the AP that institutional rivalries, particularly between the FBI (news - web sites) and CIA, were a constant source of frustration even in the 1970s.
"That was our headache, a quarter-century ago," said Hoffacker, now retired. "They all pulled back into their little fiefdoms. The CIA was always off by itself, and the FBI was dealing with the same situation they're dealing with today."
Finding the political will to fight terrorism in the absence of a major attack in the United States also quickly became a problem. Proposals for international penalties against countries harboring terrorists drew little support from the United Nations (news - web sites), the memos show.
"The climate at the 1974 General Assembly was such that no profitable initiative in the terrorism field was feasible," Ford heard from Kissinger, his secretary of state, in early 1975.
Two years later, the working group was absorbed by the National Security Council. In a 1978 report, the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee (news - web sites) worried that the Carter administration was not giving enough attention to terrorism.
"The United States will not be able to combat the growing challenge of terrorism unless the executive policy-making apparatus is more effectively and forcefully utilized," the Senate committee warned
so its Carter's fault.
I think we're supposed to jump from a general awareness of a possible threat somewhere down the road, to Bush knew about 9-11 in advance. We won't do it, but watch your liberal relatives, coworkers, etc...
Smokescreen - the media is trying to cover (again) for Bubba...
sounds like it's Nixon and Carters fault......hindsight is a wonderful thing
No surprise.
If Congresscritters would read those Intel reports they pay for each year, they would know that terrorism was a threat all through the 1990's, as well. And that from their own Intel reports.
They just choose to ignore such reports and continue business-as-usual.
The 9-11 attacks interrupted that, but after four years, they are mostly getting back to business-as-usual.
I have to agree with you. Also covering for the co-president, IMHO. Remember, slick said we got a two fer when the country elected the butt head.
But your getting a little smarter kiddies. Cause the "other shoe" invariably is being made ready to drop on someone in the name of finding the culprit who caused all this...or better yet proving once again that the hated US has "brought it all on itself".
No, actually, this is an incredible piece of work. It means that for 30 years this threat has existed and grown. Basically, the Carter admin dropped the committee and it was allowed go grow dust in the corner of everyone's mind.
That's what you got out of it. That's what I got out of it. Do you know any liberals well enough to guess what they will get out of it? "Bush knew! He had thirty years of warnings. He knew!"
It is a testament to the greatness of this country that we have survived the REAL dirtballs and traitors that have infested all 3 branches of the Fed Govt. So what are we as a people going to do to rid this great country of these slimeballs!?
I think you're right. The "Bush knew" crowd will pounce on this, and conveniently "forget" about all the opportunities to nip this in the bud before Bush was president. From several pretty good books on the topic, I'm reasonably sure that after Carter's major fumble, the other best opportunities fell during Clinton's presidency.
I suspect there were also "good opportunities" (aka threats) during Reagan's terms, and he quietly did what needed to be done. I have no inside info on that, but I'd be surprised if it wasn't true.
Amazing how much our present situation leads back to Carter,
Iran, the state of the CIA, and now this,
Bubba doesn't hold a candle
to jimmy as far as ineptness goes.
Bubba had the chance to hold the candle about 6 times, possibly more, when opportunities arose to capture or kill Bin Laden--and he dropped the ball every time. Once or twice he sent some missiles into a goat herd--about five hours later, once Bin Laden had moved on.
Congress' responsibility, and any President's ultimate burden.
The terrorists and commies have learned one thing across the decades: US government Democrat=good, US government Republican=bad. For them.
Which makes me think Reagan and Bush 1 must have had to deal with similar issues. The difference is they took it seriously.
I think you're right: remember the Iran hostage situation? The terrorists let them go as soon as Reagan was elected. Maybe they knew better than to keep them while he was in office--Carter was a wimp, and they knew it. Reagan wasn't.
Despite all the press ballyoo to the contrary the 9/11 attack was not particularly creative or surprising.
Ooooh Geeeeeez! I thought it was all Bush's fault!
lotta bad things happened during jimmy ca'ta's presidency!
I barely remember it. I was a teenager at the time, trying my best to destroy my life. I wasn't paying any attention to world events, but even I noticed that one. Too obvious.
Let's see, in 1972 Bush was still shirking the TANG "duty" he got from Poppy so he wouldn't have to go to Vietnam, unlike the genuine war hero John F. Kerry. So, it's all Bush's fault.
</AP bias>
so its Carter's fault.
The perennial suspect.
I agree.
For one four year term Carter sure created quite a legacy for himself. Only instead of competing among the Greats, as G.W. or his successor Reagan will do, he will be competing among the worst.
When you think of it, Clinton is lucky. Monica may make him a historical joke, but she'll keep him from the fate that awaits Jimmy in the history books once the Left loses their hold on the educational system.
This whole mess in the M.E. was a construct of Jimmy. He must be proud.
RRegarding the airlines.... surely you all remember the Gore Commission...
http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2001/trade.center/flight.risk/stories/part1.mainbar.html
Ping
It may just be a smokescreen. I think the MSM will be spinning at warp speed to set up Hillary for '08.
They have to minimize any damaging issues that may arise, and they have 4 short years to get it done.
It may just be a smokescreen. I think the MSM will be spinning at warp speed to set up Hillary for '08.
They have to minimize any damaging issues that may arise, and they have 4 short years to get it done.
Amazing similarities between the report cited here and the 9/11 report. It just goes to show you that our government won't act until after the fact, not before.
Keep in mind the first major attack by arab terrorists was put together long befor he came into office. The first world trade center bombing, which if it has succeeded would have killed 50,000 or more, was launched about a month after Clinton took office.
It goes back a lot further, Carter wasn't the guy who let the Arab countries get away with blackmailing us over oil in 1973.
AP at its best.
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