Skip to comments.

Posted on 09/16/2001 11:15:41 AM PDT by veronica

Massacre in Manhattan The Country Declares War On Terrorism

By EDWARD ZEHR

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld had predicted, at a meeting on missile defense in the Pentagon Tuesday morning, that another terrorist attack would be forthcoming in the near future. "Let me tell ya, I've been around the block a few times. There will be another event," said Rumsfeld. A short time later, word of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center sent him scurrying to his office. According to the Washington Post, "On a house porch a little more than a mile away, Ralph Banton, 79, was enjoying a crystal-clear morning. Then Banton heard a jet flying directly overhead, very low ... Seconds later, American Flight 77, hijacked while carrying 64 people from Washington to Los Angeles, tore into the side of the Pentagon ... The Pentagon burst into flames, sending a huge cloud of smoke up into the blue sky, visible for miles. And a part of the western side of the five-sided building in suburban Arlington, Va., collapsed."

It would be pointless to rehash the events of last Tuesday, this story has already been covered more intensively than any other in history. Flipping the channel on my TV set to WNVC, which broadcasts foreign news, day and night, for the benefit of the diplomatic community in Washington, I noted that there seemed to be no other story reported anywhere in the world that day. The horrifying images of the two hijacked airliners crashing into the twin towers of the World Trade Center appeared again and again, with commentary in various languages. French president Jacques Chirac appeared briefly to denounce the "monstrous act." German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder made a fiery speech in which he condemned the terrorist attacks in New York as "a declaration of war against the entire civilized world," adding that, "Whoever backs this terror, violates the laws of the civilized world." Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared on the screen to say that "the world should unite to combat the threat of terrorism, 'the plague of the 21st century.'" British Prime Minister Tony Blair pledged that Britain will stand "shoulder to shoulder" with America in the effort to find and punish the terrorists responsible for the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. "The people who perpetrated it have no regard whatever for the sanctity or value of human life," said Blair, adding that words are inadequate to express condemnation of those responsible for the "barbarism."

If the primary purpose of terrorist acts such as these is to attract the public's attention, the operation was a stunning success. However, the reaction of the public would seem to be the opposite of that which was intended. Within a period of a half hour, the perpetrators defined themselves forever in the minds of a massive worldwide audience of viewers as pitiless barbarians, so utterly beyond the pale as to be viewed as pariahs by all but a tiny minority. The German spectators interviewed by Deutsche Welle, the German counterpart of the BBC, weighed in with expressions such as "entsetzlich" (horrifying), "scheusslich" (hideous), and perhaps most significantly, "unverfassbar" (incomprehensible). Several alluded to their country's long experience with terrorism during the 1970s (which I remember well, having lived in Munich during that era), and expressed concern that they too are vulnerable to such vicious acts.

Terrorist acts are second to none as attention getters, but what good does it do to send a message if nobody understands it? Especially when one considers the price that must be paid by the terrorists and their supporters -- relegation to the status of moral lepers. I remember leaving my apartment building in Munich one morning -- following a particularly egregious terrorist outrage -- to find a police car parked on the sidewalk near the front entrance. As I drew near the car, a policeman thrust his arm out the window -- he was clutching a flier. The cop's expression suggested that acceptance of the offer was not optional, so I took it. The sheet contained mug shots of a dozen or so members of the Rote Armee Fraktion (a.k.a. the Baader Meinhoff Gang), an extremely effective terrorist group covertly supported by the communist regime that ran East Germany in those days. Copies of this flier were subsequently posted all over the country. As the terrorists were hunted down and eliminated, shop owners would cross out their pictures and place the flier back in their window, the point being that these folks were about as popular as the plague. Nobody could understand what they wanted. Each of their terrorist acts was aimed at freeing members of the gang who had been jailed for previous criminal acts. If the object of the exercise was to destabilize the country it failed dismally. The amount of actual damage that terrorists can inflict, even upon a modern, technologically developed society, is minimal. Their effectiveness is largely psychological.

That is what makes the wanton, massive slaughter of civilians seem so pointless -- it resulted in an immediate outpouring of sympathy and support for the U.S. that was readily apparent within hours of the attack. Foreign TV news casts showed the German tricolor flying at half mast in front of government offices in Berlin, a German policeman placing a wreath in front of the U.S. embassy, and more astonishing, a crowd of Russians heaping flowers at the gate of the U.S. embassy in Moscow. For those accustomed to see the American flag being burned by foreign demonstrators, this takes getting used to. Perhaps the most telling scene of all was Yasir Arafat condemning the attack in a statement delivered in English. Israelis may be forgiven if they find this a bit much, however, it underscores the point that the attack upon the World Trade Center, if not the Pentagon, was a devastating blow to the Palestinian cause. If the crowds of Palestinians who celebrated the terrorist attack did not understand this, Arafat demonstrated that he understands it perfectly well. He made a second TV appearance (that aired late Tuesday night) in which he amplified his previous condemnation, speaking in Arabic this time, and carefully monitoring the English translation. He concluded his statement in an emotional vein, saying "God bless you," in English, repeating it twice, presumably for the benefit of American viewers. It was later reported that the Palestinian leader had given blood to be used for victims of the terrorist attack in New York.

Nurturing a Viper

The present climate of opinion will make it difficult for key countries such as Pakistan to maintain its accustomed fence-straddling position. Pakistani intelligence is credited with doing much to create the Taliban in neighboring Afghanistan (with a little help from the U.S.). It seemed a good idea at the time, as the Soviet Union had set up a puppet regime there and occupied part of the country. Sen. Joseph Biden, the Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, told reporters Thursday evening that Pakistan is ready to cooperate fully with the U.S. in combatting terrorism, or so they have indicated. The Taliban in Afghanistan is presently sheltering terrorist leader Osama bin Laden, who is suspected of being responsible for last week's attacks in New York and Washington. According to Reuters, bin Laden has told sources close to the Taliban, "The terrorist act is the action of some American group. I have nothing to do with it." Bin Laden is also blamed for bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania which killed 224 people and injured 4,000. Afghanistan has refused repeated U.S. demands for extradition of the charismatic terrorist leader, saying that they find the evidence against him "unconvincing."

Bin Laden, who supported the Taliban during the jihad against the Soviet Union in Afghanistan, was allied with the U.S. at the time, however, he has since come to regard this country as the number one enemy of the Islamic world, according to Le Monde, the well known French daily. In none of his rare public appearances does he fail to mention "the holy war" against Washington. His antipathy towards this country seems to derive from the Gulf War, when foreign troops, mostly American, were invited into Saudi Arabia by King Fahd. Bin Laden, a member of a prominent and wealthy family, had pleaded with the king not to allow "infidels" on the sacred soil of Arabia, wherein are found the most sacred places of Islam, Mecca and Medina.

Bin Laden was greatly impressed by the victory of the mujahedin over the Soviet forces in Afghanistan -- "by the grace of their Islamic faith" -- and took up residence in Sudan after the war. Using his family's money, he gradually built an organization, Al Qaida, with which to pursue his major obsession, the defeat of America. In 1996, under pressure from Saudi Arabia, Khartoum expelled bin Laden , who moved his operation to Afghanistan. There he found a number of Arab soldiers who had fought against the Soviets, but were now unwelcome in their own countries. Among them was Ayman Al Zawahri, who had been condemned to death by Egypt for the role he played in the assassination of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat in 1981.

The Taliban leaders, preoccupied with gaining control of the country, paid little attention to bin Laden and his followers who were dedicated to the triumph of the Islamic revolution and the defeat of the U.S., whom they see as its primary enemy. Afghanistan provides the ideal terrain from which to conduct this campaign. Bin Laden's training camps for young recruits from Arab countries flourish there, where they are taught the rudiments of military tactics as well as the most modern terrorist techniques. During the decade extending from 1979 to 1989, Afghan resistance fighters were trained by the CIA with the aid of the Pakistani secret service.

Dislodging Al Qaida from its base in Afghanistan will not be easy. On Aug. 20, 1998, the Clinton administration singled out bin Laden as the world's most dangerous terrorist and took retaliatory measures against his organization for their destruction of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Among other things, then President Clinton ordered an attack on six training camps near Khost, Afghanistan, with about 80 cruise missiles. The attack proved ineffectual -- most of the trainees were not in the camp at the time of the raid. Paul Sperry, writing for the online publication World Net Daily, quotes a Pentagon official as saying, "If he hit him [bin Laden], he would have been lucky. All he did was give him confidence that he could prick at the giant and win, and we wouldn't do anything about it."

On Friday it was announced that Pakistan has been asked to allow U.S. military aircraft to overfly its territory, presumably to gain access to terrorist bases in neighboring Afghanistan. Such a move would not be without risk for the Pakistani government -- the country has a number of Islamic extremists who might seek to overthrow the government. This is the problem faced by many of the more moderate governments in the Near East.

The question has been raised by pundits, several of whom have connections with the intelligence community, as to whether bin Laden had help. For example, Arnold Beichman, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution, wrote in Wednesday's Washington Times, "How about the country which first supplies the essential knowledge and training of future terrorists against the West and against the United States?"

Noting that the suicide pilots would likely have had simulator training, Beichman asks, "Who could have access to a simulator and supply a trained simulator operator? Could Osama bin Laden in his Afghan lair provide the kind of training not merely for hijacking a plane but also for learning when and how to pick the right time to steer the hijacked plane to a new destination, one different from the original flight plans filed by the four jetliners and know to keep it on course and altitude?"

Columnist Jim Hoagland expressed similar views in the Washington Post. No doubt simulator training would be valuable if not essential to a terrorist embarked on such a mission. Beichman elaborates, "Simulator training time in the hidden valleys of Afghanistan? Surely not. The only place where the pilot-saboteurs could get such training would be in a country like Iraq or Iran where there is a pool of young men, some of them pilots, who might willingly accept martyrdom or who could be coerced into accepting such a mortal role."

Presumably Beichman wrote this before it became known that the terrorists were able to get simulator training at flight schools in this country, merely by signing up and plunking down the requisite fee. But there is nothing sinister in itself about taking pilot training. Even if the fledgling kamikazes had taken their training in Iraq or Iran, this in itself would not implicate those countries in a terrorist plot.

And that underscores the difficulty of fighting this kind of terrorism. It would not be surprising if such a country, Iraq in particular, were involved in the plot, but proving this might be impossible. Of course, we could always hit them without bothering to obtain the necessary proof, but to what end? We have already bombed Iraq any number of times without really accomplishing much. Is anyone prepared to take stronger measures against them on the basis of a guess? An invasion of Iraq would take months to prepare, even if it were possible to put together the sort of coalition that supported Desert Storm. And it is far from clear that we still have the military resources that would be needed for such a task. Consequently, the most likely course of action is a military strike against bin Laden's terrorist group and its infrastructure.

It is no secret that terrorist groups with disparate aims cooperate. For example, the Baader-Meinhoff Gang that terrorized Germany for more than a decade sent its members to training camps in the Middle East run by the PLO. It is also well known that the gang had covert support from the East German government, even though nothing could be done about this at the time. Nevertheless, the German government was able to suppress the terrorists by a slow process of attrition, although this took years to accomplish. The turning point came when terrorists hijacked a Lufthansa jet in the Middle East, in an effort to force the government to release key members of the organization who had previously been apprehended. The German government responded by dispatching a crack antiterrorist unit (GSG-9) to Mogadishu where they boarded the aircraft and mowed down the terrorists. It is believed that the British SAS and the American Delta Force also played a role in the operation. (Although it is a better kept secret, anti-terrorist organizations also cooperate). Upon the hearing the news, the imprisoned terrorists committed suicide, breaking the back of their organization.

Gen. Brent Scowcroft, who was the National Security Advisor to then-President George Bush, the Elder, told Tom Brokaw on Friday night that he believes a military operation may be undertaken against bin Laden within a few weeks. On Friday the Pakistani Joint Chiefs of Staff approved most of the requests made of them by the U.S. military. The list is quite extensive, including permission for U.S. military aircraft to overfly and land on Pakistani territory, the use of harbor facilities by U.S. ships and the stationing of American troops in the country. (The Pakistanis balked at the last request). The U.S. government has also requested that Pakistan close its border with Afghanistan and withhold any resources or financial support. The Afghan government has threatened revenge if its borders are crossed by foreign troops.

Speaking with a bull horn to rescue workers at "ground zero" in New York, one arm draped over the shoulders of a fireman, President Bush responded to a shout of "I can't hear you" from one of the workers, saying, "I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!" The workers roared approval, taking up the chant "USA, USA ..."

By week's end a military strike against the terrorists in Afghanistan seemed all but inevitable and sooner rather than later. By unanimous vote, Congress approved an appropriation of $40 billion to deal with the crisis -- half to be used for rescue work and relief for victims of the attack and the other half for homeland security and military operations. Late Friday night the House passed, by a vote of 420-to-1, a "use of force resolution" giving the president a free hand to do most anything necessary in order to bring to account those responsible for the terrorist attack. Secretary of State Colin Powell, who is in charge of building a coalition against terrorism, has indicated that countries will be judged on the basis of their willingness to cooperate. The president declared a state of emergency on Friday, giving him the authority to call up as many as a million reservists. Friday's announcement that 50,000 would be called up is thought to represent no more than the tip of the iceberg.

Tracking Down the Terrorists

The first arrest was made on Friday, with a "material witness" being taken into custody in New York. Two other people thought to have knowledge of the plot are said to be cooperating with the FBI. It is believed that at least 50, people may be involved in the terrorist ring responsible for the attack and that 50 more have knowledge of the plot.

The manhunt extended to Europe where arrests were made by local authorities on evidence provided by the FBI. In Hamburg, a federal prosecutor took action against a group of Islamic fundamentalists who had been organizing there since the first of the year. The Deutsche Press Agentur reports that three members of this organization had been on the passenger list of one of the hijacked airliners used in the attack. Generalbundesanwalt Kay Nehm said at a press conference in Karlsruhe that this organization was acting in concert with other, similar groups with the goal of destroying "symbolic buildings" in the U.S. Another suspect with an Arabic background was said to be still at large.

After being alerted at mid-week by the FBI, German authorities were able to identify two members of the group, 33-year-old Mohammed Atta and 23-year-old Marwan Al-Schehi, both of whom died in the suicide attacks, as well as another suspect who had left Germany at the same time. All three of the suspects were from the United Arab Emirate and were enrolled at the Technical University in Harburg, a district of Hamburg, where they studied electrical engineering. Two of the three had also received pilot training at Huffman Aviation International in Venice, Florida. The Hamburg police also detained a woman as a witness. A force of 4,000 FBI agents, along with 3,000 support personnel and 400 FBI lab specialists, half the manpower of the agency, have been attempting to track down the remaining terrorists before they can flee the country. Jerry Seper writes in the Washington Times that "Multiple terrorist cells are believed to be involved in the attacks," according to authorities. "They have identified more than a dozen of the suspected hijackers, who have ties to Egypt and Saudi Arabia. None has been arrested." A list of 19 participants in Tuesday's terrorist attacks was released at week's end.

In Europe the dragnet continues to turn up suspects. Two men were arrested in Brussels, charged with plotting to attack American targets in Europe. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung, published in Munich, reported on Saturday that intensive efforts by police and "Geheimdienste" (literally, "secret service") are underway to uncover the background of the terrorist attacks in the USA and to thwart possible attempts to commit terrorist acts in Germany. The investigation of the three kamikaze hijackers in Hamburg has been expanded -- a number of residences in that city have been searched yielding a considerable amount of evidence.

An Iranian refugee who had warned authorities of a "gigantic attack" about to take place in the U.S. was questioned by German police in the presence of FBI agents. According to the Hannoversche Neue Presse, the man, who resides in Germany, had made about a dozen phone calls to various U.S. officials, warning of an attack. However, psychiatrists said that the man gave indications of being psychologically disturbed, and federal prosecutor Kay Nehm noted that he seemed to have no knowledge regarding the backgrounds of the perpetrators. The FBI agents characterized his statements as "diffuse" and did not consider them useful. This is the way most of the leads investigated thus far have panned out, which goes far to explain the enormous expenditure of time and resources needed to track down the terrorists.

The German Verfassungsschutz (similar to our FBI) estimates that there are approximately 2400 "foreign extremists" living in Hamburg alone, about a thousand of whom belong to Islamic extremist groups. A special task force of 100 police officers has been set up to deal with the investigation. Among the 150,000 to 200,000 muslims living in Hamburg are a number of people, mostly of Arab extraction, who identify with the "international holy war." Many of these people took part in military actions in Afghanistan, Bosnia, Kaschmir or Chechnya, or else have received military-terrorist training in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

A report issued by the Verfassungsschutz speaks of "Einzelpersonen", individuals thought to have connections with the adherents of Osama bin Laden. According to the German news magazine, Der Spiegel, the FBI has proof, given them by German authorities, that the three terrorists who had lived in Hamburg had previously maintained contact with other "suspicious passengers" on the hijacked aircraft. In other words, Hamburg would seem to have been a preliminary staging point for the operation. The terrorists spent several years there establishing seemingly legitimate backgrounds and were apparently supported by an infrastructure capable of providing them with false documents as well as funding necessary to carry out their mission. The magazine points out that Mohamed Atta, in booking his reservation, gave the same telephone number as four other Arabs in two of the other hijacked aircraft.

Referring to the "cold-blooded professionalism and singleness of purpose" with which the attack was carried out, a "high-ranking security expert" in Berlin said that "one knows of nobody but bin Laden who could have organized such an operation ... The cost of the operation alone was considerable. Each of the Arab flight students had to pay $25,000 for his pilot training. In addition, there was the long period of preparation and the group of people who had supported the operation in a completely conspiratorial fashion."

In the opinion of Geheimdienst experts, bin Laden's people were not the only ones involved in the attack. The Sueddeutsche Zeitung quotes one such official as saying, "There is a series of mujahedin, independent of [bin Laden's] organization, upon whom he can rely for assistance in such an operation."

And that is what makes bin Laden's terrorist group so dangerous. It has shown itself capable of taking root wherever there is a sizeable population of disaffected muslims. Moderate Arab governments are afraid of him. Al Quaida is made up of fanatics from every part of the muslim world -- it has affiliates in such diverse countries as Algeria, Sudan, Chechnya and the Philippines. Graduates of bin Laden's training camps return to their own countries where they set up "semi-autonomous cells, all dedicated to bin Laden's jihad against America," according to Forbes magazine. But they have also shown themselves ready to wage a "holy war" against their own governments and people.

Secular governments such as those in Iraq and Iran regard bin Laden as a menace rather than a potential ally. That does not preclude their occasional, opportunistic cooperation with his terrorist groups -- one of the conspirators in the 1993 attempt to destroy the World Trade Center has been identified as an Iraqi intelligence operative. But on the whole, they prefer to keep bin Laden and Al Quaida at arm's length.

According to Forbes, "Bin Laden also provides logistical, financial and ideological support for a number of notorious terrorist organizations around the world." This is in keeping with the pattern that emerged during the 1970s. Terrorist groups whose aims have little in common are able to draw on each other for support in those areas where they are weak. The East German government could hardly have provided training for the Baader Meinhoff Gang without risking retaliation. But the PLO ran no such risk. No doubt this is the sort of thing the president has in mind when he speaks of waging a world-wide war on terrorism.

Those who expect a quick resolution to this conflict are certain to be disappointed. The problem is devilishly complicated and the main body of the enemy is virtually inaccessible. There are a thousand hidey holes in Afghanistan into which bin Laden and his merry men can disappear, and the word is that they have already decamped for parts unknown. Perhaps the first thing to be done is to cut off his sources of financial support from places such as Saudi Arabia, but even that is easier said than done. How successful have we been at monitoring and blocking the flow of drug money out of our own country?

The Grand Alliance

By week's end the wave of sympathy and support for this country in Europe and around the world had reached the proportions of a tsunami. I had to rub my eyes and double-check my dictionary to convince myself that a headline I had read in Le Monde, "We Are All Americans!" was not a hallucination. Nevertheless, I do appreciate the thought. But what effect will this torrent of emotion have upon the policies of European governments when push comes to shove?

My favorite leftie / crypto-commie rag, Junge Welt, published in Berlin, reports that a poll conducted in Germany on the issue of their military participation in the war on terrorism shows that, "Only 37 percent of those asked supported a participation of the Bundeswehr [the German military], 57 percent were against. Nonetheless, 57 percent of those asked said that retaliation by the USA would be justified."

To my way of thinking, this sounds rather like "ohne mich" (without me), a phrase popular with Germans at the start of the Cold War, by which they meant, go ahead and fight those Ruskies if you wish -- we'll just stand here and watch. (Been there, done that, have the T-shirt). Mind you, they were eventually to change their minds and provide the largest contingent of troops in the NATO lineup. but not without some plain & fancy persuasion on our part.

Nevertheless, Die Welt reported at mid-week that, "The Alliance Is Prepared To Support The USA In A Counter-Stroke" (in the event it can be shown that the terrorist attack was not organized and carried out in this country alone). The gist of the story is that the NATO council in Brussels has voted for the first time ever to invoke article 5 of the treaty, which calls upon all members to intervene on behalf of any NATO nation that comes under foreign attack. (That's us, folks). German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder pointed out in a speech to the Bundestag that not only is it their duty to honor their treaty commitments, but what's more, the terrorist attack on the USA is directed at the entire civilized world, and thus against themselves. Amazingly, everybody seemed to agree. There is one additional stipulation -- under the treaty, the nation attacked must ask for help from the other 18 members. As Colin Powell points out, that would be premature at this point since we have yet to determine with certainty who is responsible for the attack. Watching this develop will surely provide one of the most fascinating spectacles of the post Cold War era.

Not to be outdone, Australia weighed in with a blockbuster of its own. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, "After a marathon Cabinet meeting, Mr Howard announced he had invoked Article 4 of the ANZUS treaty, formally committing Australia to support the US in the event of a military response." The prime minister's decision to invoke the treaty was supported by the leader of the opposition, Mr. Beazley.

If Osama bin Laden is not having second thoughts at this point, he has to be brain dead. His ill-conceived and hateful act has resulted in almost every nation of consequence in the civilized world aligning itself in a broad coalition to destroy him, his terrorist organization and, if necessary, the medieval country that is sheltering him. After almost a week of watching a nonstop spectacle of grief and horror, Americans are beginning to get very angry. This contemptible attack on our country has been compared to Pearl Harbor. In terms of the human cost, it is equivalent to two Pearl Harbors. Some years ago I read a book by a former Japanese naval officer who had been privy to the planning of the war from start to finish. "Before it was over," he wrote, "we wished we had never heard of Pearl Harbor -- you paid us back a thousand times."

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.