Terrorism 2005: Changing Threat to the United States

• Saudi Arabian security forces killed several top leaders of al-Qaida there.

• The Filipino Antiterrorism Task Force captured seven foreigners in 2004 believed to be part of al-Qaida and its Southeast Asian affiliate, Jemaah Islamiya.

• And al-Qaida is under attack in Great Britain, too. British authorities in August 2004 arrested suspected al-Qaida -affiliated individuals who were subsequently indicted in the United States for plotting to attack financial institutions in the United States.

Yet even as we have achieved such tremendous success in breaking up al-Qaida as a centralized organization, the threat of international terrorism continues. Terrorists last year struck throughout the world—in Egypt, Indonesia, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Spain, Uzbekistan, and other locales—with lethal results. Local groups, many of which were inspired by al-Qaida, committed the most deadly attacks: in the elementary school in Beslan, Russia; in the commuter trains of Madrid; and on a ferry in the Philippines. The overwhelming majority of victims of terrorism were citizens of other countries. Many of the victims were Muslims.

In the U.S., there were no terrorist attacks. American deaths due to terrorist attacks were confined to Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, Egypt, and Gaza. American noncombatants in Iraq and Afghanistan comprised most of the American victims of terrorism this year. These casualties occurred against a backdrop of U.S. combat operations against terrorists and insurgents in both countries. Americans were also killed in terrorist incidents in Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Gaza.

Terrorism continues to exist in many forms, but the main threat to the United States is still al-Qaida. Osama bin Ladin, his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahiri, and other al-Qaida leaders remain at large, and they continue to plan attacks against the U.S. and U.S. interests abroad.

Though the United States and its partners have significantly weakened Al Qaida, three disturbing trends contribute to the terrorist threat and complicate our counterterrorism efforts.

First, al-Qaida has energized a movement greater than itself. The extremist vision of Osama Bin Laden continues to stir followers and sympathizers around the world to wage a violent jihad against the people of the West. Though al-Qaida has been weakened operationally, it has adapted by spreading its ideology to local groups throughout the world. They pose a dangerous threat. These extremist regional groups are conducting attacks that are more local and less sophisticated, but still very lethal. And some groups are seeking to replicate al-Qaida’s global reach and expertise for mass casualty attacks.

In some cases, al-Qaida has attempted to bring some of these extremist groups under its banner, while in other cases, groups claimed allegiance to al-Qaida despite little evidence of any connection. 

The Madrid bombings are a particularly disturbing example of this. The terrorists who conducted that atrocity were a local group that was inspired but not directed by al-Qaida. The bombers lived and worked in the country they planned to attack. They were familiar with the West and its tolerant and open society. Yet they deliberately chose to brutally murder hundreds of their fellow citizens.

A second trend also complicates our counterterrorism efforts: Terrorists are now using technology to spread their message throughout the globe. The growth of media and the Internet, as well as the ease of travel and communication around the world, have made possible the rapid movement of operatives, expertise, money, and explosives. Technology is helping al-Qaida reach out to groups around the world. Terrorists increasingly will exploit the media and the Internet to spread their messages.

A third trend we’ve witnessed is a shift in the type of targets that terrorists have been choosing. In the past, they mainly attacked our political, diplomatic and military facilities overseas. Even today, terrorists continue to target and attack us. Diplomatic Security analysts report that terrorists have even gone so far as to conduct surveillance using children, homeless individuals, elderly women, and the handicapped. Terrorists have not hesitated to use animals, dead bodies, police vehicles, garbage trucks, and ambulances as a means to conduct bombings.

But America is waging a tireless effort to harden its official overseas facilities against terrorist bombs and other attacks, adding a host of physical and technical security measures. For the State Department, as you can imagine, these security efforts are complicated by our inherent need to allow public access to our facilities and interaction with the public abroad. My organization, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, along with the State Department's Overseas Buildings Operations, have spent hundreds of millions of dollars constructing new embassies that meet this challenge and yet adhere to state-of-the-art physical safety standards. In addition, we have upgraded the perimeter of dozens of facilities by installing bollards, reinforced vehicle barriers, and hardened guard booths. These and other security measures make our embassies and our people more secure than ever.

Two attacks on our U.S. embassies overseas last year proved that the comprehensive security programs and enhanced security measures that we have implemented at posts can save lives and limit the severity of tragedies. Terrorists in December penetrated the first layer of security at the compound of the U.S. Consulate General in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, tragically killing four Foreign Service National employees and one contract guard, and injuring 12 others, including two Americans. The security measures at the post, however, proved remarkably resistant to attack. Despite repeated attempts, the terrorists were never able to penetrate the consulate building, where the vast majority of our employees remained safe.

In a separate attack in July, a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device outside the main entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, killing two Uzbek police officers assigned to protect the embassy. The losses could have been much worse, but our security measures made it impossible for the perpetrator to penetrate the embassy compound.

As we’ve made our official facilities more secure, however, terrorists have begun striking targets that lack our sophisticated security measures. The new “soft” targets—the public school in Beslan, the prestigious National hotel in Moscow, the trains in Madrid—have strong symbolic value, are economic or capitalist centers, or are guaranteed to cause high numbers of fatalities.

The American private sector overseas is a prime soft target. American businesses, schools, nongovernmental organizations, and religious missionary groups abroad are on the front lines with us in the Global War on Terrorism. Reports from Diplomatic Security research analysts with the Secretary of State’s Overseas Security Advisory Council show that the biggest concern for the U.S. private sector is terrorism in the Middle East, primarily in Saudi Arabia and Iraq. In 2004 and 2005, al-Qaida and associated groups continued to call for attacks against the energy and defense industries in the Middle East. Threats and incidents against nongovernmental organizations, including aid organizations and missionary groups, continued to increase last year. A high number of threats were made against security and protection services, as well. At the same time, there was a shift away from the traditional focus of retail establishments and fast food outlets.

We at Diplomatic Security have made tremendous efforts in the past two years to improve security measures at soft targets affiliated with U.S. interests overseas. We coordinate threat information with the U.S. private sector abroad, and provide them with suggestions on how to upgrade security measures so they can better mitigate threats at their facilities. Children in State Department-sponsored schools are safer, too. Diplomatic Security has provided millions of dollars to the schools to upgrade perimeter security and to install alarms, guard booths, and shatter-resistant window film.

At home and abroad, there is no question that terrorists continue to threaten the United States in new and dangerous ways. If we are to protect our country, we must strike back with a reasoned and forceful strategy. We must eliminate the terrorists’ breeding grounds. We must cut off their flow of money. We must sever their ability to communicate. We must isolate and apprehend their leaders. The United States has incorporated these ideas, and many others, into a National Strategy for Combating Terrorism. This strategy will ultimately make it extremely difficult for terrorists to operate. It also will make it extremely difficult for any country or organization to support terrorists. The United States is implementing this strategy simultaneously on four fronts:

• Defeat terrorist organizations of global reach by rooting out and disrupting their sanctuaries, leadership, finances and command, control and communications;
  
• Deny further sponsorship, support and sanctuary to terrorists by cooperating with other states to take action against these international threats;
  
• Diminish the underlying conditions that terrorists seek to exploit by enlisting the international community to focus its efforts and resources on the areas most at risk; and
  
• Defend the United States, its citizens and interests at home and abroad.

Our mission is clear: We must cooperate to interdict terrorists. We must disrupt their planning and restrict their travel. And we must stop their flow of money and material support. We must also work to deprive terrorists of sanctuary by enabling partner governments to assert control over weakly governed territory.

The United States and other nations must intensify their efforts to bolster the will and the capability of partner nations to investigate leads, arrest suspects, gather and analyze intelligence, sanction sponsors of terrorism, and root out terrorist cells. While many countries have the capability to fight terrorism themselves, other countries require assistance. The United States recognizes this, and actively works to bolster the counterterrorist capabilities of countries so they can become full and self-sustaining partners in the global war on terrorism.

Under the Antiterrorism Assistance Program that we run at Diplomatic Security, the United States trains foreign law enforcement and security officers in the latest antiterrorism techniques. Most countries that receive Antiterrorism Assistance training are developing nations that don’t have the resources necessary to maintain an effective antiterrorism program. In 20 years, we’ve trained more than 48,000 officials from 141 countries in airport security, bomb detection and disposal, hostage rescue, and crisis management.

That training has paid enormous dividends. Police officers in foreign countries have used their training to rescue American hostages, dismantle terrorist cells, disrupt organizational meetings, stop money transfers and prevent potential terrorist attacks. And we are all safer because of it.

International cooperation on many fronts is essential in the global war on terrorism. And it’s clearly effective. From the United Kingdom to Mexico, from Pakistan to Chad, countries all over the world are diligently working with us to stop terrorism. And the world is already seeing benefits. Just listen to a few of our successes:

• Close U.S. cooperation with British, French, and Mexican authorities was pivotal to managing threats to airline security during the 2003-2004 New Year period.
  
• Information-sharing with the United Kingdom and Pakistan led to the disclosure and disruption of an attack al-Qa’ida was planning against U.S. financial institutions.
  
• U.S. diplomatic and military assistance facilitated cooperation among Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Libya and Chad, which led to the capture of the leader of a Salafist Group for Call and Combat (GSPC) faction—the group that kidnapped 32 European tourists in Algeria in 2003. The leader of the faction was returned to Algeria to stand trial.
  
• Law enforcement officers in Iraq, Colombia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, and Pakistan applied U.S. specialized antiterrorism training to bring terrorists to justice.
  
• Working with a broad spectrum of domestic and international partners, the United States identified and disrupted many sources of terrorist finance. 

Our progress in the war on terrorism has been impressive. Yet we are far from declaring victory. We knew from the outset that this war wouldn’t be easy. Our adversaries operate in every region of the world. They can blend into the local environment and wait, sometimes for years, for just the right time to attack.

Clearly, these are big challenges. But there is nothing that is more important. We have done a good job in the past, but we can’t live in the past. Defeating our enemy will require every available means of power at our disposal. We must focus our diplomatic, intelligence, law enforcement, financial, and military capabilities—and that of our allies—in an all-out global assault against terrorist groups operating against the free world. Only the combination of all these actions will reduce the danger of terrorism for countries around the world . . . and for the good people of this country here at home.

Security professionals like you and me, who work for and support the U.S. Government, are crucial to this effort. We must—and I know we will—continue to give nothing less than our absolute best. The American people are counting on us. And nothing will stop us from preserving the security and freedom of these great United States.