3/11/09

Today marks the fifth anniversary of the Madrid train bombings that killed 191-- and exactly seven and a half years since 9/11.  To limit the chance that this happens again, we ask what the most important steps are that we can take today, at home and abroad, to keep ourselves safe from terrorism. First, improved information sharing across the US government:  a new report by the Markle Foundation Task concludes that, “Today, we are still vulnerable to attack because—as on 9/11—we are still not able to connect the dots.”  Second:  stronger cooperation with our allies, who face the same threat and whose resources we need for an effective response.  Yesterday, Vice President Biden’s encouraged our European allies to submit their ideas for the Obama administration’s Afghanistan-Pakistan review – a marked change from the Bush administration, which dismissed offers of help after 9/11 and never effectively coordinated the military mission in Afghanistan with our allies.  Finally, recent reports of recruitment of Somalis living in the United States present a new wrinkle and remind us that home grown extremist threats are not just a European problem.  As terrorism expert Bruce Hoffman explains, the Somali group Al-Shabaab “presents U.S. authorities with the most serious evidence to date of a 'homegrown' terrorist recruitment problem right in the American heartland.”  

A new bipartisan task force report from the Markle Foundation found that five years after the Madrid bombing and exactly 7½ years after 9/11, there is still much to do to keep America safe.  A report released this week by the bipartisan Markle Foundation National Security Task Force found that “For all the nation has invested in national security in the last several years, we remain vulnerable to terrorist attack and emerging national security threats because we have not adequately improved our ability to know what we know about these threats… Today, we are still vulnerable to attack because—as on 9/11—we are still not able to connect the dots. At the same time, civil liberties are at risk because we don’t have the government-wide policies in place to protect them as intelligence collection has expanded.” Regarding the Markle report, the Wall Street Journal writes, “Since the 2001 attacks, the government's urgency in fixing intelligence sharing has diminished, the task force says. Cultural, organizational and technical obstacles have slowed efforts to move information across agency boundaries. A recent inspector-general report assessing the intelligence agencies' information sharing found that the agencies have considerable work left to do. The group recommends that Mr. Obama order a high-level review focused on how to integrate all threat information, not just terrorism tips. It also says the information-sharing office that reports to the president through the director of national intelligence should be moved into the White House to elevate its position within the government.” [Markle Foundation, 3/09. WS Journal, 3/10/09]

The threat emanating from the terrorist safe haven on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border affects the U.S. and its allies and is too great a challenge to address alone. Vice President Biden spoke in Brussels yesterday, asking for the help of the U.S.’s NATO allies in “building a new strategy in Afghanistan.” The Washington Post writes, “the deteriorating situation in the region poses a security threat, from our respect, not just to the United States of America, but to every single nation around this table,’ Biden told a meeting of the North Atlantic Council, a grouping of NATO ambassadors that serves as the organization's main decision-making forum. ‘None of us can escape the responsibility to meet these threats,’ he added at a news conference afterward.”  The Post goes on to report, that “Biden said at the news conference that he had invited NATO countries, along with 14 other nations contributing to the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, to come forward swiftly with proposals that could be incorporated into the U.S. review and presented at the two gatherings as a joint strategy. ‘I pledged to them, as I pledge to all Europeans now, that we will incorporate their ideas into our strategic review,’ he said.”  “His comments represent a sharp change in tone and substance from the new US administration when dealing with the conflict in Afghanistan,” says the BBC.  Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was less inclined to work with European allies on these difficult issues, saying, “Let there be no doubt as well that there will not be a single coalition.” [Washington Post, 3/11/09. BBC, 3/10/09.  Donald Rumsfeld, 9/25/01.]

Home grown threats continue to present a problem in Europe and the United States – including recent recruitment by Somali extremists in the United States.  The problem of homegrown terrorism is generally greater in Europe than the United States as the Economist explains, “For America, the terrorist threat is still mainly an external one, involving extremists coming from abroad to carry out attacks. In Europe it is largely an internal problem of home-grown Muslim extremists.”  But the problem is coming to the United States as well.  Today, the Senate Homeland Security Committee will be exploring the concern among senior counterterrorism officials that “extremists in Somalia are radicalizing Americans to their cause, citing their recruitment of the first U.S. citizen suicide bomber and their potential role in the disappearance of more than a dozen Somali American youths.” This concern began with “a 27-year-old college student from Minneapolis who blew himself up in Somalia on Oct. 29 in one of five simultaneous bombings attributed to al-Shabaab, a group with close links to al-Qaeda. Since November, the FBI has raced to uncover any ties to foreign extremist networks in the unexpected departures of numerous Somali American teenagers and young men, who family members believe are in Somalia. The investigation is active in Boston; San Diego; Seattle; Columbus, Ohio; and Portland, Maine, a U.S. law enforcement official said, and community members say federal grand juries have issued subpoenas in Minneapolis and elsewhere.”  As Georgetown University Professor Bruce R. Hoffman explains, Al-Shabaab “presents U.S. authorities with the most serious evidence to date of a 'homegrown' terrorist recruitment problem right in the American heartland.”  [Washington Post, 3/11/09. The Economist, 7/17/08]
 

What We’re Reading

Pakistan bans protests ahead of a major opposition rally.

China’s exports fell 25.7% in February, much more than the predicted 5%.  China’s economic crisis may mean improvements for the environment.  Reverberations from the U.S.-China naval incident continue.

As the April 2nd G-20 meeting approaches, the U.S. and the U.K. plan a trade package proposal and President Obama pushes for a global stimulus effort.

As President Obama weighs talking with elements of the Taliban, the Afghan government is already doing so.

Former Prime Minister Mir Hossein Mousavi joined the Iranian presidential race as the third reformist candidate.

Meeting with NATO leaders, Vice President Joe Biden said the U.S. is undecided as to whom it will support for NATO Secretary-General.  United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon visits Congressional leaders today.

A military judge at Guantanamo Bay released the pleading of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and four other co-defendants accused of planning the 9/11 attacks.  Defense counsel and rights groups criticized the move as being in defiance of President Obama’s order to halt military commissions, but the Defense Department defended it.

Saddam Hussein’s former aide, Tariq Aziz, was found guilty for his role in murdering 42 merchants in 1992.

American and Israeli intelligence disagree on the extent of the threat of Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

The terrorist watch list hit 1 million names, up 32% since 2007, despite the removal of 33,000 names last year.

Charles W. Freeman withdrew his nomination for Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, and blamed pro-Israel lobbying groups for distorting his record.

Somalia’s cabinet voted to adopt Islamic law.  The decision must still be approved by the Parliament.

Five years after abandoning its weapons program, Libya feels the U.S. is ungrateful.

Commentary of the Day

Steven Kleinman and Matthew Alexander, former military interrogators, look at detainee policy and say that the best way to get information from detainees is to build a relationship based on trust.

The Financial Times and the New York Times argue that China must engage with the Dalai Lama now and that the continuing Tibet question threatens China’s status as a global power.

The New York Times urges the Obama administration to take a strong stand against protectionism.