thedrifter
03-20-04, 06:38 AM
03-18-2004
From the Editor:
Viewing War as a Crime
By Ed Offley
Before 9/11, when terrorists attacked U.S. military barracks, embassies and a Navy warship, the Clinton administration sent FBI investigators to probe the crime scene. After 9/11, the Bush administration sent the U.S. military and CIA to wage war against the terrorists.
It was on that horrific September day 2½ years ago that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld made the obvious and correct assessment that the level of violence al Qaeda had just unleashed against the United States went beyond the definition of crime and was, indeed, an act of war.
You would think that European officials reflecting on the massacre of over 200 Spanish civilians a week ago by an Islamic terror cell linked to al Qaeda would come to the same conclusion. And you would be wrong.
All across Western Europe, it seems, the global terror campaign by al Qaeda – from New York to Saudi Arabia to Morocco to Bali to Baghdad and now, to Madrid – is still not viewed as a war against the West by Islamofascists. In their intellectual sophistication, cultural superiority and historical farsightedness, our European cousins are much too wise to let the matter of a few thousand butchered civilians here, several hundred blown-apart innocents there, drag them into having to respond to a war that threatens them, too.
Consider Germany’s Interior Minister, Otto Schily: In response to the Madrid bombings, he has called for a meeting Friday of the European Union’s interior and justice ministers – but not defense ministers. As The Christian Science Monitor reported this week, “While the meeting is expected to produce measures for more cooperation and intelligence-sharing among Europe’s law-enforcement agencies, few observers expect the Madrid bombings to draw Europe closer to the idea that this is ‘war.’ ”
Speaking candidly, if anonymously, another European official told the newspaper, “We have always had a different definition of terrorism, in that we never call it a ‘war’ on terrorism. We call it the fight or battle against terrorism, and we do think the distinction makes a difference.”
The consequences of this mindset go far beyond the defection of the new Spanish government from supporting the U.S.-led occupation and rebuilding of Iraq. The unbending refusal in Spain and other European capitals to recognize the full implication of the threat from al Qaeda and like-minded terror cells threatens to hamstring the vital, time-sensitive intelligence-sharing and investigative partnerships that have evolved after succeeding terror attacks.
Remember Khobar Towers? When FBI agents arrived to assist the Saudis in investigating the truck bomb, our erstwhile allies severely restricted access to suspects in captivity and then hastily executed them to close off the case, facts be damned. Remember the Cole? Yemeni officials did the same to an FBI team sent to investigate the bombing.
After years of what seemed to be steady progress among western nations in forging true alliances to combat al Qaeda, we suddenly have a sharp and dangerous reversal taking place in Spain.
For we can now add Madrid to the roster of “I-don’t-know-and-I-don’t-want-to-know” governments who believe that muddling through mass murder will somehow forestall future attacks. The New York Times and Newsweek have both reported that the Spanish government has refused to allow access to the Madrid bombing investigation to a team of explosives and terrorism experts from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Never mind that this elite group has the resources and databases to quickly examine the forensic evidence and track down new leads inside and outside of Spain. For what can only be assessed as political reasons, the Spanish have closed out a powerful investigative ally in this time-sensitive case.
And the “it’s-only-a-crime” mindset seems to have thwarted earlier opportunities by the Spanish to halt the bombing plot before it occurred.
A key suspect arrested immediately after the bombings has been identified as a Moroccan cell-phone salesman named Jamal Zougam. He had initially come to the attention of Spanish authorities as early as August 2001, when the police reportedly recorded him talking to Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, an accused Al Qaeda cell leader in Spain who has since been indicted in that country for complicity in the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Newsweek reports that in the intercepted call, Zougam discussed with the al Qaeda cell leader raising money for yet another alleged terrorist named Mohamed Fizazi, a radical Moroccan imam who was later convicted in the May 2003 suicide bombings of Jewish targets in Casablanca that killed 45 civilians. Moroccan officials, who considered Zougam a “very active terrorist,” warned Spanish authorities that Zougam was moving back to Spain, the newsmagazine reported, but the Spanish authorities took no action.
Why not? Spanish officials in response have said they simply didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Zougam. Under the conventions treating terrorism as a crime, to have acted earlier would have been – horror of horrors – dangerously pre-emptive.
Back to our anonymously comfortable European official’s lecture: “Madrid will certainly lead to a more dynamic look at counter-terrorism operations and cooperation, but terrorism in Europe is not a new phenomenon, so this will not suddenly be seen as a war.”
“This is not Europe’s 9/11,” he added.
As long as this mindset continues, it is inevitable that al Qaeda will come up with a 9/11-style attack on the continent that will finally destroy this dangerous illusion. It is a real crime that probably thousands of innocent Europeans will have to die in order to wake their leaders up to the nature of this war.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=29&rnd=819.7367452337423
Ellie
From the Editor:
Viewing War as a Crime
By Ed Offley
Before 9/11, when terrorists attacked U.S. military barracks, embassies and a Navy warship, the Clinton administration sent FBI investigators to probe the crime scene. After 9/11, the Bush administration sent the U.S. military and CIA to wage war against the terrorists.
It was on that horrific September day 2½ years ago that Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld made the obvious and correct assessment that the level of violence al Qaeda had just unleashed against the United States went beyond the definition of crime and was, indeed, an act of war.
You would think that European officials reflecting on the massacre of over 200 Spanish civilians a week ago by an Islamic terror cell linked to al Qaeda would come to the same conclusion. And you would be wrong.
All across Western Europe, it seems, the global terror campaign by al Qaeda – from New York to Saudi Arabia to Morocco to Bali to Baghdad and now, to Madrid – is still not viewed as a war against the West by Islamofascists. In their intellectual sophistication, cultural superiority and historical farsightedness, our European cousins are much too wise to let the matter of a few thousand butchered civilians here, several hundred blown-apart innocents there, drag them into having to respond to a war that threatens them, too.
Consider Germany’s Interior Minister, Otto Schily: In response to the Madrid bombings, he has called for a meeting Friday of the European Union’s interior and justice ministers – but not defense ministers. As The Christian Science Monitor reported this week, “While the meeting is expected to produce measures for more cooperation and intelligence-sharing among Europe’s law-enforcement agencies, few observers expect the Madrid bombings to draw Europe closer to the idea that this is ‘war.’ ”
Speaking candidly, if anonymously, another European official told the newspaper, “We have always had a different definition of terrorism, in that we never call it a ‘war’ on terrorism. We call it the fight or battle against terrorism, and we do think the distinction makes a difference.”
The consequences of this mindset go far beyond the defection of the new Spanish government from supporting the U.S.-led occupation and rebuilding of Iraq. The unbending refusal in Spain and other European capitals to recognize the full implication of the threat from al Qaeda and like-minded terror cells threatens to hamstring the vital, time-sensitive intelligence-sharing and investigative partnerships that have evolved after succeeding terror attacks.
Remember Khobar Towers? When FBI agents arrived to assist the Saudis in investigating the truck bomb, our erstwhile allies severely restricted access to suspects in captivity and then hastily executed them to close off the case, facts be damned. Remember the Cole? Yemeni officials did the same to an FBI team sent to investigate the bombing.
After years of what seemed to be steady progress among western nations in forging true alliances to combat al Qaeda, we suddenly have a sharp and dangerous reversal taking place in Spain.
For we can now add Madrid to the roster of “I-don’t-know-and-I-don’t-want-to-know” governments who believe that muddling through mass murder will somehow forestall future attacks. The New York Times and Newsweek have both reported that the Spanish government has refused to allow access to the Madrid bombing investigation to a team of explosives and terrorism experts from the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
Never mind that this elite group has the resources and databases to quickly examine the forensic evidence and track down new leads inside and outside of Spain. For what can only be assessed as political reasons, the Spanish have closed out a powerful investigative ally in this time-sensitive case.
And the “it’s-only-a-crime” mindset seems to have thwarted earlier opportunities by the Spanish to halt the bombing plot before it occurred.
A key suspect arrested immediately after the bombings has been identified as a Moroccan cell-phone salesman named Jamal Zougam. He had initially come to the attention of Spanish authorities as early as August 2001, when the police reportedly recorded him talking to Imad Eddin Barakat Yarkas, an accused Al Qaeda cell leader in Spain who has since been indicted in that country for complicity in the 9/11 attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.
Newsweek reports that in the intercepted call, Zougam discussed with the al Qaeda cell leader raising money for yet another alleged terrorist named Mohamed Fizazi, a radical Moroccan imam who was later convicted in the May 2003 suicide bombings of Jewish targets in Casablanca that killed 45 civilians. Moroccan officials, who considered Zougam a “very active terrorist,” warned Spanish authorities that Zougam was moving back to Spain, the newsmagazine reported, but the Spanish authorities took no action.
Why not? Spanish officials in response have said they simply didn’t have enough evidence to arrest Zougam. Under the conventions treating terrorism as a crime, to have acted earlier would have been – horror of horrors – dangerously pre-emptive.
Back to our anonymously comfortable European official’s lecture: “Madrid will certainly lead to a more dynamic look at counter-terrorism operations and cooperation, but terrorism in Europe is not a new phenomenon, so this will not suddenly be seen as a war.”
“This is not Europe’s 9/11,” he added.
As long as this mindset continues, it is inevitable that al Qaeda will come up with a 9/11-style attack on the continent that will finally destroy this dangerous illusion. It is a real crime that probably thousands of innocent Europeans will have to die in order to wake their leaders up to the nature of this war.
Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com. Please send Feedback responses to dwfeedback@yahoo.com. © 2004 Ed Offley.
http://www.sftt.org/cgi-bin/csNews/csNews.cgi?database=FTE.db&command=viewone&op=t&id=29&rnd=819.7367452337423
Ellie