Building an effective hemispheric counterterrorism strategy

DISAM Journal, Winter, 2003 by J. Cofer Black

[The following are excerpts of the remarks to the Organization of American States Inter-American Committee Against Terrorism (CICTE) 4th Regular Session in Montevideo, Uruguay, January 29, 2004.]

We have come a long way since we last met in San Salvador. Counterterrorism cooperation in the hemisphere has continued to broaden and strengthen. The Special Summit of the Americas two weeks ago and the Organization of American States Special Conference on Hemispheric Security in October 2003 reaffirmed our leaders commitment to combating terrorism and its sources. And, the Inter-American Convention Against Terrorism went into effect in July of 2003. We firmly stand behind the Organization of American States and CICTE leading the charge to marshal our shared resources and expertise to combat terrorism. This meeting in Montevideo could not be more timely.

Over the past year, terrorists have struck brutally and callously across the globe. From Colombia to Saudi Arabia to Morocco to Indonesia, terrorists have indiscriminately killed men, women, and children. I know you all share with me in the tragic loss of our colleague Sergio de Mello.

The Western Hemisphere's experience with terrorism has been different than the traditional hotspots like the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and parts of Africa. Terrorism in our region has traditionally been a domestic threat. Colombia's Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), National Liberation Army (ELN), and United Self-Defense Forces of Columbia (AUC) have primarily engaged in local bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings. Sendero Luminoso's bloody thirty-year campaign left over 35,000 Peruvians dead. However, this trend is changing. Terrorists in this hemisphere are becoming more active in illicit transnational activities, principally the drug trade, but also arms trafficking, money laundering, contraband smuggling, and document and currency fraud. Not only do these provide sources of income, but terrorists also take advantage of their well-established underground supply routes to move funds, people and arms across borders, as well as to plan and conduct operations. And, the internet has given terrorists truly global reach to communicate, fundraise, and recruit. And, terrorists have not hesitated to make our hemisphere a battleground to advance their causes. The bombings of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires in 1992 and the Argentine-Jewish Cultural Center in 1994 painfully illustrated this. Middle Eastern terrorists, such as Hamas and Hizballah, have come to the Tri-Border Area of Paraguay, Brazil, and Argentina to raise funds and spread propaganda. The United States has arrested suspected al Qaeda cells in New York and Oregon.

Although we do not have confirmed, credible information of an al Qaeda presence in Latin America, we are aware that al Qaeda's global crime networks and fundraising operations are always seeking to extend their tentacles. The Western Hemisphere's lightly-defended soft targets our vibrant tourism industry, thriving aviation sector, and busy ports as well as systemic disparities between countries in border security, legal and financial regulatory regimes, and state presence create opportunities for terrorists to exploit. These domestic and international threats require action by all of us represented here today. For the United States, President Bush has outlined a National Strategy for Combating Terrorism, the goals of which are to:

* Defeat terrorist organizations of global reach by attacking 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. The National Strategy highlights that success will only come through the sustained, steadfast, and systematic application of all elements of national power diplomatic, financial, law enforcement, intelligence, and military.

Diplomacy facilitates all elements of national power. Diplomatic exchanges, such as this conference, build political will, strengthen international cooperation, and help us take the war to the terrorists. The global coalition assembled to remove the Taliban from Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein from Iraq was just one step. Diplomacy has led to the international community voicing their collective will to criminalize terrorism, its safe havening, and its financing in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1373 and the twelve international conventions and protocols against terrorism which, in coordination with US Executive Order 13224, have frozen $120 million in over 167 countries.

Law enforcement and intelligence cooperation has led to two-thirds of the al Qaeda leadership being detained or killed, al Qaeda affiliates like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Hambali put behind bars, and 3,400 terrorists taken out of action worldwide.