Usual Terrorist Suspects May Be Operating Under Aliases

0 Comments | Insight on the News, Nov 13, 2000 | by James P. Lucier

The two suicide bombers who pulled their rubber boat alongside the USS Cole in Yemen's port of Aden not only blew themselves up along with 17 unsuspecting U.S. sailors; they blew a hole in the complacency of Americans who shook their heads in sorrow. Who would do such a thing? And why would they choose such a horrific gesture?

The search for whatever group might have planned the attack and directed the bombers began immediately. Nobody believed the bombers were acting alone. There have been too many other acts of terrorism in the region directed against U.S. targets not to suspect that the bombing in Aden somehow was intended to destabilize U.S. influence in the region.

Last August, U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, in a statement marking the anniversary of the bombing of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, said that the embassies "were doing America's work: promoting development, building peace, supporting justice and fighting disease." This hardly is foreign-policy work contemplated by the framers of the Constitution. But according to Albright, since the United States has become "the world's leading upholder of democracy and law, we are considered a threat by those who threaten others. We are a target for terrorists."

In October 1999, the State Department's Office of Counterterrorism released a list of 25 groups worldwide that it certified as terrorist organizations. At least half were Islamic "liberation" forces operating in the Middle East. Three were operating in the territory of the "Palestine entity." These are Hamas, Hezbollah and the Palestine Islamic Jihad. Another key group is Al-Queda, headed by Osama bin Laden, the man charged with masterminding the embassy bombings in 1998 and known to be living in Afghanistan. He is listed as one of the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" criminals, and his organization was the first to be suspected.

Although bin Laden targets the United States, his main concerns are the Arab regimes that are not Islamist in organization, governing according to Shariah, the law of the Koran. He is persona non grata in his native Saudi Arabia, and last year organized a terrorist plot against the Kingdom of Jordan, both U.S. allies. Yet the only group so far that actually has claimed responsibility for the Yemen bombing is none of these: It has identified itself as Mohammed's Army, a shadowy gang whose name has surfaced before but whose members are unknown.

"A lot of these groups are factions operating under different names," Kenneth Katzman, an expert on terrorism at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, tells Insight. "I have heard the name of `Mohammed's Army' thrown out, but I don't have anything specific about that group." He pauses and then adds, "Bin Laden's organization is sort of an umbrella of different, very established organizations. Mohammed's Army is not an organization that comes to mind as a major terrorist organization. That could just be a faction of people allied to bin Laden and claiming responsibility."

But Kenneth Timmerman, a contributing editor for Reader's Digest and an internationally recognized expert on Iranian terrorism, tells Insight: "The reason why everyone thinks it is bin Laden is because he has very good ties and a good base of operations in Yemen -- not just through marriage (through his first wife) but through the fact that he ran a training camp there for many years. He goes back and forth; he has many friends there, many volunteers or mujahideen."

Nevertheless, Timmerman thinks other hands may be involved: "Bin Laden is the favorite whipping boy because he gets the state sponsors [of terrorism] off the hook. He is not state-sponsored. The minute you mention bin Laden, the State Department can say it is not Iraq, Iran or Syria. The Iranians have a long and `distinguished' record of successful terrorist operations to their credit.... They use it as a tool of foreign policy."

In the long run, the ultimate victims are the youth of the militant Arab nations. According to the CIA Factbook 1998, 52 percent of the population of Gaza is younger than 14 years of age; on the West Bank, it is 45 percent. From the very earliest ages, these young people are subjected to a barrage of training in hatred toward the West and taught to glorify martyrdom.

"I actually had the opportunity of meeting a suicide bomber two days before he blew himself up, and it was a pretty scary thing," says Timmerman. "It almost seemed like he had been drugged. Certainly he had been brainwashed and indoctrinated very heavily in this culture of blood, guts and gore. He was not a normal, ordinary human being -- he already had half a foot in the other world."