THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Volume VII, Issue # 205, September 14, 2005
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Government Committed to & Acting in Accord with Conservative Principles
Ensures a Nation's Strength, Progress, & Prosperity
ISLAMIC TERRORISM -- PAST, PRESENT, & FUTURE:
THE LESSONS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
By Alan Caruba
THE THREAT OF ISLAMIST TERRORISM & THE U.S. RESPONSE TO THE THREAT: SUCCESSES & FAILURES OF AMERICA'S
INTELLIGENCE & LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES -- TIME TO REVIEW THE SUCCESSES & FAILURES & TO EXAMINE THE LESSONS
WE HAVE LEARNED, OR SHOULD HAVE LEARNED, FROM THE SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, ISLAMIST TERRORIST ATTACKS ON THE U.S.A.
FULL STORY:
With the anniversary of September 11, 2005, occurring three days ago, it is fitting to review the failures and successes of our
nation’s intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
We should celebrate the fact that there has not been a terrorist act since that dread date. We may never know how many plots
have been thwarted, but we do know that the U.S.A. has had real success in degrading the ability of our enemies to inflict harm
upon us. So far.
There has been considerable debate over the failure to anticipate and stop what occurred on 9-11. The Central Intelligence
Agency, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and, in general, our vast intelligence community of agencies have all been severely
criticized. We owe a debt of gratitude, therefore, to Timothy Naftali, the author of Blind Spot: The Secret History of American
Counterterrorism ($26.00, Basic Books) for a careful review of what went wrong and, in many cases, what was done right,
often without public notice.
Hindsight gives critics an unearned sense of superiority, but what Naftali, an associate professor at the University of Virginia
Miller Institute of Public Affairs, lays out in meticulous detail, is a picture of intelligence professionals struggling to do a difficult
job -- often under circumstances limited by either an indifferent or vengeful Congress -- as well as successive administrations
whose attention span for terrorist threats waned or grew, depending on who was in the Oval Office.
“After years of studying the intelligence and security world,” writes Naftali, “I have come to believe less in the efficiency of
conspiracies than I do in the inefficiency of government.”
We tend to forget that U.S. counterterrorism has been around for a long time, dating its modern origins to World War II. Since
then, however, as a response to a variety of threats, the bureaucracy of intelligence (the CIA, the NSA, etc) has been steadily
growing, along with that of the FBI, charged with acting against domestic criminal elements and spies.
Naftali reminds us that “the concept of international terrorism had not emerged” during the late 1960’s, despite many separate
incidents. It would take years for them to have a cumulative impact, before being recognized as the work of groups which were
often state-sponsored and state-funded, but which claimed to be autonomous.
President Lyndon B. Johnson was too involved in micromanaging the Vietnam War to pay much attention to counterterrorism.
President Richard M. Nixon, despite being embroiled in Watergate during his second term, is credited with being the first to take
the terrorist threat seriously, but, as Naftali notes, “The terms international terrorist and international terrorism did not yet
appear in high-level documents or in the national consciousness.” It would take the Palestinian attack on Israeli athletes at the
1972 Olympics to awaken the entire world to a deadly new threat that operated across national borders. Let me repeat that date:
1972.
The Ford administration paid little heed to the problem. The Carter administration failures actually emboldened terrorists. By
then, however, everyone knew the problem of terrorism existed. It would take until 1978 before Congress initiated any
legislative response to the problem.
In January, 1981, in his inaugural address, Ronald W. Reagan was the first President to mention terrorism. Reagan’s policies
would bring the Soviet Union to its knees, but, along the way, his administration had some terrible lessons to learn about
international Islamic terrorism. A suicide bomber’s 1983 attack on Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon, would be one of them.
The pace of counterterrorism activity by our intelligence agencies increased, despite the lethal separation that denied the
sharing of information between the FBI and CIA.
The Clinton administration has been accused of a number of intelligence failures and a feckless approach to international
terrorism, but Naftali documents that administration made serious efforts to deal with it. Bill Clinton had, in fact, been elected
President on the promise to cut funding to both defense and intelligence. The first bombing of the World Trade Center in 1993
changed a lot of minds in the Clinton administration.
The 1993 WTC bombing was a wake-up call that revealed how “woefully unprepared” the U.S. government was when dealing
with serious terrorist attacks at home. The Omnibus Counter-Terrorism Bill of 1995 was, at last, a step in the right direction. It
was on Clinton’s watch that al-Qa'ida bombed U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998. Overall, diplomatically and militarily, the
Clinton administration failed to respond forcefully to the increase in terrorism on its watch.
Naftali portrays Richard Clarke, a terrorism expert who had served the Ford administration and those that followed, as
seemingly the only man who understood the threat al-Qa'ida posed. Time and again, working through the maze of the White
House National Security Council, the CIA and anyone else who might listen, he tried to raise awareness from president to
president.
That would change on September 11, 2001. But then, everything changed after that fateful day.
It is easy to sit on the sidelines and criticize the nation’s counterterrorism efforts, but what we now know is that good men
and women were trying their best to protect us and often being thwarted by the massive, obdurate bureaucracy of their
individual agencies, and by politicians looking backward at the Cold War, at the Vietnam War, at Watergate -- while paying
little notice to the gathering storm.
The reorganization of our significant anti-terrorism resources will, we’re told, avoid another 9-11, but we still must keep in
mind that what has actually occurred. The Homeland Security Department is a further consolidation of an already immense
intelligent community. As the Israelis learned after the Six-Day War in 1967, it is the very opposite of what is needed to avoid
the next 9-11.
We may well have exchanged the “blind spots” of the past for newer, bigger ones.
LINKS TO RELATED TOPICS:
Terrorism & American Homeland Security
Islamism & Jihadism -- The Threat of Radical Islam
Page Three
Page Two
Page One
War & Peace in the Real World
Page Two
Page One
Islamist Terrorist Attacks on the U.S.A.
Osama bin Laden & the Islamist Declaration of War
Against the U.S.A. & Western Civilization
Islamist International Terrorism &
U.S. Intelligence Agencies
U.S. Intelligence & America's National Security
Counterterrorism & U.S. National Security
U.S. National Security Strategy
Alan Caruba is a veteran business and science writer, a Public Relations Counselor, and Founder of the National Anxiety Center, a
clearinghouse for information about media-driven scare campaigns. Caruba writes a weekly commentary, "Warning Signs," posted
on the Internet website of the National Anxiety Center, which is located at
www.anxietycenter.com.
© Alan Caruba 2005
Published with Permission of Alan Caruba
ACaruba@AOL.Com
Return to Top of Page
Go to the WEBSITE INDEX
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Public Issues & Political Controversies
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
Most Recent Articles
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Volume VII, 2005
Return to Beginning of
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA,
Subject Matter Highlights
Return to POLITICAL EDUCATION Homepage
CONTACT & ACCESS INFORMATION
This is not a commercial website. The sole purpose of the website is to share with interested persons information regarding civics,
civic and social education, political science, government, politics, law, constitutional law and history, public policy, and political
philosophy and history, as well as current and recent political developments, public issues, and political controversies.
POLITICAL EDUCATION, CONSERVATIVE ANALYSIS
POLITICS, SOCIETY, & THE SOVEREIGN STATE
Website of Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr.
Government, Politics, Public Policy, Legal Issues, Constitutional Law, Government & the Economy, Cultural Values, Foreign Affairs,
International Relations, Military Defense & National Security, Geopolitics, Terrorism & Homeland Security, American National Interests,
Political Systems & Processes, Political Institutions, Political Ideologies, & Political Philosophy
INDEX FOR THE ENTIRE WEBSITE
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
THE PROGRESSIVE CONSERVATIVE, USA
An Online Journal of Political Commentary & Analysis
Dr. Almon Leroy Way, Jr., Editor
Conservative & Free-Market Analysis of Government, Politics & Public Policy, Covering Political, Legal, Constitutional, Economic,
Cultural, Military, International, Strategic, & Geopolitical Issues