IP: interesting testimony to House Committee on Government Reform

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> From: "Herb Lin" <HLin () nas edu>
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 09:09:42 -0400
> Subject: interesting testimony to House Committee on Government Reform
>
> Here's something that is worth reading from a very thoughtful person.  I don't
> necessarily endorse everything in here, but in the interest of stimulating
> debate and providing food for thought...
>
> Jessica Stern is an expert on terrorism at the Kennedy School, with 
> significant
> govt experience.
>
> herb
>
> ==
>                         Preparing for a War on Terrorism
>               Testimony before the Committee on Government Reform
>                          U.S. House of Representatives
>                                September 20, 2001
>                                  Jessica Stern
>                           Kennedy School of Government
>                                Harvard University
>                                   617 496 3623
>
>
> A war on terrorism must be fought on many fronts, using every tool at
> governments' disposal: diplomacy, intelligence and, when we identify the
> perpetrator, military strikes.  But force is not nearly enough.  Our goal 
> should
> be to drain the swamps where extremists thrive, and that implies a combination
> of measures: stopping the flow of money to these groups, intelligence
> cooperation, and military force.  But most importantly, it implies 
> understanding
> that failed and failing states are important sanctuaries as well as sources of
> recruits for extremist movements.  When we talk about Pearl Harbor, we should
> also be thinking of a Marshall Plan.
>
> The desire for revenge at a moment like this is perfectly understandable: 
> We are
> traumatized as a nation.  But our goal must be to prevent future strikes 
> by our
> enemies.   We cannot afford to allow an emotional desire for quick retribution
> to override our long-term national security interests.  It would not be
> difficult to make things worse rather than better -- through hasty, 
> emotional or
> ill-planned military reaction or even through bellicose rhetoric.
>
> We should be careful about rhetoric.  We should avoid calling this battle
> against terrorism a crusade.  The word crusade implies a war against Islam.
> Other than those who were killed in the strikes and their loved ones, the
> victims hit hardest in last week
>
> 's attacks are peace-loving Muslims around the
> world.  Through rhetoric of this kind, we could turn ordinary Afghans into
> Taliban fighters; and non-violent extremists into terrorists.  Extremists in
> Pakistan immediately responded to the President's remarks by calling for a 
> jihad
> against both Pakistan and the United States.
>
> Several surprising facts about bin Laden's group came to light during the 
> trials
> of the men involved in the 1998 attack against U.S. embassies in Africa. And
> those facts reveal how well organized, sophisticated and elusive a network 
> we're
> up against.  U.S. government officials estimate that bin Laden's organization,
> al Qaeda, has thousands of operatives who are active, or suspected to be 
> active,
> in 34 countries, including in the United States. But the threat doesn't come
> from bin Laden's group alone. Many groups, such as the Egyptian Islamic Jihad
> and the Algerian Armed Islamic Group, are closely affiliated with al 
> Qaeda. They
> train at his camps and carry out his objectives. Bin Laden is probably correct
> that if the U.S. government kills him, hundreds of "Osamas" are prepared 
> to take
> his place.
>
> The al Qaeda organization, and others like it that I've studied, have 
> wings that
> handle finance, documents, public-relations and intelligence. They run
> businesses. They conduct surveillance of enemy targets. They cultivate
> journalists to ensure favorable coverage in the press. They have sophisticated
> websites for both fund-raising and recruiting.
>
> Like any conventional business, the group includes both skilled and unskilled
> labor. A former Sudanese member of al Qaeda, Jamal Ahmed Al-Fadl, said that he
> was paid a monthly salary of $500, while Egyptian members of the group were
> earning up to three times as much. He said that he received a $10,000 
> bonus for
> arranging a deal to purchase uranium. Still, his anger about his monthly
> compensation led him to steal $110,000 from the organization and 
> eventually, to
> become a witness for the U.S. government in the trial against the embassy
> bombers.
>
> When he complained to bin Laden about the Egyptians' higher salaries, Al-Fadl
> said that bin Laden told him that the Egyptians traveled more, worked harder,
> and had alternative employers in their own country. "That's why he try to make
> them happy and give them more money," he said. In other words, bin Laden paid
> operatives based in part on their earning power in alternative positions.
>
> Like other business managers, bin Laden also needed to recruit unskilled 
> labor.
> K. K. Mohamed, for example, received no monetary compensation for his efforts,
> which involved acquiring a truck and grinding explosives, and given his 
> role in
> the embassy bombing in Tanzania, will spend the rest of his life in an 
> American
> prison. Other operatives reported undergoing training in engineering or to 
> pilot
> planes. One talked about purchasing a plane with the goal of transporting
> equipment, including stinger missiles, from Peshawar to Khartoum.
>
> This group and others like it that I have studied, have thought carefully 
> about
> evading law-enforcement detection. A manual that came to light in the trial
> instructed operatives living in enemy territory to dress in such a way 
> that they
> could not be identified as Muslims. They were told to shave their beards, to
> rent apartments in newly developed areas where people do not know one another;
> and not to chat too much, especially to cab drivers. The manual says that
> destroying the places of amusement and sin is less important than attacking
> embassies and vital economic centers.
>
> Not surprisingly, what we know of last Tuesday's hijackers is that they 
> followed
> these general instructions. They had no beards. They wore Western 
> clothing. One
> business traveler, Roger Quirion, who flew on the first leg of a flight 
> with two
> of the hijackers, told a Washington Post reporter that the "two men struck him
> as clean-cut, wearing slacks, dress shoes and causal shirts, and carrying dark
> shoulder bags. Their hair was closely cropped.  They had no facial hair. In
> short, they looked like typical businessmen."  These hijackers also spoke 
> little
> to their neighbors and moved frequently. Neighbors noticed only one thing
> unusual about them: meetings in the middle of the night involving up to a 
> dozen
> participants.
>
> The most important aspect of training these militants is actually mental
> training.  It takes relatively little time and effort to learn to fly a plane;
> many people can do that.  But training someone mentally to carry out suicide
> mass-casualty attacks is more difficult. Clerics teach operatives that killing
> civilians is allowed. A former member of al Qaeda explained how charismatic
> teacher taught him not to fear killing non-combatants. If the innocent 
> victim is
> "a good person," his teacher said, "he go to paradise." If he's a bad person,
> "he go to hell."  Mental training of al Qaeda operatives includes videos and
> person-to-person contact.
>
> The Taliban were actually borne out of extremist madrassahs in 
> Pakistan.  These
> schools function as orphanages.  Families that cannot afford to feed their
> children send them to these schools where they are not only educated but also
> clothed and fed.  In the most extreme of these schools, which Pakistani
> officials estimate to comprise 10-15 percent of its religious schools, 
> children
> are taught to a distorted version of jihad.  A child should be taught that 
> jihad
> means doing your homework, helping the poor, and purifying the self.  At these
> schools, children are taught about hate.  Madrassahs I have visited had 
> children
> from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Burma, Chechnya, Kuwait, Mongolia, Nepal, 
> Russia,
> Tajikistan, Turkey, Uzbekistan, and Yemen.  In a school that purportedly 
> offered
> a broad curriculum, a teacher I questioned could not multiply seven times 
> eight.
> Children that graduate from these schools are trained to be mullahs, but 
> many of
> them can't find jobs.  They are thus susceptible to their teachers' 
> message that
> the best way to fulfill their religious duty is to fight on behalf of the
> Taliban or to join so called jihadi groups.  The children are also taught that
> Osama bin Laden is a hero.
>
> Pakistan is prepared to assist the international coalition on the basis of
> principle; it does not expect a quid pro quo, according to its officials.  But
> still, now would be a good time offer assistance - because it is in US 
> national
> security interests to do so.  If we inadvertently turn Pakistan into a second
> Afghanistan, the results would be disastrous not only for India but also 
> for the
> entire world.
>
> How can we help Pakistan?  Pakistan has long been seeking market access 
> for its
> textiles.  Opening our markets would translate into 300-400 million 
> dollars per
> year, according to the Pakistani embassy, which could make a crucial 
> difference
> to Pakistan's economy.
> We should also be considering debt relief. We need to help Pakistan especially
> in the areas of health care and education.  Extremist religious parties and
> jihadi groups are already mobilized to fight the Pakistani government.  It may
> make sense to make some of these efforts visible.  The extremist groups are
> unlikely to change their minds, but we can reduce their ability to mobilize
> others.
>
>
> The situation in Afghanistan is even worse. According to a UN report issued in
> April, "The life expectancy is less than 43 years, the literacy rate is around
> 25%, the mortality rate is the highest in the world and the GDP per head is
> estimated to be less than $700. Only a small minority of Afghans has access to
> safe water, sanitation, health care, and education. In addition, 
> Afghanistan is
> one of the most mine-infested countries in the world."(FOOTNOTE: "The
> Battlefield," Economist, 21 September 2001.)  Things have gotten worse since
> then, in part because of the worst drought in 30 years.  If we attack
> Afghanistan, the situation is bound to get worse.
>
>
> How can we fight this scourge, which is now spread, in tiny packets of 
> fury and
> pain, around the world?  Military might alone cannot win this war because 
> we are
> fighting a movement, not a state, not even just a network.  We may 
> discover that
> bin Laden is not directly responsible, but instead, one of the groups he funds
> or inspires, perhaps together with a state or states.  Thousands of so-called
> mujahideen have trained in Afghanistan, and they are now spread throughout the
> world.  For example, 100 mujahideen from Afghanistan recently joined Laskar
> Jihad, a new jihadi group fighting in Indonesia. What is the target list in a
> situation like this?
>
> Last Tuesday's tragic incident makes clear that we can no longer afford to 
> allow
> states to fail and conflicts to fester.  Extremists thrive when the state 
> is no
> longer able to provide basic services, such as healthcare, education, and law
> and order.  They also thrive on lingering conflicts, such as those in the 
> Middle
> East, Afghanistan, Indonesia, and Kashmir.
>
> We need to think about how to undermine these groups' appeal. Islam strictly
> prohibits
> targeting innocent civilians. Religious scholars need to get out the message
> loud and clear that bin Laden's version of Islam is a grotesque distortion of
> their faith. Those scholars should be speaking out, not just in America, 
> but all
> over the world.
>
> It is also important for leaders to come to terms with the fact that religion
> has often been used to justify conflicts. Religion has two sides: One is
> spiritual.  It unifies people, transcending national and religious boundaries
> and promotes tolerance. The other side is all about boundaries: to be Catholic
> is to be not Protestant, to be Christian is to be non-Muslim, to be Muslim 
> is to
> be not Jewish. Us vs.
> Them.  Religious leaders should come forward to make clear that respect for
> human life is the most important aspect of religion. Extremists focus on the
> divisive aspect of religion, on the parts that divide us one from another,
> ignoring the spiritual, universalist aspects. Let's not fall into the same 
> trap
> by calling for crusades.
>
> Finally, we have to learn to dictate less and listen more, as Joseph Nye 
> argues
> in a forthcoming book on America's soft power.  We have a stake in the welfare
> of other peoples and need to devote a much higher priority to health, 
> education
> and economic development, or new Osamas will continue to arise.
>
>
> d



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