After years of warning, how could our government have been so unprepared for Black Tuesday, Sept. 11? In 1996, Osama bin Laden publicly told all Muslims that their first duties were to kill Americans. Some terrorist groups in the recent past had identified New York as their main target of choice in what they called “The Islamic Holy War against the Jews and their American supporters.” Libya, on several occasions, had voiced its desire to send a nuclear-tipped missile into the heart of New York City.
Shortly after Sept. 11, retired Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf was asked why the U.S. was so vulnerable to such an assault, considering that Congress annually appropriates about $30 billion for intelligence gathering. He explained that 30 years ago our government decided we no longer had any enemies so we didn’t need spies!
The U.S. had technical intelligence, such as tapping enemy communications; but the CIA needed special operatives to crack secretive terrorist cells, that is Arabic-speaking case officers who could recruit deep-penetration-agents for human intelligence. But in the 1970s our CIA refused to hire any agents and informers who had records of crimes or abuses of human rights. We now must stop such stupid thinking and fight terrorism by finding Muslims who will spy for us in order to find out what assaults the hidden cells of terrorists have planned next. Then we can either arrest or deport them.
Americans must not permit the return of the complacency and self-delusion that made the atrocities of Sept. 11 possible. The primary obligation of government is to protect our citizens from foreign and domestic enemies. Both major political parties of our national leadership failed miserably. The top priority of our congressmen, sadly, was not our nation’s security, but securing their own re-elections.
President Bush must now work with all authorities to discover and eliminate the weaknesses in our intelligence agencies that keep them from being effective and efficient. American national security is at stake.
Mountlake Terrace
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