Searching for terrorists? Check U.S., Canada

MARTIN E-mail: Click here Archive

By SUSAN TAYLOR MARTIN

© St. Petersburg Times,
published September 23, 2001

As the United States prepares to attack Afghanistan for harboring terrorists, here's something to consider: A nation that seems to have sheltered a lot of terrorists itself is none other the United States.

The fact that 19 suicide hijackers lived, worked and plotted in this country shows the difficulties of trying to distinguish between "good" and "bad" nations in a world where terrorists are linked less by national loyalties than by ideology, cell phones and the Internet.

"Cyberterrorism has a different meaning now," says Ruth Wedgewood of the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University.

When President Bush warned Thursday that the nations of the world are either "with us . . . or with the terrorists," it's a good bet that almost no one listening to his historic speech was thinking suspicious thoughts about Canada. The United States does not have a closer ally than its northern neighbor, whose citizens showed their friendship, among countless other ways, by their lavish treatment of U.S. airline passengers stranded in Newfoundland after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Yet, less than a month earlier, Canadian papers carried this story:

"A Montreal Web site is being used to recruit Islamic terrorists training in Afghanistan."

The Web site was the second found operating out of Canada. Just a week before, the National Post had reported that a site run by the Middle Eastern terrorist group Islamic Jihad was registered in Toronto.

Experts say Canada could become even more attractive as a base for cyberterrorism because of its advanced technology, liberal immigration policies and weak counterterrorism laws. It also has some links to old-fashioned, on-the-ground terrorism. In 1999, U.S. border agents arrested an Algerian-born Montreal man as he headed for Los Angeles International Airport with a powerful chemical bomb. At his trial this year, he said he had been trained in bombmaking and assassination techniques at a camp in Afghanistan.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, Canadian lawmakers have begun efforts to tighten their country's immigration, customs and security laws. They also have joined U.S. officials in talk of creating "a continental fortress" to help shield all of North America from further terrorist attacks.

In the Middle East, Egypt rates as one of America's closest allies. It was the first Arab nation to sign a peace treaty with Israel, and President Hosni Mubarak has played a key role in trying to negotiate a settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Yet Egypt is also home to the Islamic Group and Al-Jihad, which staged a 1997 attack in Luxor that killed 58 tourists and wounded 26 others. Although the groups' leaders have declared a cease-fire with the Egyptian government and reduced their activities in that country, several exiled members have joined Osama bin Laden's network and now serve as his top lieutenants, according to a congressional report on terrorism released just a day before the Sept. 11 attacks.

Like many other Arab countries, Egypt finds itself in a bind. While it does not support terrorism, its leaders know that groups like Al-Jihad serve as a safety valve for the disenchanted masses. It's safer to have them direct their hatred at America and other "anti-Islamic" targets than toward their own undemocratic governments.

"Egypt's ability to keep peace at home is so delicate that even though it has a relatively repressive government, there possibly are steps beyond which it cannot go," Wedgewood says.

(In the wake of the suicide hijackings in New York and Boston it's surprising there have been so few calls to take a second look at the mysterious crash of EgyptAir Flight 990 near Nantucket, Mass., in 1999. Investigators found no evidence to indicate a mechanical flaw caused the crash, but the Egyptian government has refused to even consider the idea that it was the work of a suicidal pilot, as many suspect.)

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are also good friends of the United States in the Middle East. However, those countries, too, have their ties to terrorism.

Three years ago, Bahraini authorities uncovered an alleged bomb plot they blamed on persons linked to Hezbollah, a group implicated in several deadly attacks against U.S. and Israeli targets in the '80s. Bahrain, an island nation, is the base of a large U.S. Navy fleet that patrols the Persian Gulf for contraband shipments to and from Iraq.

And the United Arab Emirates, perhaps the most progressive Arab country, is thought to have been one of the places where bin Laden parked his $300-million fortune. (The UAE has recently adopted laws designed to thwart money-laundering.) Some of those involved in the Sept. 11 attacks on the Pentagon and World Trade Center are believed to have been from the UAE or were carrying UAE passports.)

Even Western Europe, however unwittingly, had a role in the U.S. catastrophe. It turns out that a small technical school in Germany harbored a cell of Islamic fundamentalists that included at least three of the suspected hijackers.

As these examples show, bombing Afghanistan or capturing Osama bin Laden is unlikely to rid the world of terrorism. The attacks on the United States have underscored the scary reality that many countries, including our closest allies, either have terrorists living in their midst or are themselves victims of terrorist activities. As it tries to win international support for its war on terrorism, the United States will be under heavy pressure to help its allies stamp out what it considers terrorist or insurrectionist movements.

Are we prepared to support China's repression of the Falun Gong, which Chinese leaders consider a grave threat to their country's stability? Are we ready to send troops to Russia's aid, as it continues its brutal campaign against Islamic separatists in Chechnya?

"There are a number of cases like that where 'terrorism' is defined country by country, and that's going to put us in a difficult position," says Tom Kinney, director of the Foreign Policy Institute at Johns Hopkins.

"In order to get their cooperation, we're going to be faced with accepting their definition of terrorism, or getting into endless arguments about 'What is terrorism?' and are we really interested in solving it worldwide? And the answer is no."

An update

Two sad postscripts to the World Trade Center attack:

While in New York, I did a story on a squad of firefighters in Greenwich Village that answered the first call at the Trade Center. Among the seven missing members of Squad 18 was Manny Mojica, whose father lives in Spring Hill. Manny's body was found five days after the attack. He left a wife and two children.

Times staff writer Michael Sandler and I also wrote about Mark Rasweiler, an insurance broker who had gone into New York that Tuesday only because he was to have lunch with a friend. We met his son and daughter the next day as they started putting up fliers seeking word on their father, last seen in his 100th floor office. They never did hear anything, and as of Friday, he was still among the missing.

- Susan Martin can be contacted at susan@sptimes.com.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright