A Message on Terrorism

With the horror of Friday’s embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania still vivid, the United States must move quickly to intensify efforts for better international cooperation to identify, monitor and neutralize those who are bent on such outrages.

The first message Washington ought to be sending around the world is that because no country is immune from terrorism, all in their common interest should work together to arrest it. The second message is that those countries that condone or are complicitous in terrorism can expect to be called to account and pay dearly for their crimes.

On Monday, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said that the U.S. diplomats killed in the Nairobi explosion “were dedicated professionals who knew what we all know, but seldom consciously feel or express, that this work we do is dangerous.”

Clearly Washington should undertake an urgent upgrading of structural security at U.S. embassies and other diplomatic facilities around the world. Particular attention should be paid to those in sites that make them most vulnerable to attack.

The threat posed by terrorists to U.S. government facilities abroad led more than a dozen years ago to a study and recommendations for enhanced security. Between 1986 and 1990 the State Department requested $2.7 billion for improved protection. Congress saw fit to appropriate no more than $880 million. Meanwhile, the department itself had second thoughts about some of the security measures previously recommended, out of concern that they would make the embassies look like fortresses and would undercut the mission of diplomacy and possibly tarnish the image of the United States as an open and self-confident society.

That is an understandable concern, but it should no longer be dominant. The protection of embassy personnel, Americans along with local employees, and of the local population generally must now be considered paramount. The bombings in Africa were directed against the United States, but by far the greatest number of victims were the hundreds of Kenyans and Tanzanians unfortunate enough to be near the two embassies when the bombs exploded almost simultaneously. More secure embassies become less inviting targets. This country owes that much to its hosts overseas.

It’s too soon to know whether the bombings were the work of individuals motivated by religious or ideological hatred or whether they were acts of state terrorism intended to demonstrate American vulnerability and impotence. Wherever responsibility is eventually found to lie, some inferences even at this early stage of the investigation are possible.

It seems highly unlikely the bombing plots originated in Kenya or Tanzania. Those places were probably chosen because the embassies were seen as vulnerable targets. Where did the terrorists come from? Here the need for international cooperation becomes acute, not just to trace the movements of the bombers but to lay the groundwork to help head off future atrocities.