U.S. Presses Terror War in 7 Nations

The Bush administration has quietly begun dispatching diplomatic, military, intelligence and law enforcement agents to Asia and Africa to lay the groundwork for the next front in its war against terrorism, taking aim at Al Qaeda hubs in at least seven countries, officials said Saturday.

This far broader campaign against Osama bin Laden’s terror network was initiated in recent weeks with a flurry of discreet but high-level overtures from U.S. officials, including President Bush.

The effort marks a significant shift in foreign policy, according to both the officials and outside counter-terrorism experts.

Several administration officials specifically cited the Philippines, Somalia and Yemen as top priorities, but they also mentioned Malaysia, Indonesia and the former Soviet republics of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. In recent years, the Al Qaeda network has made a concerted effort to expand its activities in those nations, which now pose a serious threat to U.S. interests, the officials said.

“All the places where there is a significant Al Qaeda presence, there is an effort underway to deal with them,” said one Bush administration official who, like others, spoke on condition of anonymity. “We are going to ratchet up the amount of time, energy and capability that are being devoted to these areas.”

Asked if the administration had deployed an increased CIA and FBI presence in and around those countries, the official said: “Of course.”

The official said U.S. counter-terrorism authorities want to move swiftly to apprehend at least several hundred of the Al Qaeda operatives believed to be in those countries before their trail gets cold. Many of them are believed to be hiding in anticipation of crackdowns similar to ones in Europe that have resulted in the arrests of dozens of suspected Al Qaeda associates, the officials said.

Al Qaeda operatives fleeing the war in Afghanistan and the European dragnet are also believed to be seeking sanctuary in those countries, the officials said.

The initiative focuses on Al Qaeda and is unrelated to the debate over what to do about suspected state-sponsored terrorist activity in Iraq. It has taken on added urgency based on recent indications that Al Qaeda cells around the world might be plotting additional attacks.

“The global moujahedeen network is now looking for payback,” said one official. “And there are plenty of sympathizers and associates out there interested in doing something against us” in response to the Bush administration’s aggressive counter-terrorism offensive.

The disclosures provide an early glimpse of what the administration has in mind once the military campaign in Afghanistan winds down--how it intends to wage war on terrorism worldwide, as Bush has vowed to do since Sept. 11. Officials provided few details of the new initiative, except to say that it is underway and still a work in progress.

“We’re not going to go into a hostile environment and start bombing,” said another official. “We’re going in with the host government and [will] work together on diplomacy, law enforcement and intelligence.

“It will be a cooperative effort,” the official added. “Some of them didn’t understand the need to go after Al Qaeda before 9/11. Now they understand it. Gone are the days when we had to convince other governments that Al Qaeda was a threat to us and to them.”

All seven countries cited by the administration officials are believed to have terrorist cells linked to Bin Laden and Al Qaeda, including some with ties to the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

But not all of them are expected to participate willingly.

Bush administration officials said that the crackdown will be done in conjunction with the countries’ governments whenever possible and that leaders of at least some nations have been receptive. In particular, Bush has met with the presidents of the Philippines and Yemen at the White House in recent weeks to discuss joint counter-terrorism offensives.

Bush pledged tens of millions of dollars to aid the Philippines in its fight against terrorism and sent at least 22 U.S. military and counter-terrorism advisors there in November for three weeks.

Military Force Will Be Last Resort, Officials Say

If the other nations cooperate, U.S. officials will provide intelligence, guidance, investigative and financial assistance, and, perhaps in some cases, military support, the officials said.

If they do not cooperate, authorities are considering a range of options, from covert operations to, as a last resort, military force, the officials said.

White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said Saturday that he could not comment on or confirm details of the new initiative except to say, “We are really very focused right now on phase one--on Afghanistan and worrying about Al Qaeda cells wherever they might be.”

No information was available on the number of U.S. representatives dispatched to the countries or on which nations are cooperating. But U.S. officials have for years been deeply troubled by the growing presence of terrorists in African and Asian countries, particularly extremists with known connections to Al Qaeda.

Yemen, for instance, was a hotbed of terrorist activity even before suspected Al Qaeda members blew up the U.S. destroyer Cole in that country nearly 14 months ago, killing 17 sailors. Somalia has long given sanctuary to cells believed to be key to the terrorist network, as have Malaysia and Indonesia. Bush recently singled out the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan as a particularly virulent subset of the Al Qaeda network.

A number of U.S. officials wanted to intervene earlier in some of the countries involved in the new initiative, but others were loath to intercede and considered those countries’ problems with terrorists to be a political issue that was best left for them to handle internally, according to officials in both the Clinton and Bush administrations.

In addition, most, if not all, of these countries resisted U.S. efforts even to discuss terrorist cells as they flourished within their borders, or to share intelligence on the cells’ potential connections to a wider terrorist network, the officials said. Some refused outright to cooperate, fearing political or violent retaliation.

But that changed with the Sept. 11 attacks.

“There was dissent here, in the Clinton administration: How much do we want to get involved in other people’s problems, especially in some faraway places?” said one official. “Now there is a greater appreciation that these things need to be addressed, that no matter how far away they are, they can come up and bite you.”

The new phase of the war on terrorism will be particularly sensitive, said Juliette Kayyem, a terrorism expert at Harvard University and a former member of the National Commission on Terrorism.

“We’ve long known that there are Al Qaeda members in those countries,” Kayyem said. But many of the newly targeted countries are allies, “unlike Afghanistan, so we can’t just go in there and disrupt Al Qaeda cells with bombs. We will have to be very, very dependent on these host countries.

“It will not be done with military effort, but rather with diplomacy,” Kayyem predicted. “It will be a carrot-and-stick approach.”

The Bush administration is placing a special priority on the Philippines, where the Abu Sayyaf, an extremely militant terrorist organization associated with Al Qaeda, has been bedeviling U.S. counter-terrorism authorities for years.

Philippine Rebels Among Priorities

As long ago as 1995, terrorists in the Philippines were involved in plots to assassinate Pope John Paul II and President Clinton, to bomb U.S. and Israeli embassies and to blow up 11 U.S. commercial airliners over the Pacific Ocean. More recently, Abu Sayyaf militants have been holding a U.S. couple hostage for six months.

“In the Philippines, we certainly tried to do what we could” in recent years, said one U.S. official, but “the level of resources spent to deal with them . . . was inadequate.”

On Saturday, a spokeswoman for the Philippine Embassy in Washington confirmed that her country and the U.S. have agreed to work together to try to take down the Abu Sayyaf network and other terrorists.

The United States and its allies recently gave Philippine authorities a detailed list of suspected terrorists, “especially with links to Bin Laden, for us to find out if some of those people are in the Philippines or might attempt to enter the Philippines,” spokeswoman Patricia Paez said. She added that U.S. military, law enforcement and intelligence representatives are helping the Philippines with “communications, mobility and firepower capabilities, and in planning and strategizing the war against terrorism.”