State Department Touts Gains Against Terrorism

The United States made significant strides against international terrorism last year by bringing extremists to justice and opening new dialogue with state supporters of terrorism, an annual State Department report said Monday.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, “State sponsors of terrorism are increasingly isolated, terrorist groups are under growing pressure, terrorists are being brought to justice.”

But the latest trends leave open other questions: Has the United States turned a corner in its campaign against terrorism? Or has it just had a better year, a lull before another storm?

In one of the most upbeat recent assessments of the threat, “Patterns of Global Terrorism 2000” points to the trials last year of alleged terrorists linked to the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 and the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

International cooperation was critical in the apprehension of all the suspects.

Talks Launched With Sudan, North Korea

U.S. officials also launched serious dialogue on extremism last year with Sudan and North Korea, two of the seven nations on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terrorism. Libya, under U.S. and U.N. pressure, has been trying to “mend its international image” after surrendering two suspects in the Pan Am 103 case in 1999.

The U.N. Security Council last year passed a resolution sponsored by the United States and Russia imposing sanctions on Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban for harboring Saudi renegade Osama bin Laden and members of other extremist groups.

The United States and 34 other nations also signed the first legal framework for investigating, apprehending and prosecuting people or institutions that fund extremist groups.

The report says that shifts in government attitudes toward terrorism in countries such as Russia and Greece have spawned new cooperation with the United States.

And behind-the-scenes coordination foiled several attacks, including some intended to mar celebrations of the beginning of the year 2000 in the United States and the Middle East. In Jordan, 14 people were convicted last year for plotting such attacks.

“These successes mean that we are achieving the basic objectives of U.S. counter-terrorism strategy: isolation of countries and groups that support terrorism, disruption of terrorist planning and operations, sharing of information, and apprehension and trial of perpetrators,” Powell said.

Yet the State Department warned that the threat is far from over.

“The fight goes on,” Powell told reporters when he released the report. “Just as we acknowledge successes today, we know that there will be new challenges and yes, some setbacks tomorrow.

“But we continue to reduce our vulnerability and above all to renew our determination to combat an ever-present danger to international peace and innocent lives.”

State sponsorship of terrorism is a prime example. Although it has decreased, all seven countries long cited as state sponsors--Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Sudan and Syria--are still on the list either for offering a haven to current or former extremists or for providing aid and arms to terrorists.

Iran is the most active state sponsor, despite the victory of reformers in three elections over the past three years. And Pakistan and Lebanon are precariously close to being added to the list--Pakistan for aiding the Taliban and extremist groups fighting in Indian-controlled Kashmir and Lebanon for failing to bring to justice suspects linked with major attacks on U.S. facilities and personnel in Beirut, U.S. officials said.

The number of incidents, anti-American attacks and deaths all increased in 2000. The international death toll almost doubled, from 233 to 405.

Deaths included those of 19 Americans, including 17 killed in the October attack on the Navy destroyer Cole, which was refueling in Yemen. The perpetrators are believed to have links to Bin Laden. The other two Americans were an aid worker killed in the Indonesian province of West Timor and a journalist killed in Sierra Leone.

Violence in Colombia Ratcheted Up Incidents

The figures were skewed by assaults by Colombia’s two main rebel groups and its right-wing paramilitary organizations. Otherwise, the number of incidents and anti-American attacks would have been significantly lower.

Of the 423 incidents worldwide in 2000, 152 were bombings of a multinational oil pipeline in Colombia. The attacks, linked largely to the National Liberation Army, or ELN, forced Occidental Petroleum to temporarily halt exports.

The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, the larger guerrilla group, launched several attacks on interests of Drummond Co., a U.S. coal firm, which refused to pay extortion fees in the millions of dollars. As a result, Drummond opted not to bid on a state-owned coal company.

Latin America also accounted for the largest growth in international terrorist attacks last year; they increased there by roughly a third.

Attacks in all of Western Europe fell by almost two-thirds and were down to only 35 incidents.

Globalization is the most potent force boosting future terrorism, Powell warned.

“Terrorism shows the dark side [of globalization] as it exploits the easing of travel restrictions, the improvements of communication or the internationalization of banking and finance, making it easier for terrorists to do some of their work,” he said.