Report Cites Victories in Battle Against Terrorism

In its first official survey since Sept. 11 of the worldwide terrorism threat, the State Department reported Tuesday that U.S.-led efforts have made significant progress in capturing terrorists and persuading some “rogue” nations to change their behavior.

But the report also joined a growing chorus of alerts--including one Tuesday from Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld--by warning that an array of extremist groups are racing to acquire the world’s deadliest germs, toxins and bomb materiel for use in future attacks.

In testimony Tuesday, Rumsfeld told a Senate Appropriations subcommittee that terrorist acquisition of weapons of mass destruction is virtually unavoidable.

“We have to recognize that terrorist networks have relationships with terrorist states that have weapons of mass destruction, and that they inevitably are going to get their hands on them and they would not hesitate one minute to use them,” he said.

The State Department’s annual assessment carries particular weight this year because it comes eight months after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks--which killed more than 3,000 people, had a sweeping impact on economies worldwide and sparked the Bush administration’s war on terrorism.

A striking aspect of the report, titled “Patterns of Global Terrorism,” is its good news. Although terrorist leader Osama bin Laden may still be at large, the international pursuit of his Al Qaeda network has arrested about 1,600 suspected operatives in 95 countries, according to the survey. This includes arrests in at least two dozen nations where his militants were not known until recently to operate.

Earlier U.S. projections estimated that Al Qaeda had a presence in at least 50 nations and perhaps up to 70.

More than $116 million linked to terrorists has been blocked by more than 50 countries worldwide, the report says.

Also, five of the seven nations listed by the State Department as “state sponsors” of terrorism have begun to modify their behavior, marking the most significant progress in a decade or more among so many countries, U.S. officials said.

All seven “clearly heard the president’s message” after Sept. 11 that nations either stood with the international counterterrorism coalition or with the terrorists, asserts the U.S. report.

The survey found that Sudan and Libya are actively trying to “get out of the business” of terrorism by participating in the global campaign. Iran, Syria and North Korea have taken tentative steps “to cooperate with the international community,” the report says.

The State Department maintains that Cuba and Iraq were found to have made no such efforts. Indeed, the report charges that since Sept. 11, Iraq has increased its support of militant groups and terrorist activities. The regime of President Saddam Hussein also was the only Arab or Muslim country not to condemn the Sept. 11 attacks.

None of the seven countries has done enough to be taken off the terrorism sponsors’ list or to have punitive U.S. economic sanctions lifted, the survey says.

“While some of these countries appear to be reconsidering their present course, none has yet taken all the necessary actions to divest itself fully of ties to terrorism,” the report concludes.

Sudan was judged to have done the most by arresting Al Qaeda suspects and entering discussions with the United States on terrorism. Some terrorists, however, still rely on Sudan as a haven, the report notes.

Libya is trying to recast itself as a peacemaker, the State Department says, but has failed to meet a key U.S. demand that it acknowledge its role in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am 103 or pay compensation to the victims’ families.

Iran has reduced its involvement in some terrorist activities and has worked with the United States on issues involving Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S.-led military campaign there, the report finds.

But the survey says that Iran remains the most active state sponsor of international terrorism. Its intelligence service and Revolutionary Guards were involved in planning terrorist acts in the Middle East and supporting extremist groups, particularly radical Palestinians, the report charges.

“Although some within Iran would like to end this support, hard-liners who hold the reins of power continue to thwart any efforts to moderate these policies,” the report says.

Summing up the findings, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell said, “The world’s resolve to defeat [terrorism] has never been greater.

“Country by country, region by region, coalition members have strengthened law enforcement and intelligence cooperation,” he said. “We have tightened border controls and made it harder for terrorists to travel, to communicate and therefore to plot. One by one, we are severing the financial bloodlines of terrorism organizations.”

Still, Powell called attention to the report’s warnings that extremist groups increasingly are focused on gaining access to the world’s deadliest weapons.

“Terrorists are trying every way they can to get their hands on weapons of mass destruction, whether radiological, chemical, biological or nuclear,” Powell told reporters.

Bin Laden once said that obtaining weapons of mass destruction was a “religious duty,” the report notes.

Despite the carnage of Sept. 11, the number of terrorist attacks globally last year was down from 426 in 2000 to 346. And more than half of the year’s attacks were on an oil pipeline in Colombia--not in the volatile Middle East or troubled South Asia.

The Sept. 11 casualties accounted for 90% of the deaths worldwide from the year’s terrorism attacks.

Not counting Sept. 11, the terrorism-related death toll of Americans declined from 19 in 2000 to eight last year.