“AS LONG
AS IT TAKES”
The New York
Federal Reserve Bank on Liberty Street
(Friday Oct. 19, 2012, New
York City) Two days ago a Bangladeshi
man, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, 21, was arrested after attempting to detonate
what he believed to be a 1000 pound bomb outside the Federal Reserve Bank at 33
Liberty Street in Lower Manhattan just about 6 short blocks from the site where the World Trade Center's Twin Towers once proudly stood. Nafis came to America in January on a student
visa and in July made contact with a man he was hoping to enlist in his desire
to wage “jihad” allegedly telling this individual he had plans for a terrorist
attack. Nafis was completely unaware that
this individual he was trying to recruit to assist in his cause was in fact an
FBI informant. As Nafis and his ‘co-conspirators’,
who were undercover FBI Agents, continued to plot, the entire enterprise was now
a full-fledged “sting operation”. “It is
important to emphasize that the public was never at risk in this case, because
two of the defendant’s ‘accomplices’ were actually an FBI source and an FBI
undercover agent,” Mary Galligan, acting head of the FBI’s New York office,
said in a statement.
“Terrorists have tried time
and again to make New York City their killing field,” New York Police
Department Commissioner Raymond Kelly said yesterday in a statement. Kelly
noted that the city has faced 15 terror plots since the 2001 attacks.
“Vigilance is our watchword now and into the foreseeable future.”
This foiled plot is just the
latest example of the asymmetry of the terrorist threat. An individual or a small group of like-minded
people are capable of causing death and destruction on an enormous scale as we
witnessed on September 11, 2001 and others have lived with for decades around
the world. On its face it appears to be
a virtually impossible mission to prevent a terrorist attack in New York City
or anywhere in our wide open American society.
It has been through the tireless, valiant efforts of the NYPD and the
specialized Intelligence and Counter Terrorism Units as well as the federal
intelligence community and cooperation from our allies that we have not been
rocked by another successful attack on our soil. These efforts, combined with a certain degree
of luck have kept us safe thus far. As
Commissioner Kelly commented, New York City remains a high value target for
terrorists and we must never become complacent or allow our focus and energy to
stray.
TELLING TIME
Perhaps one of the most
difficult aspects of the terrorist mind for Americans to grasp is that they do
not tell time like we do. The length of
their memories, patience and tenacity seem to be completely alien concepts in
our incredibly face paced, individualistic, materialistic, somewhat hedonistic culture. America is also a very “young” Country having
only been in existence since 1776. Many
of the terrorist who pose the most clear and present danger to us come from
Countries and societies with long histories some stretching back to
antiquity. We have seen ethnic and
tribal conflicts centuries’ old flare up in places where central governments
are but tokens of authority. In the
aftermath of the collapse of the Soviet Union several of the former Soviet
states erupted in bitter conflicts over animosities hundreds of years old.
Many of the most ancient and
storied Countries and cultures in the world are experiencing internal strife as modernization
and globalization are seen as a threat.
Lands that were literally the cradle of civilization for millennia are
now nations struggling to find their place and identity in a world moving at
light speed. Egypt, Syria, Yemen, Sudan,
Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, and their immediate neighbors were for most of
recorded history the epicenter of civilization.
There are regions in Afghanistan and Pakistan that, according to one CIA
operative who spent time in those areas in October through December 2001, which
have essentially remained “unchanged since the days Jesus Christ walked on
Earth”.
There are locations throughout
the Middle East that are referenced in the Bible, Koran and Torah that have
profound significance for three of the major religions: Catholicism, Judaism, and
Islam. Some of these “Holy Sites” are
among the most contested parcels of land and have been the source of bitter,
bloody “religious” conflicts the world has ever seen.
Now some of these once mighty
nations with rich cultural histories are caught in the grip of rapidly changing
demographics with the majority of their populations being under the age of 28
years old with staggeringly high unemployment, widespread poverty,
disillusionment, and despair. Technology
such as the Internet has exposed these populations to the western world,
allowed them to explore the wider world beyond their borders, and to wonder why
conditions in their native land is so vastly different than in the West. There are myriad forces and factors,
influences and ideas that have allowed an infinitesimally small number of
(mostly) men to lash out using acts of terror as their chosen modus operandi.
As the award winning, highly
respected Iranian journalist currently residing in Pakistan, Bilqees Seema of B4 Media recently wrote, simply referring
to Islamic Fundamentalist terrorists as “ Ill-tempered with non-cultured
backgrounds; this definition is enough to understand their
"intention", in your words "threat". We have to find out
the "roots"”. And she is
absolutely correct but, that is another component of what should be a
comprehensive approach to the threats to our national security posed by those
to whom we, the United States, represents the most significant threat to their
homelands, beliefs, faith and independence.
Indeed, our State Department
must seriously earnestly address the “roots” of terrorism. To achieve some broader understanding a more
robust concerted active effort must be made as a component of our foreign
policy agenda. This in no way excuses
acts of terror; it is merely a statement of fact if we are to minimize the
threats before they blossom into active operations. There is a well know albeit
twisted logic at the heart of the matter at least regarding the stated
intentions of Al Qaeda.
CAN YOU HEAR US NOW?
The eleven years since
September 11, 2001 have produced a voluminous numbers of well researched books,
scholarly papers, studies, articles and solid journalistic reporting
documenting the genesis of Al Qaeda, its mutation from the CIA backed “mujahedeen”
fighting the Soviet Union and ultimately defeating one of the “Super Powers”
after 10 long years of fierce fighting. As
the mighty Red Army was forced to retreat, the mujahedeen reveled in their
first intoxicating taste of victory and finding proof positive from Allah
Himself the righteousness of their cause.
These two rewards proved to be addictive as the opium that grows so
freely in the plains and valleys of southern Afghanistan. They were hooked and hungry, battle tested, tough and ready to take on the next Goliath.
Many of the mujahedeen (Holy
Warriors) returned to their native countries bringing with them the skills
learned in the battles they fought in Afghanistan. Those who remained in Afghanistan became Al
Qeada and, once the Taliban seized control of that largely fractured, lawless,
country in 1996 where tribal, ethnic, and regional bonds never recognized any central
government, Al Qaeda had a safe haven from which to plot, plan and train for
the next conflict.
In 1996 in a taped interview
with ABC television reporter John Miller, Osama bin Laden “declared war” on the
United States. But, apparently, no one
was listening. After a series of
successful lethal embassy bombing in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole
suddenly Osama bin Laden was on the radar screen of every intelligence agency
in the western world and that his declaration of war, once considered the
laughable blustering rhetoric of a lunatic living in a cave in the Khyber Pass, it
was laughable no more.
Actually the history of Al
Qaeda in America goes back to 1990 when radical Jewish Defensive League founder
firebrand Meir Kahane was killed in a Manhattan hotel by an Arab gunman in
November 1990 after Kahane concluded a speech warning American Jews to emigrate
to Israel before it was "too late." [1]
( The government of Israel had previously designated Kahane as a "terrorist). In July 1990 Sheikh Omar
Abdel-Rahman, also known as The Blind Sheikh, came to the United States and
began preaching in Mosques in Brooklyn, New York and across the Hudson River in
Jersey City, New Jersey. It was members
of his ‘congregation' including Ramzi Yousef, who carried out the truck bombing
of the World Trade Center on February 26, 1993.
Ultimately Yousef was apprehended and extradited back to New York City
and, as the FBI helicopter that was transporting him to the Manhattan Federal Detention
Center passed over the still standing Twin Towers he told an FBI Agent that “next
time” those towers would fall. And, as
we know, fall they did 8 years later.
Ramzi Yousef is also the nephew of the alleged "mastermind" of the 9-11-01 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who has been held at the US Prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba since his capture in Pakistan in 2003.
Ramzi Yousef is also the nephew of the alleged "mastermind" of the 9-11-01 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who has been held at the US Prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba since his capture in Pakistan in 2003.
UNDERSTANDING VERSUS URGENCY
The desperate need to gain
understanding of the dynamics that create men bent on doing us harm is a matter
on the international diplomatic level to be engaged in rigorously by the State
Department. That is one prong in this
multipronged defensive effort to protect our City and Homeland. This will require time; a great deal of time
utilizing a variety of tactics from negotiations and communications among
governments, to providing modest financial and humanitarian aid where we can.
However, in “real time”, the
roots of terrorism have little relevance to the day in, day out task of
securing New York City. It is a task the
likes of which no other domestic law enforcement agency has become so effective
in such a short period of time than NYPD.
The sense of urgency infuses the vigilance they must maintain with an
immediacy of purpose; and this immediacy requires tactics and methods of an
aggressive nature that often have come under fire in the New York City media
and among civil rights groups. There is
no doubt that the efforts to secure our City are laden with thorny legal issues
which the NYPD has taken very seriously.
The NYPD Intelligence Unit
headed by former CIA Deputy Director David Cohen works closely with the
Department of Justice as well as with the NYC Office of Legal Counsel and NYPD
Legal Bureau to assure they are operating within acceptable legal parameters. The novelty of having a local Police Force so
actively engaged in intelligence and counter terrorism has posed unique
challenges as they have had to navigate" on the fly", so to speak, in uncharted, murky waters where the hazards and perils are usually visible on the surface.
In a report issued on October
12, 2011 by STRATFOR Global Intelligence titled “Growing Concern Over the
NYPD's Counterterrorism Methods” written By Scott Stewart, the author noted, “The
NYPD's counterterrorism and intelligence efforts are still new and developing.
As such, they are unconstrained compared to those of the larger legacy
organizations at the federal level. At the same time, the department's
activities are unprecedented at the local level. As its efforts mature, the
pendulum of domestic security and civil liberties will remain in motion, and
the NYPD will face new scrutiny in the coming year, including judicial
oversight, which is an important standard in American law enforcement. The
challenge for New York is finding the correct balance between guarding the
lives and protecting the rights of its people.”
ONE DAY AT A TIME
One of the most prescient
concise axioms describing the asymmetrical nature of the complexities of the
challenges the terrorist threat presents is that “All they need is to be right once,
we need to be right 100% of the time.”
So true it is. It is sometimes
akin to the proverbial “needle in the haystack”. In our City of almost 10
million residents, with hundreds of thousands more who come here to work and
visit daily, with over 800 miles of subway track winding through tunnels and on
elevated tracks, with all our many landmarks, businesses and industries packed
densely into 319 square miles across the Five Boroughs, the odds of determined
terrorists appear decidedly in their favor.
Numerically, of course, they are; statistically it is not quite as
obvious but that is a moot point for some academic’s research years hence.
Out of the total NYPD force of
approximately 31,000 Members of Service (MOS) the official numbers of those
assigned to the Intelligence and Counter Terrorism Units are relatively closely
guarded secrets but it is safe to say that they number an estimated 1500
Officers, Analysts, and other specialists in areas ranging from designing
uniquely tailored computer algorithms, to translators fluent in languages such
as Farsi, Urdu, Arabaic, and their many dialects. Back in the 1980’s NYPD had more MOS assigned
to fight organized crime and that was a comparatively finite and intimately
familiar battleground with most of the adversaries well known. This puts into stark relief facing those
tasked to protect and secure our City.
It is a “war” fought most of
the time on a daily basis with the battle zone stable and unchanging in one
sense with an amorphous, ethereal potential adversary lurking next door, in
plain sight or in the shadows perhaps supported by well concealed slender
conduits leading back to places in South Asia, The Subcontinent, somewhere in
The “Stans”, The Philippines, the Middle East or God knows where. Perhaps that slender conduit extends only as
far as California, Texas, Michigan or Connecticut. Who knows?
Who can say? It is the charge of
NYPD to answer those questions every day, one day at a time.
TAGS: NYPD,
NYPD INTELLIGENCE UNIT, COUNTER TERRORISM UNIT, COMMISSIONER RAY KELLY, LEGAL
ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE OPERATIONS, AL QAEDA, OSAMA BIN
LADEN, MUJAHADEEN, AFGHANISTAN, SEPTEMBER 11, 2001, RAMZI YOUSEF, 1993 WORLD
TRADE CENTER BOMBING, MEIR KAHANE, STRATFOR GLOBAL INTELLIGENCE, STATE
DEPARTMENT, BILQEES SEEMA,
[1]: Courtesy of Wikipedia
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