John Lehman Institute L a V Na

photo John Lehman institute l a v na

Major Islamic Extremist Attacks U.S.

1972 1979 1983 1984 5 September 4 November 18 April killed) and the French mili- 12 April Palestinian Black Septem- 66 Americans taken An Islamic Jihad car tary barracks (50 killed) Hezbollah attacks restau- ber terrorists seize Israeli hostage from the U.S. bomb at U.S. embassy in Beirut. rant near a U.S. Air Force athletes at the Olympics Embassy in Tehran, Iran, in Beirut, Lebanon, kills base in Torrejon, Spain, in Munich, Germany. In a by radical Iranian stu- 63—including 17 Ameri- 12 December killing 18 U.S. servicemen botched rescue attempt, dents. cans—and injures 120. Iranian Shiite suicide and injuring 83. nine hostages and five bombers attack U.S. and terrorists are killed. 23 October French embassies in Islamic Jihad suicide Kuwait City, killing 5 and bombers attack the U.S. injuring 86. Marine barracks (241

18 PROCEEDINGS • September 2006 www.usni.org A former secretary of the Navy and member of the 9/11 Commission identifies the real enemy in the current war and assesses progress.

re we winning the war? The first question to what happened in the attacks on 11 September 2001, ask is what war? The administration of Presi- how they were organized and executed, and who was dent George W. Bush continues to befuddle a responsible. The answer established by the commission national understanding of the war we are in by was that Islamic jihadists were responsible, as they had continuing to call it “the war on terror.” This been for an increasing number of violent attacks against Apolitical correctness presumably seeks to avoid hurting the Americans and many other non-Islamists over the previ- feelings of the Saudis and other Muslims, but it comes at a ous 30 years. high cost. One reason the 9/11 Commission has had such The commission report contained a concise histori- an impact is that its language and logic are simple, clear cal tracing of the roots and rise of Islamic jihadism and and free of cant. The investigation established that we are identified this worldwide militant religious ideology as at war with an ideologically extreme Islamist worldwide the core enemy the United States must defeat. With no movement. Some have even called it World War III. The enemy has adopted terrorism as one of a number of weapons that have proved very effective against the United States. We are not at war against terror any more than World War II was a war against kamikazes. We are at war with Islamic jihadists motivated by a violent ideology based on an extremist interpretation of the Muslim religion. This enemy is decen- tralized and geographically dispersed around the world. Its organizations range from a fully functioning state—Iran, for example—to small groups of individuals in U.S. cities.

By speaking in riddles, the athieson . m e

administration has confused eg r the American people, Con- g According to the author (left)—here, with fellow 9/11 commissioner, Washington attorney Rich- gress, and apparently itself. ard Ben-Veniste (right)—the commission’s report on the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks The 9/11 Commission laid out and its recommendations for what the United States should do to prevent such attacks from thoroughly and indisputably happening again have been largely ignored.

1985 1988 1993 20 September 12 April Navy Petty Officer Robert 17 February 26 February Islamic Jihad detonates Bomb claimed by various Stetham is killed, and his Marine Lieutenant Followers of Egyptian van full of explosives at Islamic groups kills 18 and body is thrown onto the Colonel William Higgins cleric Umar Abd al-Rah- a U.S. embassy annex injures 82, including 15 tarmac. Hostages are kidnapped and murdered man detonate a bomb in Aukar, Lebanon, killing Americans, at a Madrid, released in Damascus, by Hezbollah in Southern under the World Trade two U.S. servicemen and Spain, restaurant. Syria, after 17 days. Lebanon. Center in New York City, injuring 20 Americans, killing 6 and injuring more 21 December including U.S. ambas- 14 June 7 October than 1,000. Bomb planted by Libyans sador Reginald Bar- Lebanese Hezbollah gun- Palestinian Liberation on PanAm Flight 103 tholomew. Visiting British men seize TWA Flight Front terrorists take more explodes over Lockerbie, Ambassador David Miers 847 and force it to land in than 700 hostages on Scotland, killing 259, also sustains injuries. Beirut and later Algiers. board the Italian cruise including 189 Americans. liner Achille Lauro. www.usni.org September 2006 • PROCEEDINGS 19 interference from the United States over three decades, ment and how that mentality led to failure after failure this violent movement has become global, well-funded, in connecting the dots prior to 9/11. If evidence—Arab and technologically advanced. The investigation identi- males taking flight lessons in suspicious circumstances fied Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Iran as for one—was insufficient to take to a grand jury, then it the principal sources of funding not only for the jihadists was ignored. themselves, but for the schools, mosques, and madrassas Following a commission recommendation, Congress throughout the Muslim world that are the proselytizers and sought to remedy this by creating a national security ser- recruiters of Islamic jihadists. To confront these realities, vice within the FBI to focus on preventive intelligence we must fight the war on three fronts. rather than forensic evidence. This has proved to be a complete failure. As late as June 2006, Mark Mershon, The Home Front an assistant director of the FBI, testified that the bureau The Bush administration deserves much credit for the will not monitor or surveille any Islamist unless there is fact that despite determined efforts to carry them out, no a “criminal predicate.” Thus, the large Islamist support Islamist attacks have been successful within the United infrastructure the commission identified here in the United States since 9/11. This is a significant achievement, but States is free to operate until it actually commits a crime. there are growing dangers and continuing vulnerabilities. Our attempt to reform the FBI has failed. What is needed The 9/11 Commission report described a government now is a separate domestic intelligence service without woefully unprepared to deal with Islamist attacks. One police powers such as the British MI-5. of the most deep-seated of these problems is the U.S. The 9/11 Commission catalogued in detail how our government’s tendency to treat this war as a law enforce- intelligence establishment simply does not function. We ment issue. Each of the last four presidents has publicly made priority recommendations to rebuild the 15 bloated reacted to Islamist attacks by saying “we will bring these and failed intelligence bureaucracies by creating a strong criminals to justice.” national intelligence director to smash bureaucratic layers, Thus, after the 1993 attack on the World Trade Cen- tear down the walls preventing intelligence-sharing among ter, $80 million and five years went into prosecuting the the agencies, and rewrite personnel policy to bring in new “Blind Sheik” and his accomplices, a group we now know blood, not only from the career bureaucracy, but also from was the core of al Qaeda. All the valuable intelligence the private sector. The Bush administration completely re- gathered in that investigation was put under seal and with- jected this approach, deciding instead to leave this sprawl- held from everyone outside the judicial process, including mess untouched and to create yet another bureaucracy ing the President and the CIA director, in order not to of more than 1,000 people in the office of the Director jeopardize the legal case. It was, however, provided to the of National Intelligence and to recruit only career people Blind Sheik’s attorneys and was promptly transmitted to from the failed intelligence agencies—the exact opposite al Qaeda in Sudan. Osama bin Laden thus had the FBI’s of what we had recommended. intelligence three years be- The greatest terrorist fore CIA Director George threat to the home front Tenet was allowed to see is, of course, the use of it. This is the process the weapons of mass destruc- American Civil Liberties tion by Islamists. Here the Union and many in Con- President has moved to gress wish to apply to establish a national coun- captured terrorists in the ter-proliferation center to future. share and act on intelli- Our report catalogued in gence, and he has recently depressing detail the FBI’s initiated an agreement

total focus on law enforce- ce with Russia and our allies r fo r ai . s . u

1995 1996 1998 2000 8 March 13 November 25 June 7 August 12 October Unidentified gunmen fire An Islamic Movement of A fuel truck bomb kills 19 A car bomb kills 247, Suicide bombers attack on a U.S. consulate van Change car bomb at the U.S. Air Force person- including 12 Americans, the USS Cole (DDG- in Karachi, Pakistan, U.S. military headquar- nel and injures more at the U.S. embassy 67) in the port of Aden, killing two U.S. diplomats, ters in Riyadh, Saudi than 500 Americans and in Nairobi, Kenya, and Yemen, killing 17 Sailors Jacqueline Keys Van Arabia, kills seven peo- Saudis at the Khobar another 10 are killed at and injuring more than Landingham and Gary C. ple, including five Ameri- Towers housing complex the U.S. embassy in Dar 30. Authorities suspect Durell, and injuring a third, cans, and injures 60. near Dharan, Saudi Ara- es Salaam, Tanzania. Osama bin Laden’s al Mark McCloy. bia. Several groups claim More than 5,000 are Qaeda. responsibility. injured. Authorities suspect Osama bin Laden’s al Qaeda.

20 PROCEEDINGS • September 2006 www.usni.org to cooperate in preventing nuclear materials from getting The skill and effectiveness of our military capabilities into the hands of the Islamists and to undertake joint crisis gratified our friends and awed our enemies. In the suc- management if such an attack takes place. These are real ceeding years, however, the Taliban and al Qaeda have accomplishments. been able to regroup, rebuild, and re-attack because they The commission made dozens of additional recommen- enjoy a secure sanctuary largely free from attack within dations for urgent action—on emergency preparedness, the border areas of Pakistan. Despite continuing strong transportation security, border security, immigration re- support and active participation by our NATO allies, the form, and congressional reform. Very little has been done level of violence appears to be increasing, and develop- on any of these, and much of the blame must lie with ments outside the major cities are disturbing. Congress. While all of these universally acknowledged The next military operation of the war was of course vulnerabilities remain unfixed, Congress continues to the invasion of Iraq. Here again, the combined military dither. And while the Islamists gouge out the eyes and operations of the United States and Britain were bril- cut off the genitals of living American prisoners, Con- liantly successful in defeating Iraqi forces and removing gress intends to spend the rest of this year seeking to pass Saddam and his regime. But in the aftermath of this vic- legislation to see that when captured, such Islamists are tory, grave blunders were made in totally misunderstand- afforded full rights under the Geneva Convention, which ing the requirements for successful occupation. even the convention itself explicitly denies to terrorists Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was proved not wearing uniforms. right in keeping the initial invasion force small and agile, but desperately wrong in disbanding all Iraqi security The Operational Front forces and steadfastly refusing to send the additional U.S. Our objectives are to destroy the capability of Islamist or- Army divisions needed to replace them. Certainly it is ganizations to attack us, and to deny them geographic sanc- hard to understand now the logic of that decision. In the tuaries to recruit, train, and operate. The post-9/11 threat long bloody insurgency that has been the consequence of demanded preemptive attack against Islamist bases, and this that blunder, U.S. and British military forces continue to was done without delay in the invasion of Afghanistan to perform extremely well and continue to maintain remark- destroy al Qaeda and remove the Taliban government that ably high morale and professionalism. was its ally and supporter. It was a brilliantly executed op- Recent allegations of soldiers raping and murdering eration in which all of our armed forces and CIA operatives civilians are of course serious, and justice must be pur- combined in a ruthlessly efficient victory. While Osama bin sued. Nevertheless, even if they are proved correct such Laden escaped, al Qaeda was destroyed as a meaningful incidents have been very rare and through history have military force, and the Taliban was defeated and dispersed been an inevitable consequence of sustained warfare. with a democratic government taking its place. In World War II, U.S. forces executed more than 300 VY D o U.S. NA D

2001 2002 2003 27 May 11 September January near the U.S. consulate 12 May Muslim Abu Sayaf guerril- Al Qaeda-hijacked air- Wall Street Journal and Marriott Hotel in Al Qaeda suicide bomb- las capture 16, including craft are crashed into reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi, Pakistan. ers attack foreign worker three Americans, on Pala- the World Trade Center kidnapped and killed by compounds in Riyadh, wan Island, the Philip- towers, the Penta- Islamic militants in Kara- 12 October Saudi Arabia, killing 35, pines. One American is gon, and in a field near chi, Pakistan. Al Qaeda claims responsi- including 10 Americans, beheaded and two are in Shanksville, Pennsylva- bility for a car bomb explo- and injuring more than captivity for a year. nia. Nearly 3,000 people 14 June sion outside the Sari Club 200. are killed in the attacks. A suspected al Qaeda discotheque in Bali that and al Qanin car bomb kills 187 and injures 300. kills 11 and injures 51

www.usni.org September 2006 • PROCEEDINGS 21 of the Greatest Generation for crimes and depredations building its 600-ship navy to fill the military vacuum we against civilians. We cannot expect the Army and Marine are creating in the Pacific, as our Fleet shrinks well below Corps to continue to maintain the highest standards for critical mass. Not one of these states believes we could acceptance that have been the hallmark of the peace- credibly undertake any additional military operations while time all-volunteer force. They must lower the standards we are bogged down in Iraq. to continue to meet requirements. The alternative of a Another strategic objective is to “drain the swamp,” draft would produce an even lower standard of people. again in Secretary Rumsfeld’s words, by choking off the The difference between World War II and today is that political and financial support that has built and sustained the media did not publicize those crimes in World War the jihadist forces around the world. We must motivate II, because such publicity obviously gave aid, comfort, the broadest possible coalition of friends and allies to act and encouragement to the enemy, which such publicity in concert against this movement, and to deter states and is clearly doing today. organizations sympathetic to the jihadists’ cause from pro- Another very unfortunate consequence of this continu- viding support to them. ing insurgency is that it has effectively suspended reform The commission urged measures to cut off the flow of of Pentagon procurement. Secretary Rumsfeld announced resources and support to the jihadist movement, closely a set of reform initiatives before 9/11 that were urgently associated with the Wahhabism of Saudi Arabia and the needed to stop the astronomical escalation of the costs United Arab Emirates, and the Shiite fundamentalism of goods and services in the Pentagon. Costs for ships, espoused by the Iranian regime. The indoctrination and aircraft, and weapon systems in all of the services have recruiting of jihadists from Indonesia, South Asia, and spiraled out of control in a virulent form of unilateral the Middle East is done through religious establishments disarmament. Unfortunately, after 9/11 the total focus supported overwhelmingly by Saudi Arabia and Iran. of the Pentagon came to be on fighting the war, and es- Even in the United States some 80% of Islamic mosques sentially none of the proposed reforms have been accom- and schools are closely aligned with the Wahhabist sect plished. As a consequence, a military occupation in Iraq and heavily dependent on Saudi funding. Five years after that is quite small compared to, say, Vietnam or Korea is 9/11 nothing has been done to materially affect this root consuming the entire defense budget and stretching the source of jihadism. The movement continues to grow, fu- Army to its operational limits. This is understood quite eled with an ever-increasing flow of petrodollars from the clearly by both our friends and our enemies, and as a Persian Gulf. There is no evidence that the administration result our ability to deter enemies around the world is has ever even raised this with the Saudi government as a disintegrating. Diplomacy is the shadow cast by military high-level issue, and just as damaging, it has never ac- power, and our diplomacy is fast becoming ineffective. knowledged it as an issue to the American people. Thus, Secretary Rumsfeld’s question—are we killing, captur- The Strategic/Political Front ing, or deterring jihadists faster than they are being pro- The jihadist regime in Iran now feels no reservation duced?—must be answered with an emphatic no. about flaunting its policy to go nuclear and has unleashed In reviewing progress on this war—including the foiled Hezbollah, its client terrorist organization, to attack Israel. August plot to explode bombs on airliners bound from In Somalia, a jihadist group has seized control of the gov- Britain to the United States—even the most sanguine op- ernment. In Pakistan, Islamists are becoming more power- timist cannot yet conclude we are winning. And we cannot ful, and attacks within India are increasing. Governments win without some significant changes in policy. in Indonesia, Malaysia, Egypt, Algeria, and Jordan are under increasing Islamist pressure. In the Pacific, North Korea now feels free to rattle its missile sabers, firing Secretary of the Navy Lehman served in the Reagan administration and seven on American Independence Day. China is rapidly was a member of the 9/11 Commission.

2003 2004 2005 5 August 11 March 31 March 11 May 7 July A suspected Jemaah Suspected al Qaeda Gunmen ambush and kill Purportedly in revenge for A coordinated bomb Islamiah car bomb kills 10 bombings of the com- four U.S. civilian contrac- abuse of Iraqi prisoners, attack by Islamic extrem- and injures nearly 150, muter train system in tors in Fallujah, Iraq, Nick Berg of Philadel- ists on the subway and including two Americans, Madrid, Spain, kill 191 drag their burned bodies phia is beheaded by bus system in London, at the Marriott hotel in and injure more than through the streets, and Islamic militants on video. England, kills 52 and Jakarta, Indonesia. 1,800. hang them from a bridge injures 700. over the Euphrates River. 18 June Brigades of Martyr Ahmed Islamic militants behead Yassim claim responsi- hostage Paul Marshal bility. Johnson, an American engineer for Lockheed Martin, in Saudi Arabia.

22 PROCEEDINGS • September 2006 www.usni.org