Graham,
Bradley. "Pentagon Plans Domestic Anti-Terrorism Team." Washington
Post, 1 Feb. 1999, A2. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]Materials arranged chronologically.
Graham,
Bradley. "Pentagon Plans Domestic Anti-Terrorism Team." Washington
Post, 1 Feb. 1999, A2. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has decided to seek presidential approval for a permanent task force, headed by a general officer, to coordinate the military's response to a chemical or biological attack on the United States....
"[R]ecent reports of the anti-terrorist group have alarmed civil libertarians and right-wing militia groups....
"Officials stressed that the anti-terrorism task force would not amount to a full-scale regional command on a par with the large bureaucratic structures headed by four-star officers.... Most likely, they said, the task force would be subordinate to the U.S. Atlantic Command in Norfolk, which already has nominal responsibility for homeland defense issues."
Weiner, Tim.
"The Man Who Protects America From Terrorism."
New York Times, 1 Feb. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
Richard Clarke was recently named by the President as the nation's counterterrorism coordinator. "Clarke has a reserved seat when Cabinet officers gather at the White House on national security issues.... He helped drive the decision to fire cruise missiles at Afghanistan and Sudan in August,... overpowering dissenters at the State Department and the CIA."
Loeb,Vernon.
"Has the U.S. Blunted Bin Laden? Yes and No, Terrorist Fighters Say,
Describing an Invisible War." Washington Post, 17 Feb. 1999,
A4. "U.S. Intelligence Claims Progress against bin Laden." Washington
Post National Weekly Edition, 22 Feb. 1999, 16-17.
"Six months after Osama bin Laden allegedly masterminded the truck bombing of two U.S. embassies in east Africa, senior U.S. officials say they have disrupted planned operations by his followers and stayed one step ahead of new threats through aggressive intelligence-gathering and cooperation with foreign authorities."
CNN. "CIA Tries New Strategy to Deter Terrorism."
1 Mar. 1999. [http://cnn.com:80/US/9903/01/cia.terrorism/index.html]
"Up on the sixth floor of the Central Intelligence Agency's new Global Response Center, a high-tech ... command post in suburban Virginia, CIA workers are busy with the agency's newest weapon against terrorism -- the tactic of disruption....
"Typically, a disruption operation begins with a scrap of information.... The CIA might provide evidence, for instance, for a legal pretext for arrest, such as information that a terrorist cell crossed a border with false papers or illegal arms.
"The key to disruption is that it takes place before terrorists strike, amounting to a pre-emptive, offensive form of counterterrorism, Richard Clarke, President Clinton's counterterrorism coordinator, said."
Loeb,Vernon.
"Could U.S. Harassment of Bin Laden Backfire?" Washington Post,
29 Jul. 1999, A3.
"Osama bin Laden's global terrorist network has been constantly pressured and repeatedly compromised in the year since the fugitive Saudi multimillionaire allegedly masterminded the deadly truck bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa, according to terrorism experts inside and outside the federal government. But those experts worry that the Clinton administration's focus on bin Laden as the nation's number one terrorist enemy may have raised his profile in the Islamic world and increased the likelihood of attacks by him and his followers."
Leidig,
Michael. "Former Baader-Meinhof Terrorist Is Killed in Shoot-Out with
Police." Electronic Telegraph, 17 Sept. 1999. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
According to Vienna police on 16 September 1999, "Horst Meyer, a former Baader-Meinhof terrorist wanted in connection with the murder of the Deutsche Bank chief Alfred Herrhausen in 1989, has been shot dead and his companion [Andrea Klump] arrested."
Smith, R. Jeffrey. "U.S. Presses Greece for Action against Leftist Terror Group." Washington Post, 3 Nov. 1999, A30. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
There have been at least five terrorist attacks carried out in Athens this year by a group known as November 17. The United States has been pressing the Greek police to bring the members of the group to justice since the assassination of CIA station chief Richard Welch in November 1975. "U.S. officials say they suspect that arrests of group members have been blocked by both a lack of official interest and active opposition within the Athens government. Senior Greek security officials have rejected the accusation."
Newsweek. "New Evidence Ties Iran to Terrorism." 15 Nov.
1999. [http://newsweek. com]
"[N]ew evidence [has] emerged tying Iranian officials to the truck bomb that killed 241 U.S. Marines in Beirut 16 years ago, as well as to the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia.... [A] National Security Agency phone tap recorded a Sept. 24, 1983, call from the Iranian ambassador in Syria to his foreign minister, in which the ambassador relayed orders he'd given to Abu Haidar, leader of the Husaini Suicide Forces Movement. The ambassador told Haidar to get weapons from Yasir Arafat's Fatah group to 'undertake an extraordinary operation against the Marines' in Beirut."
Hockstader,
Lee. "Jordanians Arrest 13 Suspected of Planning Attacks on Americans:
Afghan-Trained Arabs Are Linked to Bin Laden." Washington Post,
16 Dec. 1999, A30. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
Jordanian Prime Minister Abdul-Raouf Rawabdeh announced on 15 December 1999 that his country's security forces had arrested "11 Jordanians, an Iraqi and an Algerian returning from Afghanistan who planned 'to carry out operations in the Jordanian arena.'" U.S. officials said the group was planning to attack American and other targets in Jordan.
Labaton, Stephen.
"National Security Adviser Warns of Risk of Terrorism."
New York Times, 20 Dec. 1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"With security being tightened after the arrest of an Algerian man who crossed the Canadian border into Washington with powerful bomb-making materials, President Clinton's national security adviser" warned Americans on 19 December 1999 "to be more vigilant over the next few weeks because of a 'heightened risk of terrorist actions.'"
Adams,
Lorraine. "U.S. Tightens Border, Airport Security." Washington
Post, 22 Dec. 1999, A1. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
In response to heightened concern about foreign terrorism, law enforcement agencies on 21 December 1999 "tightened their grip at the nation's borders, increasing inspectors and redoubling security at airports. And [on 21 December 1999] the State Department reemphasized its warning that Americans abroad may be the target of terrorist attacks in the next few weeks."
Burns,
John, with Craig Pyes, John Kifner, and Sam Howe Verhovek. "Arrest
at U.S. Border Reverberates in France." New York Times, 22 Dec.
1999. [http://www.nytimes.com]
"When United States customs officials arrested Ahmed Ressam near Seattle last week..., American intelligence officials knew little about him. But the arrest set off alarms in France, where antiterrorist officials had been focusing on the 32-year-old Mr. Ressam because of his connections to a loosely organized group of Islamic radicals that French investigators suspect had carried out a series of attacks on supermarkets, armored security vehicles and banks in northern France in 1996."
Pearlstein,
Steven. "Canadians Examine Lapses in Security: Suspected Terrorist
Benefits from Bungling by Police, Immigration Agents." Washington
Post, 22 Dec. 1999, A8. [http://www.washingtonpost.com]
"Embarrassed Canadian officials were scrambling ... to explain how a suspected Algerian terrorist managed to elude them for nearly six years before getting caught by U.S. border police as he allegedly tried to smuggle a homemade bomb into Seattle.... Documents released ... in Ottawa and Montreal tell a tale of bungling by police and immigration officials as well as skillful manipulation of Canada's open-armed immigration system by the mysterious Algerian, Ahmed Ressam."
U.S. News & World Report. "The Ball Goes Up, but What Comes Down? Assessing Terrorists' Plans for the Millennium." 27 Dec. 1999, 20.
U.S. agencies are on the alert against international and domestic terrorist threats.
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