6/21/10

Today, in a courtroom in New York Faisal Shahzad, the failed Times Square bomber, will enter pleas for 10 criminal charges, six of which face a life sentence.  This is what successful counter-terrorism looks like:  international cooperation helped produce the indictment; law enforcement and intelligence partnered to produce a court case and actionable intelligence from the suspect; alert citizens and the government together kept our people safe.  As Assistant Attorney General David Kris said at a recent Brookings event, the criminal justice system "can disrupt terrorist plots through arrest... incapacitate terrorists through incarceration ... and ... can gather intelligence..." 

This comprehensive approach pays off in and out of the headlines:  in recent weeks we have  seen the arrest of two young men from New Jersey who sought to join al Shabab in Somalia and the death of Mustafa Abu al Yazid, al Qaeda's No.3, a significant blow to al Qaeda's central command and infrastructure.  Al Qaeda's response to these successes has been to heighten its efforts at homegrown radicalization.  We can defeat their efforts to undermine our society by remaining a strong and resilient nation - from effective military, intelligence and law enforcement to businesses, communities and citizens that refuse to be frightened into the overreaction that terrorists desire.

Failed Times Square bomber to be arraigned today on ten charges in Federal District Court in Manhattan.  After filling a Nissan Pathfinder with propane tanks, firecrackers and non-explosive fertilizer and parking it in the middle of Times Square, Faisal Shahzad was tracked, arrested, and induced to admit his role in less than 72 hours after the failed car bomb was discovered.  Shahzad shared "useful information" with law enforcement officers that has led to seven-eight reported arrests in Pakistan.  As Politico reported last week, "Shahzad, a 30-year-old Pakistani-born naturalized American, faces an array of grave charges including attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting an act of terrorism transcending national boundaries, transporting explosives and attempting to destroy property by fire and explosive. Six of the charges against Shahzad carry a maximum penalty of life in prison. In addition, if convicted on two explosives and firearm charges, he would receive a mandatory life prison sentence, the Justice Department said.  ‘The facts alleged in this indictment show that the Pakistani Taliban facilitated Faisal Shahzad's attempted attack on American soil,' Attorney General Eric Holder in a written statement. ‘Our nation averted serious loss of life in this attempted bombing, but it is a reminder that we face an evolving threat that we must continue to fight with every tool available to the government.'"

Speaking at an event at the Brookings Institution, David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security, explained how law enforcement fits into an effective counter-terrorism strategy:  "When I say that law enforcement helps us win this war, I mean that it helps us disrupt, defeat, dismantle and destroy our adversaries without destroying ourselves or our way of life in the process.  And in particular, I want to say law enforcement helps us do that in at least three ways. First, it can disrupt terrorist plots through arrest; second, it can incapacitate terrorists through incarceration that results from a successful prosecution; and third, it can gather intelligence through interrogation and recruitment of terrorists or their supporters by cooperation agreements." Kris further explained, "Terrorism suspects in the criminal justice system have given us information on things like this, telephone numbers and email addresses used by Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda recruiting, financing and geographical reach, terrorist trade craft used to avoid detection in the west, experiences at and the location of Al Qaeda training camps, Al Qaeda weapons programs and explosive training, the location of Al Qaeda safe houses, residential locations of senior Al Qaeda figures, Al Qaeda communications methods and security protocols, identification of operatives involved in past or planned attacks, and information about plots to attack U.S. interest."  The Shahzad case has proven to be a success for using all the tools in the tool box to disrupt terrorism and bring terrorists to justice.  As Mayor Bloomberg said, the investigation was "a great example of the professional skill and close inter-agency cooperation we bring to bear on combating such incidents."  There was a whole of government approach to the investigation.  The Joint Terrorism Task Force international terrorism division took the lead in the investigation, and agencies including the Customs and Border Patrol, the Justice Department, local law enforcement, the FBI, and the Department of Homeland Security all played vital roles in the arrest.  [Politico, 6/17/10. David Kris, 6/10/10. Mayor Bloomberg via NY Daily News, 5/3/10]

Obama administration counterterrorism efforts have succeeded in thwarting extremism both at home and abroad. Since taking office, the Obama administration has achieved numerous concrete successes in battling extremism. Most recently al Qaeda No. 3 Mustafa Abu Al-Yazid, also known as Sheik Saeed al-Masri, was killed by a U.S. missile strike in North Waziristan in Pakistan. While the number three position has been eliminated several times in the past, there was agreement among al Qaeda experts that Al-Yazid's death was a significant blow to the organization. "In some respects, Sheikh Sa'id's death is more important for al-Qaida operations than if bin Laden or Zawahiri was killed," said Roger Cressey, former deputy chief for counterterrorism at the National Security Council and now an NBC News consultant. And on the domestic front, Federal Authorities arrested two New Jersey men, Mohamed Mahmood Alessa, 20, and Carlos Eduardo Almonte, 24, headed to Somalia with plans to join the extremist group al Shabab. "The arrests and planning were coordinated by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, a multi-agency group that includes agents of the FBI, state homeland security office, New York Police Department, Port Authority police and an assortment of federal security agencies. The investigation began as two separate probes after the FBI and New Jersey homeland security detectives received individual tips about the men," reported the Newark Star Ledger.

These actions are part of a multi-pronged strategy:

Taking the fight to terrorists abroad.  Center for American Progress analysts Brian Katulis and Ken Gude write, "In stark contrast to the previous administration-which under-resourced efforts in Afghanistan and ignored threats coming from Pakistan-the Obama administration has put militant groups in the crosshairs. It is working to complete the mission left unaccomplished in Afghanistan, and has taken out three times more suspected militants in Pakistan in its first 15 months in office compared to the Bush administration's last five years."[CAP, 5/4/10]

Disrupting plots at home and bringing terrorists to justice.  Katulis and Gude also write that, "the swift capture and arrest of the Times Square bombing suspect shows that effective intelligence and law enforcement work-a component of successful counterterrorism operations for decades-is a crucial part of an integrated strategy to keep Americans safe." [CAP, 5/4/10]

Focused, results-oriented partnerships.  A recent study of foiled terrorist plots since 9/11 by the American Security Project found that, "International cooperation remains vital. In several cases foreign intelligence and law enforcement cooperation-including the provision of intelligence and making arrests-was instrumental in dismantling terror plots..."  Daniel Benjamin, the State Department counterterrorism coordinator, explained: "we have and will continue to reach out, and, on the basis of mutual interests and mutual respect, forge international coalitions. Our focus has been on building (and sometimes rebuilding) partnerships, whether they be bilateral, with multilateral organizations such as the UN, the private sector, or civil society."  Effective cooperation can be as specific as the cooperation with Pakistan in the investigation of the Times Square plot, or as broad as the hosting of the first ever Nuclear Security Summit, to spark international action against the threats of nuclear terrorism.  [ASP, 5/10. Daniel Benjamin, 5/3/10]

Denying terrorists their propaganda tools. As NSN Senior Advisor Maj. Gen. (ret.) Paul Eaton said, "Repeatedly, Al Qaeda leadership uses the Guantanamo prison, former Vice President Cheney's endorsement of waterboarding, other forms of torture or coersive interrogation techniques and other examples of non-core US values behaviors to fight at the strategic level, the war of ideas."  [Paul Eaton, 4/26/10]

[Newsweek, 6/1/10. MSNBC, 6/1/10. The Star Ledger, 6/6/10]

A resilient America is an important part of a comprehensive counterterrorism policy. As U.S. successes have reduced al Qaeda's international capabilities, it and its allies have moved more towards relying on small-scale homegrown attacks.  In response, Americans must draw on our core of resiliency, as  John Brennan, the career CIA officer who is President Obama's Assistant for Counterterrorism and Homeland Security, said recently at CSIS: "As a strong and resilient nation, we will strengthen our ability to withstand any disruption, whatever the cause. For even as we put unrelenting pressure on the enemy, even as we strive to thwart 100 percent of the plots against us, we know that terrorists are striving to succeed only once... Instead of giving into fear and paralysis, which is the goal of terrorists, we must resolve, as a nation, as a people, that we will go forward with confidence, that we will resist succumbing to overreaction, especially to failed attacks and not magnify these perpetrators beyond the despicable miscreants that they are, that as a proud and strong nation, we will not cower in the face of a small band of cowards who hide in the shadows and send others to their slaughter and to slaughter the innocents.  [National Security Strategy, 2010. John Brennan, CSIS, 5/26/10]

What We're Reading

Poland's presidential election appeared headed for a runoff between the acting president and the twin brother of the late president killed in an April plane crash.

China's yuan surged more than any day since its landmark revaluation in 2005, sending a clear signal ahead of this weekend's G20 summit that Beijing is keeping to its word and allowing greater currency flexibility.

The EU has begun a program to train an army to fight for Somalia's beleaguered transitional government; the effort involves 150 instructors from 14 EU countries at a cost of $6 million.

Two car bombs exploded near a government-owned bank in central Baghdad, killing at least 26 people and injuring more than 53.

Israel formally announced an eased blockade of Gaza that could significantly expand the flow of goods overland into the impoverished coastal Palestinian enclave, isolated by the Israelis for three years.

Juan Manuel Santos, a former defense minister and scion of a publishing family, swept to victory in Colombia's presidential election with a pledge to continue his predecessor's get-tough policies against crime and insurgency.

Ordinary Afghans in the violence-racked south have risen on their own to reclaim territory under insurgent control, a move U.S. officials see as significant and are seeking to replicate.

A senior Iranian official said that two U.N. nuclear inspectors have been banned from working in Iran after filing "untruthful" reports on the Islamic Republic's controversial nuclear program.

India may increase compensation for victims of the 1984 toxic gas leak at a Union Carbide Corp. plant in the city of Bhopal that killed at least 3,800 people and will also seek extradition of Warren Anderson, the former chairman of Union Carbide.

Russia's state-controlled gas monopoly Gazprom has started to cut supplies to neighbor Belarus over its nearly $200 million of debt, incurred after Russia raised prices last year.

Commentary of the Day

Fareed Zakaria examines neoconservative dreams on Iran, where rhetoric replaces analysis and fantasy substitutes for foreign policy.

Paul Quinn-Judge writes that to save central Asia, the international community needs to stop sitting on its hands when dealing with Kyrgyzstan.

Dan Glickman says that helping refugees is essential to maintaining American moral leadership.