From: InfoSec News (isnC4I.ORG)
Date: Wed Apr 04 2001 - 01:23:19 CDT

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http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAZFC9B4LC.html

By Jesse J. Holland
Associated Press Writer
Apr 3, 2001 - 08:12 PM

WASHINGTON (AP) - Security has improved so much at official U.S.
installations abroad that terrorists are turning to softer targets
such as American businesses, relief workers and tourists, terrorism
experts told a House subcommittee Tuesday.

Terrorists always follow the path of least resistance, the experts
said. As the government tightened security at overseas military bases,
embassies and ships after recent attacks, they said, it's easier for
terrorists to kill and kidnap American civilians.

"A Hamas training manual expounds that it is foolish to hunt a tiger
when there are plenty of sheep to be had," Frank Cilluffo, a policy
analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told
the House Government Reform national security subcommittee. Hamas is a
militant Palestinian Islamic group.

The State Department counted 392 international terrorist attacks in
1999, of which 169 targeted U.S. interests, said Robert Littlejohn,
vice president of the International Security Managers Association.

To counter that, the government ratcheted up security and terrorists
looked for easier targets, Cilluffo said. Most global abductions occur
in Latin America, and 40 percent are employees of U.S. businesses, he
said.

"The increased risk to businesses is in many ways an ironic, negative
byproduct of governmental efforts," he said. "In addition, business
now increasingly symbolizes the United States."

In another terrorism hearing, three former lawmakers told a Senate
Judiciary subcommittee that a possible strike inside the United States
is the nation's top security concern. They suggested grouping the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Coast Guard, the Border
Patrol and the Customs Service into one Cabinet-level agency to
respond to such an attack.

Currently, the government has anti-terrorist units scattered across 50
agencies, with no chain of command if a terrorist act happens, said
former Sens. Gary Hart of Colorado and Warren Rudman of New Hampshire
and former Indiana Rep. Lee Hamilton, members of the Commission on
National Security/21st Century.

There's just too much for agencies to do, and there's little
coordination, Hart said. In 1999, 475 million people came into
America, along with 125 million vehicles, 16.5 million trucks and 5
million maritime containers, any of which could have constituted a
terrorist threat, he said.

"The volume and velocity of the challenges to these separate agencies,
and added on to that the terrorist threat which each of these
individual numbers represents or could represent, simply overwhelms
the maze of 40 or 50 agencies trying in some way or the other to deal
with this problem," Hart said.

Americans really don't understand terrorism because it is such a
cowardly act, and lawmakers will find it hard to generate enthusiasm
in Congress for such a radical reorganization, said Sen. Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif.

Plus, a proposed Homeland Security Agency name has a "Third Reich"
sound to it, she said.

"Such an agency will be created because it has to be created, and what
it's called will be up to Congress," Hart said.

Americans won't realize how unprotected they are unless government
leaders press the issue, using examples like the World Trade Center
and the Oklahoma City bombings, Hamilton said.

"In my home state of Indiana, where you have a reservoir that
furnishes water to the entire city of Indianapolis and it's totally
unprotected," said Hamilton, holding up a small glass of water. "All
you've got to do is step up to the reservoir and toss an item of this
size down that reservoir and you bring down the entire city."

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On the Net: Commission on National Security/21st
Century: http://www.nssg.gov/

State Department Bureau of Diplomatic
Security: http://www.ds.state.gov/index-n.htm

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