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Terrorist attacks decreased sharply worldwide in 2002 to their lowest level since 1969, the State Department's annual report released yesterday shows, and Secretary of State Colin Powell hailed the war on terrorism for foiling the deadly plots.
"The last time the annual total fell below 200 attacks was in 1969, shortly after the advent of modern terrorism," said Cofer Black, State Department coordinator for counterterrorism.
The report showed a steep reduction in attacks by "international terrorists" to 199 in 2002 from 355 a year earlier — a 44 percent drop. The number of deaths fell to 725 from 3,295 in 2001, a year that included the September 11 attacks, the report said. "Terrorist cells have been broken up, networks disrupted and plots foiled," Mr. Powell told reporters as the report was released. "But terrorism still casts its grim shadow across the globe." In the report, the United States again branded seven countries — Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, North Korea, Syria and Sudan — as sponsors of terrorism. Mr. Black said steps would be taken to remove Iraq from the list now that Saddam Hussein's government has been overthrown. Cuba, which remained on the list, was accused of sending agents to U.S. missions around the world to provide false leads designed to subvert investigations into the September 11 attacks, the report said. With the drop-off in attacks around the world, Mr. Powell said unprecedented progress has been made globally. "With every passing month the campaign has intensified," and for terrorists still on the loose, "life has definitely become more difficult," Mr. Powell said. But he warned against complacency. "We cannot and will not relax our resolve, our efforts, our vigilance." The report designated Iran as the most active supporter of terrorism. Its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has referred to Israel as a "cancerous tumor." The report said Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Ministry of Intelligence and Security have assisted Lebanon's Hezbollah as well as Palestinian groups such as Hamas that reject peace with Israel. Iraq's ties to terror groups, which the Bush administration cited as one of its reasons for going to war to remove Saddam, threatened the United States and other Western countries, the report said. A leading member of the Israeli Knesset was in Washington to talk with U.S. lawmakers yesterday, where he said Saudi Arabia would pick up where Iraq had left off and called on Washington to disengage from Riyadh.
"I would urge the United States to disengage from Saudi Arabia and make it known and open that this is a major problem," said Yuri Shtern, chairman of the Knesset's Internal Affairs and Environment Committee. Mr. Shtern said the war on terrorism would be strengthened if governments shared security information and developed international legislation to cut off the money supply to groups using suicide bombers. Mr. Shtern's visit came after the 89th suicide bombing in Israel over the last 2½ years. Yesterday's attack, on a popular beachside bar, killed two other persons and injured more than 50 others. Suicide bombers "are something the modern world is not properly built against. We don't have a set of rules or proper punishment for that. I would like to start an international dialogue on that," he said. Syria, which Mr. Powell is due to visit this week, permits some terror groups to maintain headquarters or offices in Damascus and helps Iran supply Hezbollah via Damascus, the report said. The Syrian government insists the offices are involved only in political and informational activities, the report said. Mr. Powell has said he will talk to President Bashar Assad about Syria's support for terror and reports that it helped Iraq with military technology and did not stop Syrian fighters from joining the war against the U.S.-led coalition. Thirty U.S. citizens were killed in 2002, including seven at a resort in Bali, Indonesia; five at Hebrew University in Jerusalem; Daniel Pearl, the Wall Street Journal's South Asia bureau chief, in Pakistan; a hiker and a missionary in the Philippines; two American diners in a West Bank pizzeria; two attending church services in Islamabad, Pakistan; three persons at a missionary hospital in Yemen; and Laurence Foley, an administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development in Jordan. The October bombing in Bali, which killed 202 persons, mostly foreign tourists, was the deadliest terror attack since the September 11 attacks.
In Africa, simultaneous attacks on a commercial airliner and a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, in November were cited as dramatic evidence that sub-Saharan Africa continues to suffer from terror.
For the first time, Greece arrested members of the deadly November 17 group, the State Department said, in a significant step against domestic terrorism.
•This article is based in part on wire service reports.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20 ... 235328.htm

War on terrorism in 'cleanup' phase
By Rowan Scarborough
THE WASHINGTON TIMES

The declared end to major combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan puts the U.S. military on a new path in which covert action and stabilization take a front seat in the war on terrorism.
Analysts say the first phase in the war on terrorism is now in a global mop-up operation. The military is rooting out resistance in Afghanistan and Iraq while hunting the remaining leaders of an al Qaeda terror group that, while still dangerous, barely resembles the robust organization that carried out the September 11 attacks. "The tactical effort is an al Qaeda cleanup," said John Hillen, a national security adviser to President Bush's 2000 campaign. "That could still take several years. We've broken al Qaeda as we know it, strategically." The Pentagon is slowly reducing a force of about 135,000 troops in Iraq, where the major mission has shifted to snuffing out the remnants of Saddam Hussein loyalists, while starting a new government and rebuilding long-neglected infrastructure. Officials say a stabilization force of 80,000 to 100,000 American troops is likely to remain in the country for the next one to two years. The troops will be augmented by international peacekeepers. In Afghanistan, Pentagon planners say most of the country is free of hard-core Taliban fighters and Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda operatives. The one trouble zone is the border area with Pakistan, where Islamist supporters of bin Laden provide cover for guerrillas moving in and out of Afghanistan. A brigade of the 82nd Airborne Division, backed by special-operations forces, makes up the bulk of the 10,000 allied troops in Afghanistan. "One encouraging sign is that most of the violence we are seeing is along the border," said a U.S. military officer assigned to U.S. Central Command. "There doesn't really seem to be any support for the bad guys in Afghanistan proper. Instead, there is a bunch of disaffected people who are unable to operate more than a few miles from their safe haven in Pakistan. That's a good sign." Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld visited Afghanistan yesterday, where he declared an end to major combat operations, 16 months after coalition troops ousted the Taliban from power. "We are at the point where we have clearly moved from major combat activities to a period of stability and stabilization and reconstruction activities," Mr. Rumsfeld announced after meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai. Hours later, Mr. Bush landed aboard the carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and in a televised address last night told the nation that major combat had ended in Iraq, too. Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech yesterday at the Heritage Foundation, said the administration is still thinking up new ways to combat terrorists.
"How do you contain rogue states willing to provide terrorists with weapons of mass destruction?" Mr. Cheney asked. "How do you deter terrorists who have no nation to defend and who are willing to sacrifice their own lives in order to kill Americans? These problems will define a new era in American foreign policy." The Pentagon now conducts major counterterrorism operations in four key areas. Three of them come under U.S. Central Command. Those three areas are Afghanistan, al Qaeda's previous base of operations; Iraq, where Saddam is believed to have maintained ties to terrorists; and the area around the Horn of Africa, where a task force is watching such countries as Yemen and Sudan for any attempt by al Qaeda to establish a foothold. So far, the task force has not started any major combat operations. The fourth major area is Southeast Asia, particularly the Philippines, where American special forces have trained and directed the local army in combating the Abu Sayyaf, an al Qaeda-linked terror group. The U.S. ouster of the Taliban turned up al Qaeda documents that pointed to an al Qaeda-related group in Asia called Jemaah Islamiah, or JI, as American intelligence refers to the group. The documents enabled Singapore to foil a major terrorist attack by JI on American targets. Interrogation of those arrested revealed the extent to which the group is trying to overthrow pro-Western governments in Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines. Jemaah Islamiah militants are blamed for the Bali nightclub bombings that killed about 200 people, mostly tourists, in Indonesia last year.
"They are just now starting to become clear," said a senior U.S. defense official. "We want to nip it in the bud." Manila and the Bush administration are discussing a new mission for U.S. troops to return to the Philippines to help the army fight not only the Abu Sayyaf, but also Jemaah Islamiah. "Their goal is to destabilize the southern Philippines," the official said, referring to the terrorist groups. What's next in the war, officials say, will be increased reliance on covert operators, as opposed to a third full-fledged military campaign. Navy SEALs, Army Delta Force troops and CIA paramilitaries will attack terrorists in small groups around the world, as opposed to carrying out an all-out war. The CIA and FBI will work with various governments to encourage them to arrest al Qaeda operatives. Mr. Hillen said to look for the kind of counterterror operations now carried out in Pakistan and Yemen to spread to other places. Possibilities include Iran, Syria, Palestinian territories and Indonesia. Where governments are in place, he said, the United States will attempt to get their approval. In weak states, such as Sudan and Somalia, the administration will enlist direct military action. "There are some parts of 'what's next' that are already ongoing," Mr. Hillen said. "The Horn of Africa, I think, is going to get pretty hot." Mr. Hillen also said the administration is beginning to think about the next radicals to emerge from the Islamic world. "The smart people are going to be thinking forward to what follows al Qaeda," he said. "We know that terrorism is a phenomenon, not an organization. It takes different forms every time we see it. What form will it take next, and where will it crop up?"

http://www.washtimes.com/national/20030502-23412881.htm