23 August 2002

TERRORISM PREVENTION MUST INCLUDE TRUST, ENGAGEMENT
FORUM by Saul B. Wilen

America has the ability to win the global war on terrorism, but at the same time America has the ability to actively and unnecessarily lose it.

The approaches for engaging the American people have been inadequate. Cooperation, trust, sharing, and integrating efforts have been actively resisted. Strategies to deal with terrorist threats have been fragmented and skewed is the direction of reaction, responding to the events after they have occurred. Prevention strategies have been neglected. This is not the time for prolonged recriminations but rather the time for serious reassessment.

The concept of prevention is not well understood. Prevention includes those actions instituted that thwart a threat before any overt impact can occur. Prevention requires both top-down and bottom-up concerted and unified efforts that must include trusting the American people and seeking their cooperation, engagement, and active involvement in the scrutiny and monitoring of the homeland. Thomas Paine's view of 18th century Americans, “…the summer soldiers and sunshine patriots who will not shrink from the service of our country.” parallels America's realities and needs of today.

The terrorist cause, goals, and September 11 victories are only enhanced by diversion of American resolve.

Political spin, blame, and partisan political recriminations are counter-productive to the process of preventing terrorism and defeating its threats.

It is mandatory for America to learn from past and recent mistakes in-order to prevent future attacks. Government leadership must understand the value of the lessons of history and to apply these in evaluating present situations and to secure America. Dwelling on the past beyond its lessons has been the course America has repeatedly taken and appears to be where it is heading again. This course will only divert the presently dwindling resolve and engagement of the people and diminish any hope of effectively accomplishing terrorism prevention goals and re-securing the United States.

The Bush administration must learn from the mistakes of the Nixon and Clinton administrations, and trust the American people with the truth. Americans are intrinsically resilient, forgiving, and understanding. This has been borne out repeatedly by history.

The survival of the United States is threatened. The homeland is vulnerable to physical attack. The values of American society are being questioned around the world. All of our leaders are at fault for the mistakes and errors in judgment of the past decade.

This present ongoing terrorism crisis is a new experience for America, imposing unique, potentially devastating issues and consequences. The events of September 11 stripped the American people forever of their shield of invincibility. Psychologically the American people are prepared to deal with the realities of ongoing terrorist threats. Nothing will be gained by the continuation of a national policy that excludes the people from active participation. Any excuse that government is protecting the people by excluding them will backfire.

The American people must be tolerant of government while it learns to deal with the terrorist enemy and its threats. Government's mistakes are not due to indifference, but rather to inexperience, process slowness, the American superpower invincibility delusion, and turf control issues.

The applications of prevention strategies are yet to be initiated in any agency at any level of government. The longer the delay the more vulnerable America becomes. This is an area that the federal government and its agencies have failed to address and have even actively resisted. Recently, the word prevention has taken on an independent presence as though it was newly discovered, and it is being used frequently like a newly minted, shiny coin available for the first time. However, the meaning of prevention is yet to be defined by those who have already publicly declared a change of their focus from the focus (crime solving and reaction to an event after it has occurred) of the past ten years.

It is encouraging that the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has announced the expansion of present agency functions to include the new area of prevention. The FBI is a law enforcement agency, and like all law enforcement agencies it is primarily responsible to function after the fact in investigating and solving crime. Prevention has not been part of the training.

Adopting a prevention posture is not as simple as it may seem. Just by declaring the change does not make it happen. Years of re-education of existing personnel and the establishment of prevention oriented training (including the total revamping of established training programs and institutes) for new personnel are required. The most difficult readjustment is for the leadership who must either return for intensive re-education or step aside in favor of those who are fully grounded in prevention strategies, concepts, practices, and have practical experience with prevention applications. Ongoing and regular consultation with those in and out of government who have decades of prevention experience will serve to shorten any transition.

To implement prevention strategies there must be systems in place that maximize the collection of information from multiple sources and databases. Newly available and unique technologies, specifically horizontal data integration that functions in real-time, and is able to identify trends, must be incorporated and expanded. Presently used systems are inadequate to meet information sharing and integration needs because they depend on vertical data access and do not function in real-time. The combination of real-time information, effective communication, education, and resources management constitute a powerful prevention weapon to defeat terrorist threats.

It is time to admit that America has been warned repeatedly and in advance (although not all of the details) of terrorist acts over the past decade and that these warnings have been ignored. It is time that the American people and government agree that warnings can never be ignored again and that the analysis of actions taken, events, consequences, and mistakes be integral to the implementation and assessment processes. It is time to seriously include prevention strategies that address the critical and effective elements for success.

It is of little or no value to dwell on who knew what, when. However, of pre-eminent importance to America's survival is the analysis of what was done and what can and must be changed for the future. The scope is extensive. Inadequate efforts, underestimation of our enemies, and ineffective strategies will result in the gravest of consequences.

Dr. Saul B. Wilen is president of International Horizons Unlimited [www.intlhorizons.com, (210) 692-1268] a think- tank on terrorism prevention in San Antonio, Texas. He serves on the U.S. Secret Service Task Force on Electronic Crimes and Terrorism, and the U.S. Department of Commerce Critical Infrastructure Working Group on Community Structure for Crisis Management, Planning, Preparedness and Recovery.