WHAT SHOULD BE DONE ABOUT TERRORISM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00552R000403960001-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2010
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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WASHINGTON POST
18 May 1986
What Should Be Done AbbUfT~thinsm
TERRORISM
How the West Can Win
Edited by Benjamin Netanyahu
Farrar Straus Giroux. 254 pp. $18.95
By Robert McFarlane
T HERE IS THE DANGER, frighten-
ingly obvious to all of us, that ter-
rorists will eventually possess nu-
clear weapons," writes historian Paul
Johnson, early in this volume. "But a more
immediate risk is that they will secure-per-
haps already have secured-the devastatitia
modern equipment now moving into the inven-
tories of official armies: high-speed machine
pistols firing 1200 rounds a minute and almost
soundless, lightweight grenade launchers and
mortars, squirtless flamethrowers, short-
range portable anti-tank weapons, shoulder-
fired rocket launchers, and most alarming of
all, the new generation of portable (air de-
fense) missiles which have long ranges, are
highly accurate, and can be carried and fired
by one man or woman."
Johnson is a thoughtful man not given to
hyperbole. Yet he has a way of concentrating
one's mind, in this case on the point that we in
the West don't have forever to counter the
problem of terrorism. His voice is the most
urgent among those included in this excellent
compendium of speeches and remarks deliv-
ered to a 1984 conference on terrorism, held
in Washington. The meeting was sponsored by
the Jonathan Institute, an organization named
for Jonathan Netanyahu, the Israeli lieutenant
colonel who led and died heroically in the En-
tebbe raid.
His brother, Israeli U.N. Ambassador Ben-
jamin Netanyahu has assembled and edited the
results of that conference, including the texts
of talks by Secretary of State George Shultz,
former U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Jeane
Kirkpatrick, journalist Claire Sterling, FBI
Director William Webster and a distinguished
and experienced group of international ex-
perts who took part in the Conference. Ter-
rorism: How the West Can Win is the best as-
sessment we have of what the west knows
about international terrorism and how to cope
with it. The book is also clear in its expression
of confidence that the west can defeat terror-
ism.
Robert McFarlane was President Reagan's na-
tional security adviser from October 1983 to
Jasua,y 1986. He is now a counselor at the
meter for Strategic and International Studies,
Geergetow Univefcitty 4 . t It
The opening chapters, the first written by
Netanyahu himself, define terrorism ("the de-
liberate and systematic murder, maiming and
menacing of the innocent to inspire fear for
political ends"), explain
why it is happening? glow, and why
the West is VarticulaHy vulnerable.
Much evidence is marshalled to
make the connectioff between the
Soviet Union and today's terrorism.
Several contributors, among them
Michael Ledeen, from George-
town's Center for Strategic and In-
ternational Studies, and Arnaud de
Borchgrave, now editor of The
Washington Times, make the case
that the Soviets encourage terror-
isn by surrogate states. This af-
fords them protection from direct
accountability and the risk of con-
frontation with the United States.
Small states choose terrorism for
different reasons. They are able to
kill one person and traumatize mil-
lions of othbrs in countries they
could never challenge using conven-
tional military forces.- Terrorism is
especially appealing to small states
that aspire to destroy the existing
order and replace it with their own,
be it the demented theocracy es-
poused by Iran or the misguided
pan-Arab leadership pursued by
Qaddafi. Through terrorism, these
countries may be able to avoid re-
taliation and by playing upon the
vulnerabilitied of Judeo-Christian
societies, achieve the withdrawal of
Western nations from the Middle
East.
When one considers the implica-
tions for Western interests of being
pushed out of the Middle East (and
the corollary Soviet interest in hav-
ing us leave) the stakes involved in
international terrorism become
much more clear.
The book's most penetrating
chapters are devoted to making
clear what terrorism is not; that is,
to dispelling the well-meaning but
misguided notion among some
westerners that terrorists are pur-
suing a legitimate end and are the
victims of social injustice, racial or
religious intolerance or some flaw
in Western policy. Writing in the
prose-equivalent of white-knuckled
restraint, Ambassador Netanyahu
points out that PLO violence pre-
dated the loss of the West Bank and
Gaza in the 1967 war and that vi-
olence is not an expression of frus-
tration over the pace of negotiation
toward peace but a manifest disrup-
tion of any hope for such talks. (And
to those who invest Colonel Qaddafi
with great sympathy for the PLO,
let us remember that when, in
1982, Yasir Arafat was looking for a
home for Palestinian fighters leav-
ing Beirut, the colonel suggested
that they all commit suicide.)
In short there is nothing that jus-
tifies an attempt by a self-appointed
elite to impose its will by the pur-
poseful murder of innocent women
and children. Nor should we lapse
into the flaccid notion that self-des-
ignated underdogs have no re-
course except to terrorism. The
French resistance did not resort to
killing innocents when dealing with
a superior Nazi force in World War
II.
"The root cause of terrorism lies
not in grievances but in a disposi-
tion toward unbridled violence. This
can be traced to a world view which
asserts that certain ideological and
religious goals justify, indeed de-
mand, the shedding of all moral in-
hibitions. In this context, the obser-
vation that the root cause of terror-
ism is terrorists is more than a tau-
tology," writes Netanyahu in the
book's concluding chapter.
Terrorism includes a long treat-
ment of the history of politically and
religiously motivated terror in
Islam. However, this section seems
to imply that all Muslims espouse
terrorism or oppose the peaceful
resolution of disputes. One contri-
butor to the book-but only one
among 30-points out this is not
the case.
THE INTERNATIONAL
dimensions of terrorism
are particularly well de-
veloped by Ledeen. The
blatant involvement of the Soviet
Union and East bloc subordinates in
training thousands of terrorists and
overseeing their activities is ex-
posed in accounts by defectors as
well as the mountain of evidence
uncovered in PLO camps in Beirut
in 1982. The issue is not in doubt.
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02
The question concerns whether and
how the West will deal with this fact
of life. Surely it is central to the
credibility of any doctrine founded
upon "realism, strength and dia-
logue." As surely as we are cowed
into ignoring aggression out of the
false notion that to criticize the So-
viet Union will risk the possibility of
reduced tensions, the Soviets (and
surrogate terrorists throughout the
world) will have achieved their pur-
pose. The subject of "Terrorism and
the Media" is treated well, in par-
ticular by the contribution of John
O'Sullivan, deputy editor of T e
Times of London. In his chapter,
called "Deny Them Publicity"
O'Sullivan explains the three objec-
tives of terrorists with regard to
media: To sow fear (and thereby
evoke pressure for concessions)
through circulation of the credible
threat of future violence; to seduce
viewers/readers into sympathy to
their cause; and to gain legitimacy
(by appearing as politicians and not
just criminals) through the standing
established by interviews, published
communiques and so forth. Lord
Chalfont, a British elder statesman,
accuses some journalists of being
unable to distinguish between "an
attack by a violent minority on the
institutions of a democratic majority
and the right of that state to defend
itself." He states that journalists
"must decide whether a news item
or even a scoop is more important
than defeating a menace to the fab-
ric of free society." By way of pre-
scription the contributors from the
media urge such self-policing mea-
sures as refusal to broadcast inter-
views uncritically, objective com-
ment on the violent backgrounds of
terrorists being portrayed and sim-
ple boycotts of certain stories.
In the closing section, Ambassa-
dor Netanyahu proposes a number
of tactics for countering terrorism.
Reduced to their essentials, they
are: Refuse to negotiate with ter-
rorists and make clear that there
will be costs associated with terror-
ism. The costs would include polit-
ical measures (severing relations
with terrorist states and closing
their embassies), economic sanc-
tions (through trade boycotts and
embargoes as well as terminating
air service by commercial air car-
riers) but also violent actions at ap-
propriate times and places.
Netanyahu's confidence that ter-
rorism can be defeated is to be ad-
mired and perhaps expected of a
citizen of such a young country as
Israel. It is also to be expected of
the United States. It remains to be
seen whether Europe can admit the
clear threat to our civilization posed
by terrorism and muster the cour-
age to stand against it. To date the
European response has been char-
acterized by greed and fear.
The steps required to succeed
are not Dove They include ve
measures-self-protection (better
genre and sharing of it, better plan-
ning to use intelligence in coordi-
nation
with law enforcement offi-
cials.
etc. But it also requires the
use of the kind of active measures
proposed by etanu, m-66-ft
conviolence ex-ecut-ed in a
compatible with our concept
of civilized self-defense. We can
improve our capabilities in this last
category if we establisha truly clan-
destine force of specialists in
counter-terrorism. and esta
a pattern of cooperation-again
clandestinely-with counterpart
forces in other countries.
Any passive and active counter-
terrorism strategy will by necessity
involve the periodic use of force.
Thus, it must be founded upon a
solid base of popular support. The
first step in building a viable policy
for defeating terrorism is education
of the American people. Americans
have a short tolerance for violence
unless they understand why it is
necessary and that its use will, over
time, be vindicated. This book is a
seminal contribution to that educa-
tion effort. Its thesis is best sum-
marized in its closing passage: "The
terrorist challenge must be an-
swered. The choice is between a
free society based on law and com-
passion and a rampant barbarism in
the service of brute force and tyr-
anny. Confusion and vacillation fa-
cilitated the rise of terrorism. Clar-
ity and courage will ensure its de-
feat." ^
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