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Fighting Terrorism: How Democracies Can Defeat the International Terrorist Network

NCJ Number
191435
Author(s)
Benjamin Netanyahu
Date Published
2001
Length
177 pages
Annotation
This book states the principles and basic conceptions of fighting terrorism.
Abstract
Because of the events of September 11, 2001, international terrorism can no longer be considered a tactical threat with no real global implications. There is no international terrorism without the support of sovereign states. Terrorists train, arm, and indoctrinate their killers from within the safe havens on territory provided by terrorist states. The international terrorist network includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Taliban Afghanistan, Yasir Arafat’s Palestinian Authority, and Sudan. These terrorist states and terror organizations together form a terror network whose constituent parts support one another operationally as well as politically. The growth of this terror network is the result of the Khomeini revolution, the Afghan war, Saddam Hussein’s escape at the end of the Gulf War, and the safe haven given by Yasir Arafat’s terror enclave to militant Islamic terrorist groups. The main motivation driving the terror network is an anti-Western hostility that seeks to install an extremist form of Islam as the dominant power in the world. The greatest danger facing the future is the possession of chemical and biological capabilities by some states of the terror network. Once this network acquires nuclear weapons, the power of the West will be compromised. The first way to fight terrorism is to impose sanctions on suppliers of nuclear technology to terrorist states. The second way is to impose diplomatic, economic, and military sanctions on the terrorist states themselves. Third, terrorist enclaves must be neutralized. Then financial assets in the West of terrorist regimes and organizations must be frozen. Intelligence must be shared with all foreign services. Legislation must be revised to enable greater surveillance and action against organizations inciting to violence, subject to period renewal. Terrorists should be actively pursued. Jailed terrorist should not be released. Special forces should be trained to fight terrorism. The public must be educated to fight the impulse to give in to terrorist demands and to survive attacks with the least amount of damage. Notes