ID :
18050
Thu, 09/04/2008 - 17:02
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://www.oananews.org//node/18050
The shortlink copeid
COUNTER TERRORISM FAILED DUE TO NATIONAL BARRIERS
BY P.VIJIAN
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Exactly a week before the seventh
anniversary of the September 11 attack in the United States, a top American
security analyst said global counter terrorism efforts were being bogged down by
"national barriers" that have allowed terrorism to flourish
internationally.
"Our operations are limited to the national level while theirs (terrorists)
is international, we need to breakdown these barriers and penetrate terrorist
organisations," Michael A.Sheehan, who served at the White House on the National
Security Council staff for former President George H.W. Bush (1989-1992), said
at a conference here.
Sheehan, currently president of the Lexington Security Group, said more
intelligence sharing among governments was needed to crush groups like Al-Qaeda,
which had bloomed into a global terror outfit, but even that was not forthcoming
as expected.
"There is no intelligence sharing, there is only intelligence trading," he
said, adding that security experts had to build trust and mutual cooperation to
counter cross-border terrorism.
A group of security analysts attending the one-day conference on US-India
Ties in the Asian Context, held in Delhi, also painted a grim outlook on the
present method of combating terrorism.
India itself has become a prime victim of ruthless terror groups. Last
year, the Washington National Counter-terrorism Center revealed that from
January 2004 to March 2007, death toll from terrorist attacks in India was 3,674
-- second only to Iraq -- over the same period.
About 3,000 people were reported killed when Al- Qaeda terrorists attacked
the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001.
Sheehan said counter terrorism work had been further hampered with the rise
of local insurgents, with local political dimension, coupled with global
terrorist groups, which have spread their tentacles across the world.
"If we lose focus on counter-terrorism, for the next 50 years we will not
be able to solve the problem," he added.
NEW DELHI, Sept 4 (Bernama) -- Exactly a week before the seventh
anniversary of the September 11 attack in the United States, a top American
security analyst said global counter terrorism efforts were being bogged down by
"national barriers" that have allowed terrorism to flourish
internationally.
"Our operations are limited to the national level while theirs (terrorists)
is international, we need to breakdown these barriers and penetrate terrorist
organisations," Michael A.Sheehan, who served at the White House on the National
Security Council staff for former President George H.W. Bush (1989-1992), said
at a conference here.
Sheehan, currently president of the Lexington Security Group, said more
intelligence sharing among governments was needed to crush groups like Al-Qaeda,
which had bloomed into a global terror outfit, but even that was not forthcoming
as expected.
"There is no intelligence sharing, there is only intelligence trading," he
said, adding that security experts had to build trust and mutual cooperation to
counter cross-border terrorism.
A group of security analysts attending the one-day conference on US-India
Ties in the Asian Context, held in Delhi, also painted a grim outlook on the
present method of combating terrorism.
India itself has become a prime victim of ruthless terror groups. Last
year, the Washington National Counter-terrorism Center revealed that from
January 2004 to March 2007, death toll from terrorist attacks in India was 3,674
-- second only to Iraq -- over the same period.
About 3,000 people were reported killed when Al- Qaeda terrorists attacked
the World Trade Center in New York City in 2001.
Sheehan said counter terrorism work had been further hampered with the rise
of local insurgents, with local political dimension, coupled with global
terrorist groups, which have spread their tentacles across the world.
"If we lose focus on counter-terrorism, for the next 50 years we will not
be able to solve the problem," he added.
