October 25, 2001
An Accelerated Agenda
For the Terrorism Threat
By ALBERT R. HUNT
When it comes to prescience about the threat facing America, Sam Nunn is the gold standard.
Five years ago the former Democratic senator from Georgia was co-author of the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici measure, which established our first defenses against bioterrorism. Also with Sen. Richard Lugar (R., Ind.), he authored initiatives to deal with the dangerous nuclear stockpiles in the former Soviet Union and to pay the multitudes of former Soviet bioweaponeers to do peaceful research.
After the 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo, Mr. Nunn warned: "It's just a matter of time before someone attempts that sort of thing here." Six days before Sept. 11, he testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on the Dark Winter exercise in which he was a leading figure. This was a simulation of a smallpox attack in the U.S. that demonstrated that America "was vulnerable to biological terrorism."
In a conversation this week, the former chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee praised the Colin Powell-led diplomatic effort and the Don Rumsfeld-led war effort over the past six weeks. The cautious Mr. Nunn is no alarmist. But he sees a real crisis, a lengthy one, and worries the country is dangerously slow in responding in areas ranging from domestic bioterrorism protection to the psychological war overseas. In particular, he advocates:
- A "Manhattan project" to accelerate research and provide more and better vaccines and antibiotics. The government, belatedly, is moving expeditiously on anthrax and in getting smallpox vaccines. (Smallpox is far more lethal than anthrax; it's contagious and would kill an estimated 30% of those infected.)
But this isn't sufficient, says Mr. Nunn, who is now CEO of the Nuclear Threat Initiative, which spends considerable time on the biological and chemical threat. It's critical, he says, to anticipate and get biotechnical capabilities and antibiotics "which have wider applications. We may face pathogens we're not familiar with now."
The government, he says, should start immediately installing more detection devices in public facilities and sports stadiums. This was part of the Nunn-Lugar-Domenici legislation, but the chief author notes "that legislation needs a lot more oversight and a lot of updating."
Further, there has to be significantly more training for the whole array of medical personnel -- not just doctors and nurses, but druggists and veterinarians too. "Our entire animal-plant food chain is vulnerable," Mr. Nunn says. This must first be done domestically with a sophisticated communications system linked to the Centers for Disease Control, and then the problem must be attacked globally.
- Beef up authority for Homeland Defense Secretary Tom Ridge. After a faltering start the former Pennsylvania governor has been a more forceful presence this week. Mr. Nunn calls him a "good man and a good choice," especially given his close ties to the president.
But drawing on almost three decades in Washington, he's convinced that Mr. Ridge, serving as an adviser to the president with only 16 direct staff members, lacks the statutory authority to overcome bureaucratic battles and lead a concentrated homeland defense and war on terrorism. "Every time he disagrees with an agency he would have to go to the president. This won't work; he needs specific budget authority."
- The White House should seek a major U.S.-Russian terrorism treaty despite the Russians' past duplicities. "Our number one national security priority is to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorist groups," Mr. Nunn declares. "They are much more likely to use them than are states."
The starting point, he says, must be Russia which, far more than Iraq or other rogue states, developed sophisticated strains of biological weapons and also sought to make the vaccines and protection devices for its population. "There are," he worries, "ex-Soviet scientists flying around the world" who possess even more expertise on these diabolical matters than American scientists.
Based on their history, Mr. Nunn acknowledges it's difficult to trust the Russians. But, he adds, "we have to play the cards we're dealt, whatever the risks." Therefore he believes it essential that when Vladimir Putin comes here for a summit next month with President Bush, they sign a sweeping U.S.-Russia antiterrorism pact to share all knowledge.
- Immediately step up public diplomacy in the Muslim world. For all the diplomatic and military successes, America is getting clobbered in the psychological propaganda war in the Islamic streets.
Richard Holbrooke, the former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, who is in the Nunn league as a prophetic seer, chairs a Council on Foreign Relations group consisting of a bipartisan collection of former top government officials. Earlier this week they heard from three Islamic experts. The conclusions, everyone agrees, were stunning. "Incredible as it seems," Mr. Holbrooke notes, "according to the Islamic experts, a mass murderer seems to be winning the fight for the hearts and minds of the Muslim world." If this public diplomacy debacle persists, he ventures, the U.S. will "win the battle but lose the war."
There is an undersecretary of state for public diplomacy position, but the Bush administration, like the Clinton administration, has treated it frivolously; the current occupant is a former advertising executive noted for the Uncle Ben's rice account. She recently talked about using the Internet to get out the American message. That'd reach only the 1% of the Arab world that's wired.
What is needed is a special effort, probably directed out of the White House, like what was done in the war against Serbia but on a Cold War scale. More Islamic experts are indispensable. American broadcasting to the Arab world ought to be greatly intensified as news, not propaganda. But preposterous charges, such as blaming the Israelis for Sept. 11, should never go unanswered. Many of these countries are run by corrupt dictators and we no longer should rely primarily on elite-to-elite contacts.
One small example of what might be hammered home: Hundreds of Muslims were killed in the Sept. 11 terrorism attacks. "Until this psychological war is waged effectively, we will eliminate 10 terrorist cells but do it in a way that creates 20 new ones; that is not progress," Mr. Nunn asserts. "This psychological war is the key to whether our children and grandchildren will be plagued years from now."
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