Failure In Four Parts

Hamas Kills 4
Israeli Soldiers

Counter-terrorism expert lists weaknesses

HARRY KIRSBAUM
Staff Writer

teven Pomerantz begs to dif-
fer with those who consider
Sept. 11 a wake-up call.
- "We had lots of them
before Sept. 11," said Pomerantz, for-
mer FBI assistant director and chief of
counter-terrorism, who spoke to 75
_p.,:vpic at the Max M. Fisher
Federation Building in Bloomfield
Township on Jan 8.
He spoke of the failure of the intelli-
gence community, porous borders, the
lack of follow-up in physical security
and the lack of action against states
that support terrorism — all four of
which led to the Sept. 11 terrorist
attacks in America.
"Many times in the past, 9Lurjpfrit -
venting terrorism, more times than the
American public would know," said
Pomerantz, who operates a consulting
firm in Virginia, specializing in securi-
ty and criminal justice matters. "But
in this particular instance, our intelli-
gence apparatus failed us."
He said the system. should have been
collecting intelligence on these organi-
zations and individuals in this country
for years, not just playing catch-up.
Partly to blame is what a friend of
his referred to as the "counter-counter-
terrorism lobby" Organizations and
individuals in this country who have
set out purposely to diminish the capa-
bility of the United States to effectively
fight international terrorism have been
successful in gaining access to the cor-
ridors of power in this country, he said.
Before Sept. 11, 50 or 60 congressmen
Were signed up to repeal the so-called
"secret evidence" that the government
used to report aliens who were suspected
of being involved in terrorism, he said.
"We were about to lose a very valuable
tool that government had in its limited
arsenal to deal with counter-terrorism."
Another problem is our borders, and
who gets visas, he said.
We knowingly allow people of very
questionable background in their own
countries to get visas," said Pomerantz,
who served seven years in Detroit's
FBI field office, 1969-1976. "Worse
than that, we allow members or sup-
porters of terrorist organizations to

•

Jerusalem/JTA — Four Israeli soldiers
were killed in a Hamas attack in
Israel. Two Hamas members, wearing
Palestinian police uniforms, cut
through a security fence between the
southern Gaza Strip and Israel early
Wednesday morning and opened fire
with automatic weapons and grenades
on an Israeli military outpost.
In the attack and ensuing gunfight,
a company commander and three
soldiers were killed. Two other Israeli
Soldiers were wounded, one of them
seriously. All the Israeli fatalities were
members of a Bedouin border patrol
unit. The two terrorists, one of
whom belonged to the Palestinian
naval forces, were killed during the
gun battle and an ensuing chase.
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon
convened the Security Cabinet to
discuss a resgowe ti_px,-,--: -_
focusthern Gaza Strip,
fearing an Israeli military reprisal.

Experts Restore
Sarajevo Haggadah

Steven Pomerantz talks counter-terrorism at an appearance in Bloomfield Township.

-

stay even after we know. That's some-
thing that we have to change.
Another failure was in physical securi-
ty, especially any meaningful follow-up.
"I cannot count the number of corn-
missions, boards of inquiry, investiga-
tions that have been conducted in the
subject of airline security" he said. "After
each bombing, after each hijacking, even
after accidents, we have produced hun-
dreds of pages of reports to improve our
security, the vast majority of which have
never been adequately acted upon.
"This is indicative of a symptom of
the way we have dealt with terrorism.
Every time there's a major incident, we
focus on it, there's an interest in it that
lasts for a very short time, then we
move on," he said.
And airlines are only one part of a
range of targets.
"Terrorists are not stupid, he said.
"Setting aside suicide bombers, most
of them want to live to carry out
another incident. They tend to pick
soft targets. We need to conduct a
more structured and orderly analysis
of our society and its vulnerabilities."
The final failure has been a dormant

))

Sarajevo/JTA — Detailers completed
restoration work on the 600-year-old
Sarajevo Haggadah. Jacob Finci, the
president of the Bosnian Jewish
community, said repairs to one of
the world's most famous Jewish
manuscripts were completed a few
days ago.
Work will soon begin to ready a
special room to display it in
Sarajevo's National Museum.

problem in the United States for decades
— state sponsorship of terrorism.
A list prepared by the State
Department of countries that sponsor ter-
rorism — Iran, Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan,
North Korea and Cuba — has been vir-
tually unchanged in decades, he said.
"We have consistently failed to
address this. Now we say we're going
to correct this, dealing today with Al
Qaida and Afghanistan.
"From a law enforcement perspec-
tive, it is impossible to successfully
Tel Aviv/JTA — An Israeli legislator
pursue international terrorists when
they have sanctuary and the protection refused to apologize for calling the
.U.S. ambassador to Israel a "Jew
of nation states.
boy." Knesset member Zvi Hendel
"We have a long, long difficult road
told Israel's Army Radio on
ahead of us," he said. "If we don't deal
Wednesday
that while his choice of
with states who sponsor terrorism, and
words may have been extreme, he
make them stop their support of ter-
had no intention of apologizing to
rorism — we will never be safe."
U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kurtzer.
The event was co-sponsored by the
Hendel on Tuesday called Kurtzer
American Jewish Committee-
a
"Jew
boy" and accused him of
Metropolitan Detroit Chapter and the
meddling
in internal Israeli affairs.
Anti-Defamation League-Michigan
Hendel
was
responding to Kurtzer's
Region.
recent remark that Israel should
spend money on the disabled, not
For the latest Mideast news, please log
on to www.detroitjewishnews.com
NEWS DIGEST on page 16

Israeli Legislator
Won't Apologize

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2002

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