Seven years and a month ago, 168 men, women and children were killed in the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. Eight months and a day ago, more than 3,000 people were killed at the World Trade Center, at the Pentagon and in a Somerset County field.
There has been a degree of accountability — of sorts — for both events.
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Those who executed the Sept. 11 attacks — 15 Saudi Arabians, a Yemeni, an Egyptian and a Palestinian — committed suicide as a part of their crime. However, the FBI continues to seek their accomplices. Some soon will stand trial.
What separates the two events, besides 6 1/2 years and the number killed, is the designation of McVeigh's actions as domestic terrorism — occurring against the government or people of one's own country — as opposed to international terrorism, a term that needs no definition after 9-11. But let's not get hung up on the word "domestic," which seems to soften the word terrorism in a way it shouldn't be. It's a misnomer anyway because McVeigh had help from outside the country.
THE LINK
Both terrorist attacks, although separated by time and magnitude, are linked by Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, currently in a federal penitentiary in Colorado. He is probably a Pakistani and likely associated with Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida, with certain ties to Iraq. Yousef, a professional terrorist, is generally acknowledged as the "executive officer" of the first attack on the World Trade Center in 1993.
He left after the explosion, went to Iraq and on to Thailand where he supervised more bombings, then made his way to the Philippines where he planned aircraft hijackings. At that time he was reported as meeting with Terry Nichols who would have made the contact with McVeigh.
The web strands form an interesting pattern, sometimes overlapping. Nichols, McVeigh's accomplice, was married to Marise Torres, a Filipino woman who had returned to the Philippines. While there, it is said, she was in contact with the Abu Sayyaf, a group of terrorists known to be a part of the al-Qaida network.
Prior to the Murrah Building bombing, McVeigh made a number of telephone calls to an address where Mrs. Nichols was living. No one seems to know what the calls were about or even to whom McVeigh spoke. What we do know is that, today, Abu Sayyaf is holding American hostages and fighting against the U.S. military.
And this we know too: Terrorists are not stupid. Many are well-trained professionals. They can be found all over the globe. Along with the "usual suspects" from the entire Mideast, Iran, India, Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, we must be more aware of the Abu Sayyaf gang in the Philippines, the FARC guerrillas in Colombia, terror teams in the Yemen and Pakistan and the movement of suicide bombers from the Palestinian territories. To these groups, all of whom have links to bin Laden, we must add the state intelligence services of Iraq along with trainers and technical specialists from Ireland and Spain.
These terrorists (not being stupid) know that fear and horror are effective weapons. How long will it be before these creatures strike hard at us again?
Ten days ago we had a serious wake-up call. Small devices with anti-government messages attached began exploding in mailboxes in Iowa, Illinois and Nebraska.
This kind of domestic attack, by Americans on fellow Americans, has all the markings of a weird group known as The Covenant, The Sword and the Arm of the Lord, or the "CSA," based in the Elohim City compound in eastern Oklahoma.
And the web patterns suddenly become more intricate. For a few years, the CSA's chief of security was a German, Andreas Strassmeir, also known as "German Andy." German Andy was a good friend of Timothy McVeigh. The two would frolic at drinks and drugs "pasture parties" in Kansas and Arkansas.
Strassmier probably introduced McVeigh to some of his friends, possibly setting up McVeigh's Mideastern connection. How many "German Andys" could be in the Midwest now, making contact with some of our home-grown craziesâ¢
Picture one of them introducing American dissidents to Colombian drug dealers who, for a fee, would smuggle in some explosives. It's not so farfetched: They smuggle dope by the ton every week.
Nearly every day, the news is filled with items about President George Bush's war against terrorism, often matched with information from Tom Ridge. relating to Homeland Security's work. Sadly, too little attention is paid to security. At a number of airports, vigilance has been relaxed and the number of air marshals flying on the most vulnerable routes has decreased.
Recently, the U.S. Coast Guard — a prime line of defense having beefed up security at our ports and harbors within hours of the Sept. 11attacks — has begun to cut back its sea marshal forces because it is running out of money.
In order to defend our nation's ports and nuclear plants, the Coast Guard is seeking a budget increase of $978 million. Unfortunately, that sum strikes terror into the hearts of members of Congress. We wonder whether they will feel as much fear at their impeachment after another disaster.
As we wait for the remonstration that surely must come to protest the delay in security funding, the silence is deafening — except for the echoes of a complacency that is too comfortable to take off: "Why worry about something you can't change⢠It won't happen again! The terrorists know better than to come here! It's a way to get tax money from us!"
It may feel snug and cozy to return to "normal," but it exposes our vulnerability. Is it possible that we took to heart too much the command to carry on with business as usual, lest the terrorists win?
Dateline D.C. is written by a Washington-based British journalist and political observer.
