IAEA:  New Nuclear Security Measures Needed

The head of the International Atomic Energy Agency today presented the group’s Board of Governors a report calling for new measures to enhance nuclear security.  “We need to urgently identify the most vulnerable locations and see they get the necessary security upgrades,” said IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei.

The new measures proposed by ElBaradei’s report include urging countries that possess nuclear weapons to review security to protect them from theft, increasing the number of International Physical Protection Advisory Service missions to help countries protect nuclear materials (see GSN, Nov. 5) and helping nations assess nuclear power plant security and enact new upgrades.

Past IAEA efforts to improve nuclear security had focused mainly on the actions of nations, without the same level of focus on subnational groups (see GSN, Nov. 2), ElBaradei said.

The report lists the costs of proposed security measures at $30 million to $50 million per year, which would initially increase the IAEA’s budget by 10 to 15 percent, according to an IAEA release.  The IAEA’s total budget is currently underfunded by $40 million, ElBaradei said.  Although the IAEA would help deliver assistance, “the necessary global upgrades to meet the full range of possible threats … would have to be carried out by individual states and through bilateral and multilateral assistance,” he said.

“These measures should be regarded as an insurance policy designed to help protect the whole world against an act of nuclear terrorism,” ElBaradei said. “The premiums might seem steep. But they are worth the investment to protect ourselves” (IAEA release, Nov. 30).

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U.S. Response:  House Passes Insurance Bill

The U.S. House of Representatives yesterday approved a bill 227-193 to provide billions of dollars to insurance companies to help pay claims from future terrorist attacks (see GSN, Nov. 8).  Under the bill, insurance companies would pay the first $1 billion in losses from a terrorist attack, and the federal government would pay 90 percent of further claims.  The bill would require insurers and policyholders to repay the money.

Congress would have to reconcile the House bill with competing Senate legislation before implementing the measures, and it remains unclear whether legislators could reach an agreement by the end of the year when most insurance policies expire, according to the Washington Post.

Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) introduced a bill in the Senate yesterday that would provide government payment for 80 percent of claims over $10 million for an individual company or 5 percent of gross premiums written.  Policyholders would have to repay the first $50 billion losses under the McCain plan.  Senator Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.), who has been preparing a different bill, criticized the House legislation.

House Democrats failed to pass a proposal requiring the insurance industry to cover $5 billion in claims for the first year of the legislation and $10 billion in the second year.  The Democrats also opposed restrictions on the ability to sue companies for failing to take proper precautions against terrorism that were included in the bill (Eilperin/Spinner, Washington Post, Nov. 30).

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Afghanistan: Four Groups Accept Ex-King

Four Afghan groups are meeting for a second day today near Bonn to discuss Afghanistan's political future, turning their attention to the details of a new government after agreeing yesterday on broad principles, Reuters reports.  Today's proceedings are to include a plenary session with U.N. officials (Reuters/South China Morning Post, Nov. 28).

Delegates from the Northern Alliance and from former King Zahir Shah's delegation met this morning.  All four groups came together on several points yesterday, agreeing on the former king as a figurehead in their quest for a new administration and resolving to set up an interim administration to be followed by a traditional grand council, a two-year transitional government and, eventually, elections.

Burhanuddin Rabbani, the Northern Alliance-affiliated former Afghan president who has declared himself head of state following the Taliban's defeat in Kabul, the capital, opposes a return to monarchy, but he and representatives of three other groups have accepted a symbolic role for the former king, U.S. Afghanistan envoy James Dobbins said (Tony Czuczka, Associated Press/Yahoo! News, Nov. 28).

The Northern Alliance said it will not seek to use its current de facto position of power to exclude others from a new government.  "It is not our pride to monopolize power," Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni said.  "It will be our pride to work for a broad-based government based on the will of the people of Afghanistan."

Ahmad Fawzi, spokesman for top U.N. Afghanistan envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, said all sides "were unanimous in expressing this desire to work for national reconciliation and to create a political system that guarantees respect for human rights and human values."

Popalzai tribe chief Hamid Karzai, a leader of the Pashtun ethnic group whose members made up the core of Taliban support and that is represented in all four delegations at the talks, endorsed the process yesterday during a phone call from Afghanistan broadcast to the participants in Germany.

"We are one nation, one culture," Karzai said.  "We are united, not divided.  We all believe in Islam, but we believe in an Islam of tolerance. ... This meeting is the path toward salvation" (Peter Finn, Washington Post, Nov. 28).

The Pakistani daily The News, though, yesterday said Pashtuns are being marginalized at the Bonn talks.  The newspaper said the former king is being held up as a "Pashtun who would safeguard his community's interest" even though his delegation includes relatively few Pashto speakers and numerous Afghans who "forgot their mother tongue and adopted Dari, the Afghan variant of Persian, because the latter happened to be the court language" (Rahimullah Yusufzai, The News, Nov. 27).

The Washington Post reports that the United Nations hopes the talks will end this week and provide a framework for governing Afghanistan through spring (Finn, Washington Post).

Meanwhile, traditional local assemblies are meeting around Afghanistan to decide how to run their towns after the Taliban retreat.  The Christian Science Monitor reports that the councils are optimistic and glad to start anew.  At a meeting in the town of Mohamed Agha, former military commander Ajapkhan Massoud said, "These difficulties we are facing now are due only to ourselves" (Scott Peterson, Christian Science Monitor, Nov. 28).

Pakistan Recognizes Northern Alliance

Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf last night announced his country's official recognition of the Northern Alliance.  Pakistan was one of a handful of countries to recognize the Taliban as an official government.  "We recognize the Northern Alliance as well as each of its components," Musharraf said in a televised address.  "Whatever their role in the new power configuration in Kabul will be, there is therefore nothing to fear."

Speaking from Bahrain, Rabbani said a meeting with Musharraf could come soon (Patrice Claude, Le Monde, Nov. 28, UN Wire translation).

U.S. Hopes to Avoid Peacekeeping Role, Newspaper Reports

Citing a senior Bush administration official, the New York Times reports today that the United States is seeking to avoid military obligations in Afghanistan after the Taliban and the al-Qaeda terror network headed by Taliban ally Osama bin Laden are defeated.

Washington will be a "partner" in political and economic reconstruction in Afghanistan but does not intend to participate in an international peacekeeping force, the official told reporters at a State Department briefing.  Another senior official suggested countries such as Germany, Jordan and Bangladesh could participate in a security force, the Times reports (Tyler/Sciolino, New York Times, Nov. 28).

U.S. Hits Leadership Compound, May Continue Strikes During Olympics

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said yesterday that U.S. planes have hit a Taliban "leadership compound" near the movement's southern home base, Kandahar.

"Whoever was there is going to wish they weren't," Rumsfeld said.  Sources added that Taliban Supreme Leader Mohamed Omar was believed to be inside one building that was targeted (CNN.com, Nov. 27).  The Taliban today said Omar is safe (Kathy Gannon, AP/Yahoo! News, Nov. 28).

The United States will propose a traditional truce during the Winter Olympics in February in Salt Lake City, Utah, but the expected resulting U.N. General Assembly resolution will include no reference to Afghanistan, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said today after meeting in Washington with U.S. President George W. Bush (Agence France-Presse/Cyberpresse.ca, Nov. 27, UN Wire translation).

Bodies Reported Removed From Mazar Prison; Prisoners' Fate Eyed

Northern Alliance troops today were seen dragging bodies from a fort near Mazar-e Sharif where an uprising of Taliban prisoners led to a three-day battle that ended yesterday (Burt Herman, AP/Yahoo! News, Nov. 28).  The International Committee of the Red Cross said today that it is in discussions with the Northern Alliance and may remove the bodies from the fortress (Michael Steen, Reuters, Nov. 28).

Human Rights Watch Monday called on the United States and Northern Alliance to treat Taliban prisoners humanely and according to international law (Integrated Regional Information Networks, Nov. 27).  Amnesty International called yesterday for an investigation of the battle near Mazar-e Sharif, which it said should address what led to the violence and whether prisoners were held and processed properly (Reuters/ABCNews.com, Nov. 27).

In related news, BBC Online reports that violent acts of revenge have been committed against Taliban soldiers in the northern city of Kunduz, under Northern Alliance control since Monday.  Northern Alliance commander Abdul Rashid Dostum said prisoners' rights will be respected, but Taliban prisoners have reportedly been beaten and shot in the city's marketplace (BBC Online, Nov. 27).

U.N. Adds Taliban Names to Assets Freeze List

A U.N. Security Council sanctions committee Monday issued a new 11-page list of names of individuals and institutions whose assets member states must freeze under council Resolution 1373 on terrorism.  The list includes 127 names not on previous lists and 152 Taliban officials -- nearly everyone who held a government position under the regime, according to Reuters (Evelyn Leopold, Reuters, Nov. 28).  For the new list, click here.

In related news, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said yesterday that the United States has detained 603 people in the wake of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, including some al-Qaeda members (Bravin/Fields, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 28).

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Afghanistan:  Bonn Talks Open Amid Urgency, Skepticism

U.N.-brokered talks on Afghanistan's political future opened today near Bonn with German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer and U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, via Special Representative for Afghanistan Lakhdar Brahimi, urging delegates from four main Afghan groups to seize the present opportunity to usher in peace and stability in their country.

Brahimi delivered a message from Annan in which the U.N. chief spoke of a "new age" for Afghans, calling on the delegates to avoid the mistakes of the past and prefer compromise to conflict (BBC Online, Nov. 27).

"You who are taking this responsibility must show unprecedented courage and leadership," Brahimi read.  "You must place the interests of your people first above all other concerns; only then will this process, this attempt to break [the] cycle of misery and destitution, conflict and violence, stand a chance of success."

Annan called for the creation of "credible institutions in which all Afghans are represented and which are regarded as legitimate by the Afghan people."  He said neither the United Nations nor the country's neighbors can "impose any particular arrangement on the Afghan people," but that the world body can "assist in this process."  The secretary general added that a government that respects human rights must be in place in order for internationally funded recovery and reconstruction efforts to progress (Wedeman/Bittermann, CNN.com, Nov. 27).

Fischer stressed the historical weight of the moment and promised international support for a new Afghan administration.  "We want the people of Afghanistan to know that they will not be left on their own when the conflict with the al-Qaeda terrorists and the Taliban regime comes to an end," he said (BBC Online).  Calling for a "peaceful political future" that "reflects your society's diversity and traditions and which will be acceptable to all Afghans," he said, "Germany, the EU (European Union) and the international community, led by the United Nations, stand ready to help now and in [the] long term."

The four groups meeting near Bonn are the Northern Alliance, whose political head, former Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani, has set himself up as temporary head of state in the Afghan capital, Kabul; a group of followers of former King Zahir Shah, deposed in 1973; a "Peshawar Group" representing the millions of Afghan refugees in Pakistan; and an Iranian-backed "Cyprus Group" of Afghan exiles (Wedeman/Bittermann, CNN.com).

Reuters reports that diplomats hope the talks will yield a 15-member interim Afghan leadership council and another group of 100 leaders to act as a parliament until elections can be held (Adam Tanner, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Nov. 27).  After leaders met in an opening session around a 36-seat round table, delegations were to break up into smaller groups (Tony Czuczka, Associated Press/London Independent).

Northern Alliance Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni said, "Now is the end of a golden era and the beginning of another golden period -- from resistance to peace" (Tanner, Reuters/Yahoo! News).

Pashtun leader Sayed Ahmad Gailani, the head of the Mahaz-e-Milli-Islami movement and a member of the Peshawar delegation, called the "new international interest in Afghanistan" the only "consolation" for recent violence, adding that Afghans must now be "willing to live in peace with each other in order to have a durable peace" (Wedeman/Bittermann, CNN.com).

Brahimi spokesman Ahmad Fawzi said before the conference began that "all agree that speed is of the essence."  He added that "events happening on the ground now ... underline the urgency of these talks" (Deutsche Presse-Agentur/Ha'aretz, Nov. 27).  The United Nations is "looking at a time frame of three to five days for the Afghan groups to decide on an interim authority," Fawzi said, but has "no illusions that we'll resolve the problems of Afghanistan in three days" (Czuczka, AP/London Independent).  Northern Alliance leader Hussein Anwari agreed, "We expect to have an agreement on a transitional authority within three days. ... In three days we are going back to Kabul to start our work" (Times of India, Nov. 27).

Rabbani emphasized the talks' preliminary nature.  "This meeting is not a summit council," he said before the conference opened.  "It is a summit of representatives.  There are no leaders of parties in Afghanistan. ... The main councils and meetings will take place inside Afghanistan, and senior officials must participate to take the main decisions" (Dawn, Nov. 27).

Expressing skepticism over the possibility of quickly forming a new government for Afghanistan, Northern Alliance Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said the "expectations of the Western alliance are perhaps a little too much."  Abdullah said the Northern Alliance has "no partners in the south," which he called a "fragmented" region, and called on the former king to be more "active" if he wants to play a role in building "bridges between us and the Pashtuns," the ethnic group from which the unseated Taliban drew most of its support (Ahmed Rashid, London Telegraph, Nov. 27).

The Washington Post reports that battlefield developments in Afghanistan and private deals between warlords may doom the conference to irrelevancy.  Northern Alliance leaders have expressed reluctance to make a deal in Germany, the Post says (Susan Glasser, Washington Post, Nov. 27).

Similarly, the Financial Times today reports that bloody battles in Afghanistan could make the talks more difficult.  The financial daily adds that the Northern Alliance itself is deeply divided and warns that Afghan minorities who have experienced war and held power will not easily be led to compromise (Bokhari/Hoyos, Financial Times, Nov. 27).

For a Christian Science Monitor article on Afghans' skepticism about the Bonn talks, click here.  For a USA Today story on the difficulties of coalition rule in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, click here.

Peacekeeping Force Endorsed by Brahimi, Opposed by Iran

Brahimi yesterday endorsed the idea of a multinational peacekeeping force for Afghanistan and stressed the urgency of its deployment, Le Monde  reports today.  After proposing several possibilities to the U.N. Security Council earlier this month, Brahimi now appears to be excluding the possibility of an all-Afghan force and that of a typical U.N. "blue-helmet" force -- impossible because there is no peace to keep in the country, Fawzi said -- in favor of a limited multinational force with a Security Council mandate, the Paris daily reports.

"The Afghans will be able to choose the composition of such a force:  Muslim only or mixed, that is, including Muslims and non-Muslims," Fawzi said (Erich Inciyan, Le Monde, Nov. 27, UN Wire translation).

Iran is opposed to a U.N.-mandated multinational force in Afghanistan, which it says would violate Afghanistan's territorial integrity, an Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman said today (Agence France-Presse/TF1.fr, Nov. 27, UN Wire translation).

U.N. Cannot Take Taliban Prisoners

U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard yesterday said the world body has only "a handful of humanitarian workers in Afghanistan" and cannot take responsibility for Taliban prisoners captured by the Northern Alliance.  The Northern Alliance had indicated that thousands of Taliban members would be screened and handed over to the United Nations (AFP/Cyberpresse.ca, Nov. 26, UN Wire translation).

Saudi Arabia has expressed concern about the fate of prisoners taken by the Northern Alliance, who it fears could face massacres.  The country called on Pakistan to rescue and repatriate non-Afghan Taliban fighters, something Pakistan has reportedly been doing already (Michael Jansen, Irish Times, Nov. 27).

After three days of fighting at a prison near Mazar-e Sharif, the Northern Alliance said today that it has put down the uprising with the help of U.S. air power.  The uprising reportedly flared up again after reports yesterday that it had been controlled (Olga Petrova, Reuters/Yahoo! News, Nov. 27).

France, Belgium Arrest Masood Murder Suspects

French and Belgian police have arrested 14 people suspected of involvement in the Sept. 9 killing of late Northern Alliance commander Ahmad Shah Masood.  Belgian police said at least one of the suspects has close links to global terrorism sponsor and Taliban ally Osama bin Laden, whom a source close to the investigation accused of organizing the Masood assassination (Bilefsky/Carreyrou, Wall Street Journal, Nov. 27).

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Threat Assessment:  Oil and Natural Gas Industry on Alert

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft yesterday warned oil and natural gas companies about a potential terrorist attack.

The United States received information more than a week ago about plans to target gas facilities, Ashcroft said.  Although the information was of “undetermined reliability,” it was the kind of information “which we take seriously,” Ashcroft said (Gwen Robinson, Financial Times, Nov. 27). Terrorists would attack against oil and natural gas facilities if either Osama bin Laden or Taliban leader Mullah Omar were captured or killed, the FBI said.

The American Petroleum Institute forwarded the warning to officials in Canada, who were taking it seriously, the Washington Times reported.  “When something like this comes out, you can’t dismiss it out of hand,” said B.C. Gas Utility Ltd. spokesman Dean Pelkey.  “Since [Sept. 11], we have been more vigilant in watching and monitoring our pipelines.”

Oil and natural gas facilities have come under threat by terrorists before, according to the Times.  In October, Algerian militants connected to bin Laden threatened to declare war on British and other “vital Western interests” by destroying oil and gas pipelines that run from North Africa to Europe (Jerry Seper, Washington Times, Nov. 27). 

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Threat Assessment: States Help Terrorists Seek WMD

By Greg Seigle

Global Security Newswire

Now that senior U.S. officials have publicly fingered six countries for aggressively pursuing biological weapons (see GSN, Nov. 20), Bush administration officials recently said it is no coincidence that the accused also top the U.S. State Department’s list of nations that harbor terrorists.

Regimes in Iraq, Iran, North Korea, Libya, Syria and Sudan are not only pursuing deadly chemical and biological weapons, they are simultaneously backing terrorist groups with track records of committing vicious mass-casualty attacks among innocent civilians, according to U.S. officials and documents.

“These are state sponsors of terrorism and they are also pursuing, or may already possess, chemical and biological weapons,” said Sean McCormack, spokesman for the National Security Council. “We’ll do everything we can to prevent terrorist groups from acquiring or developing chemical or biological weapons.”

Although McCormack and others in the Bush administration have stopped short of connecting terrorist groups to the chemical and biological weapons programs of the six countries, national security analysts said the process began last week in Geneva when Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton delivered an unusually blunt speech during a conference on the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention that accused the six nations of seeking to acquire biological arsenals.

“The states who are fully engaged in weapons of mass destruction are the same countries that, almost without exception, are facilitating, harboring and supporting terrorists,” Jack Spencer, a defense analyst with the Heritage Foundation, said Tuesday. “That’s an important link to make.”

“There is the possibility that those states have transferred, may have transferred or will transfer [chemical or biological] technologies to terrorist groups or other second-hand outfits who act on their behalf,” added Cheryl Loeb, a research associate with the Monterey Institute for International Studies.

While a vocal minority of U.S. analysts believe that rulers in Baghdad, Tehran, Pyongyang or elsewhere would be foolish to help terrorists launch large-scale strikes against the United States—after all, each regime seeks to survive, not to be hunted like Osama bin Laden and former Taliban rulers in Afghanistan—most agree it is plausible that these nations or wayward elements within them may share their lethal arsenals with terrorist groups that offer large sums of cash, including desperate remnants of al-Qaeda.

“The possibility is very real and very frightening that some of these countries may provide global terrorist groups chemical or biological weapons—or at least the know-how,” said Dan Gore, a senior fellow at the Lexington Institute. “That allows these guys to leap-frog the [acquisition and development] process.”

While the administration officials appear to be taking a cautious, deliberate approach to the war on terrorism by accusing suspects one at a time, they are preparing to tackle aggressively a variety of terrorist groups capable of launching chemical or biological attacks in the United States or elsewhere, analysts said. In order to dismantle these terrorist networks, analysts added, the United States would likely be forced to confront the nations that host them.

Highlighting Iraq and Libya

“There is no question [Iraq] sponsors terrorism,” said Charles Duelfer, who from 1993 until last year was a top leader of the U.N. special commissions that probed Iraq for evidence of nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.

“There is no doubt that they are pursuing weapons of mass destruction,” Duelfer continued. “Are you then going to trust [Iraqi President] Saddam Hussein, with his track record, and believe that he wouldn’t share his weapons of mass destruction with terrorists who would use them? Weapons that, quite conceivably, could never be traced back to Baghdad?”

Some analysts, however, believe that Iraq and other enemies of Washington are more interested in their own long-term survival than in helping terrorists lash out at U.S. interests.

“They’re dangerous but they’re not stupid,” said Harlan Ullman, a senior associate with the Center for Strategic and International Studies who teaches at the National Defense University.

Arnaud de Borchgrave, director of the CSIS Global Organized Crime Project, said a high-level CIA official recently told him that Iraq has been supplying useful information on al-Qaeda since the attacks in New York City and Washington.

“Of course there is a link” between major terrorist groups and various countries, said de Borchgrave, a 55-year veteran journalist who has interviewed both Saddam Hussein and Libyan President Muammar Qadhafi a few times each. But the states and terrorist groups simply swap favors by exchanging information and safe houses, not by working in concert together, he added.

The Bush administration would be naive if it thinks it could “kill two birds with one stone” by attacking countries that harbor terrorists under the guise that the host countries could supply the terrorists weapons of mass destruction, he said.

De Borchgrave, however, conceded that there is a history of states hiring terrorists to carry out attacks on their enemies—in many cases the target being the United States—a tactic that dates back to the early stages of the Cold War. Often those who carry out the attacks do not have direct contact with those who ordered them, he noted.

For example, he said, the attack on Pan Am Flight 103, which exploded over Lockerbie, Scotland on Dec. 21, 1988, was in retaliation for the downing of Iran Air Flight 655 by the USS Vincennes earlier that year. The Pentagon said the shooting of the Airbus 300 was accidental and paid reparations to the families of the deceased.

According to de Borchgrave, who obtained his information from Qadhafi during a 1995 interview in Tripoli, the Iranians hired Syrian intelligence agents who in turn subcontracted the Libyans to blow up a plane full of Americans. The Libyans suspected the Iranians were behind the contract but never asked many questions, he said.

“You use second or third parties precisely to offer some insulation,” explained Gore, a former Pentagon adviser. “For Iraq [such] terrorist missions are no different than the United States flying a B-2 [bomber] raid from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri.”

Besides using chemical or biological weapons hand-delivered by hired hit men, countries such as North Korea, Iraq, Iran and others do not have the resources or many other means of carrying out attacks against the United States, said Spencer, the Heritage Foundation analyst.

“They don’t have the aircraft carriers [or] the air forces to lash out at the United States, so they turn to terrorists to strike,” Spencer said. “It could [occur] today, a week, a month, a year.”

“If a state chooses to use terrorists to strike at the United States, those terrorists will certainly have access to all the capabilities that the states possess,” Spencer continued. “That includes chemical and biological weapons, possibly even nukes.”

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Threat Assessment:  Al-Qaeda is But One Target

By Greg Seigle

Global Security Newswire

Although the White House has openly declared al-Qaeda public enemy No. 1, U.S. intelligence agencies are quietly investigating dozens of other terrorist groups that could be just as deadly, officials recently told GSN.

The CIA, the Pentagon and other intelligence and investigative organizations have been tight-lipped about which terrorist groups may be targeted, but officials quietly acknowledged they are looking into dozens of groups capable of conducting mass-casualty attacks.

“Sometimes we work with friendly foreign governments to target groups of mutual interest,” a CIA official said today. “We look to disrupt their activities any way we can.”

In addition to Islamic groups, U.S. officials are scrutinizing terrorist outfits based in Cuba, Colombia and other typically Christian nations, the official said. Groups in the Philippines are also under scrutiny, the official added.

Now that members of the al-Qaeda network appear to be on the lam, U.S. analysts have speculated that the Bush administration may next go after a non-Islamic terrorist group in an effort to demonstrate that the war on terrorism is not a crusade against Islam. However, because extremist Islamic groups have often issued threats against the United States—and such groups have a track record of actually attacking U.S. interests—probes of these groups remain a top priority, officials said.

In an updated report released Oct. 5, the U.S. State Department listed 28 foreign terrorist groups considered to be the biggest threats. More than half are Islamic groups. The others range from the Japanese Red Army to Peru’s Shining Path.

U.S. officials have declined to specify which groups are undergoing the most intense investigations, but terrorism experts say three groups with links to Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda network top the list of priorities. These groups include the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, the Gama’at al-Islamiyya and the Harakat ul-Mujahidin.

*         The Egyptian Islamic Jihad has threatened to retaliate against the United States for jailing its blind spiritual leader, Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman. Abdel-Rahman was convicted in 1995 of plotting attacks across the United States that never materialized and is serving a life sentence.

*         Gama’at al-Islamiyya has launched vicious attacks against western tourists in Egypt since 1992, most notably the 1997 assault at Luxor that killed 58 foreigners. The group signed bin Laden’s 1998 proclamation to kill Americans and attempted to assassinate Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in 1995.

*         Harakat ul-Mujahidin operated terrorist training bases in eastern Afghanistan and suffered casualties in 1998 when the U.S. Navy fired 68 Tomahawk missiles at the camps in retaliation for the bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Its leader, Fazlur Rehman Khalil, has vowed revenge on U.S. targets.

Other radical Islamic terrorist groups that could attack U.S. interests include the following:

*         Hamas—A hardcore Gaza Strip-based organization that has initiated many assassinations of Israeli political and military leaders and conducted numerous large-scale suicide bombings against Israeli civilians. Hamas is believed to receive support from Iran.

*         Hezbollah—An Iranian-backed militia from the Bakkar Valley of Lebanon that conducted the 1983 and 1984 suicide bombings of the U.S. Marine barracks and the U.S. embassy annex in Beirut. Hezbollah is believed to be backed by Syria.

*         Saudi Hizbollah—Composed mostly of Shi’ites and Saudis sympathetic to the Iranian revolution of Islam and believed to be responsible for the 1996 bombings at Khobar Towers, which killed 19 Americans and wounded 372. Its funding comes from wealthy Saudis sympathetic to its views.

*         Mujahedine Khalq Organization—An Iraqi-based, anti-Iranian army of several thousand soldiers that launched attacks in 1992 on Iranian embassies in 13 countries, exemplifying the group’s ability to mount large-scale assaults abroad.

*         Palestinian Islamic Jihad—Has threatened to retaliate against the United States and Israel, blaming the countries for the assassination of its leader, Fathi Shaqaqi, in Malta in October 1995. It is believed to receive backing from Iran.

*         Palestine Liberation Front—Lead by Abu Abbass, the Front has mostly attacked Israeli targets, although in 1985 one of its members executed Leon Klinghoffer, a passenger aboard the hijacked cruise ship Achille Lauro. The Front is believed to have been holed up in Iraq since 1998.

*         Abu Nidal Organization—Abu Nidal’s group of hardened terrorists spent much of the 1970s and 1980s hijacking planes and conducting other terrorist operations in the name of Palestine. Although the group has not attacked Western targets for over a decade, experts have said it remains lethal, training in Iraq.

Non-Islamic terrorist groups under close scrutiny are the following:

*         United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia—Created in 1997, the UAC is the most recent group to be added to the list by Secretary of State Colin Powell. With an army of 8,000 supported by drug trafficking, the group has been accused of 804 assassinations, 203 kidnappings and 75 massacres that killed 507 people—all within the first 10 months of 2000. While the paramilitaries have not taken action against U.S. interests, officials believe the chances are higher now that the United States is pumping more money into Colombia’s military.

*         National Liberation Army—This Colombia-based Marxist group was formed in 1965 by urban intellectuals inspired by Fidel Castro and Che Guevara, and continues to receive substantial support from Cuba. After a series of kidnappings in 1999, each involving at least one American, ELN has begun dialogue with Bogota officials, although the two sides cannot agree on where to meet for peace talks. It is believed to have up to 6,000 combatants ready to strike U.S. or other targets.

*         Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—Established in 1964 as the military wing of the communist party, it has a long and bloody history of kidnappings, hijackings, murders and guerilla and conventional combat campaigns against the Colombian government. In 1999 the FARC executed three U.S. civilians.

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Food Safety:  United States Considers Restructuring Agencies

Federal officials are examining proposals to tighten security on the U.S. food supply, the Los Angeles Times reported Saturday.

Bush administration officials are considering consolidating federal food inspection responsibilities under one agency. The Times reported that about a dozen agencies currently inspect food, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Agriculture Department, the Customs Service and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“For security enhancement, we ought to at least take a look at whether or not we need to merge functions, merge agencies,” said Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge.

Ridge’s comments echoed other signals of the administration’s growing interest in consolidation, the Times reported. U.S. President George W. Bush voiced support in his election campaign, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson has repeatedly voiced concern about the food supply.

U.S. lawmakers also are considering proposals to enhance security for the nation’s food supply. Provisions in a new Senate bioterrorism bill would provide an additional $500 million for food safety, tighter requirements for food processors and greater authority for federal food regulators (Edmund Sanders, Los Angeles Times, Nov. 24).

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