International Response:  Security Council Debate Stresses International Cooperation

By Jim Wurst
Global Security Newswire

UNITED NATIONS — In a debate on terrorism in the Security Council yesterday, 22 countries, some representing regional organizations, stressed the need for international cooperation and viewed the fight against terrorism in relationship to other transnational crime, such as drug trafficking.

The meeting was a follow-up to a session Jan. 20 at which the council, meeting at the foreign minister level, issued a declaration calling for greater international cooperation against terrorism.  That declaration, adopted unanimously as Resolution 1456, called for intensified national and international efforts to combat terrorism, including the ratification of various treaties on the suppression of terrorism, full implementation of sanctions against al-Qaeda, and cooperation with the council’s Counterterrorism Committee, set up by Resolution 1373 of September 2001 following the terror attacks on the United States (see GSN, Oct. 7, 2002).

British U.N. Ambassador Jeremy Greenstock, the chairman of the CTC, said the committee “is continually gaining in experience and effectiveness.”  He said the committee is concentrating on three areas of concern:  helping states “raise their [national] capacity to defeat terrorism,” promoting “assistance programs to accelerate” this work and “creating a global network of international and regional organizations to maximize the efficiency of each of them in dealing with terrorism and to share experience and best practice.”

The CTC will hold a special meeting March 7 focused on improving international and regional cooperation in combating terrorism, Greenstock said.  Representatives from regional groups as well as regional financial institutions have been invited to attend.

“All the regional organizations are way ahead of where they were 18 months ago” and realize “that it is in their interests to keep terrorism out,” said Greenstock.  “There are economic, social and political disadvantages in allowing terrorism to grow on one’s territory.” 

During the debate, countries raised a number of common themes, such as linking terrorism to drug trafficking, poverty and racism and the importance of wide adherence to the anti-terrorism conventions.  Jeanette Ndhlovu of South Africa said, “No individual government can hope to unilaterally defeat nonstate terrorist actors that operate with sophisticated technologies, communications and resources on a global scale, virtually oblivious to state boundaries.”

Greek Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis, speaking for the European Union, said the union was making progress on common anti-terrorism measures such as suppressing terrorist financing and creating the European Arrest Warrant.  “The combat against this scourge must be carried out in accordance with the rule of law and international law, including human rights law, and, in case of an armed conflict, humanitarian law,” he added.

After the debate, Greenstock said the CTC has become “increasingly conscious that we have to create a global network.  It has to be pervasive and comprehensive and that increasingly is what we are trying to do.”  He added, “I think we’ve now discussed, analyzed and planned enough.  The next period will be for action.”

For more information, see:

U.N. summary of council meeting

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U.S. Response:  Energy Infrastructure Information to Be Kept Secret

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved new rules yesterday to limit access to certain information on the U.S. energy infrastructure, according to Reuters (see GSN, March 19, 2002). 

The new rule blocks public access to information on power plants, oil and natural gas pipelines and electrical grid-flow diagrams, the commission said.  Pipeline-inspection reports and power plant emergency response plans will also be kept secret, Reuters reported.  The commission is the first U.S. agency to develop formal rules on handling such information.

“I’m just sorry that we need a rule like this,” FERC Chairman Pat Wood said.  “I do think that it’s very clear that information has become a weapon in our society, and one of the more vulnerable places for that is the very visible energy infrastructure,” Wood added (Tom Doggett, Reuters/Philadelphia Inquirer, Feb. 21).

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Russian Response:  Moscow Increasing Security at Power Plants

Russia is increasing security at nuclear power plants throughout the country, with an additional focus on the Rostovskaya and Novoronezhskaya plants located near Chechnya, the head of Russia’s nuclear safety agency said yesterday (see GSN, Oct. 30, 2002).

“Now and then (Chechen warlord Shamil) Basayev and others declare that attacks on nuclear facilities are inevitable,” said Yury Vishnevsky, head of Gosatomnadzor, overseer of Russia’s nuclear power industry.  “Information from the power agencies indicates that there have been attempted attacks,” he added.

Since the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, Gosatomnadzor has screened nuclear plant employees more carefully, Vishnevsky said.  Beginning in 2002, each plant employee that operates equipment must first pass a set of tests and receive a license from the agency, according to Russia’s St. Petersburg Times.  The agency also conducted 11,449 inspections last year, which found 12,294 violations, Vishnevsky said, adding that the total was less than those found in 2001 (St. Petersburg Times, Feb. 21).

Vishnevsky also said yesterday that Russia needed to reform its nuclear material stockpile accounting and safeguards systems (see GSN, Feb. 12).

“The current accounting system needs serious improvement,” Vishnevsky said.  “In many companies the system is the same as how it was in our grandparents’ time, when a woman sits with a book and writes down how much she gave to whom,” he added.

Russia’s spent-fuel reprocessing plant, located at the Mayak nuclear facility, could reobtain its operating license by the end of next month, Vishnevsky said (see GSN, Jan. 14).  The plant has been closed because of concerns that radioactive wastes were contaminating area water supplies.

“We have a few more questions, and if they answer them, we will give a license by the end of March,” Vishnevsky said (Reuters/Environmental News Network, Feb. 21).

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U.S. Response:  Ridge Announces New Public Information Campaign

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge yesterday announced a new public relations campaign to provide information to U.S. residents on the best ways to prepare for a possible terrorist attack.

The department’s $1.2 million effort includes a new Web site, www.ready.gov; a toll-free information line, 1-800 BE READY; public service announcements broadcast on radio and television stations; roadside billboards; and a brochure to be distributed in the mail, according to the New York Times.

Homeland Security also has recommended that each U.S. family prepare an emergency supply kit with supplies of food and water, flashlights, battery-powered radios and warm clothing; as well as a family emergency plan so family members know how to contact each other in the event of an attack, the Times reported. 

“We can be afraid, or we can be ready,” Ridge said before a crowd of police officers, firefighters and service volunteers in Cincinnati, Ohio.  “Today, America’s families declare, we will not be afraid and we will be ready.” he added.

To prepare the campaign, U.S. officials used focus groups that found people preferred simple messages.

“People said they wanted a straightforward, just-the-facts approach,” said Peggy Conlon, president and chief executive of the Advertising Council, which helped develop the campaign.  “People wanted information boiled down to real actionable steps that families can take,” she added.

Senator Joseph Lieberman (D-Conn.), who drafted much of the legislation creating the Homeland Security Department, offered tentative praise for the new information campaign.

“I think the public will find a coordinated information campaign far more useful than spot press conferences,” Lieberman said.  “In fact, I encourage Secretary Ridge to go on network television and talk us through the realities and possibilities of the current Code Orange threat,” he added (Lynette Clemetson, New York Times, Feb. 20).

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