The Terror Network
Evans, Ernest
Terrorism-demagogy & denial THE TERROR NETWORK THE SECRET WAR OF INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM Claire Sterling Holt, Rinehart & Winston, $13.95,352 pp. Ernest Evans THE TERROR NETWORK is an...
...and in a debate over a given issue a bad policy will usually triumph over no policy...
...The reaction of American liberals and leftists to Sterling's book has been, for the most part, to deny that terrorism is a problem...
...assistance to allied governments that are struggling against terrorists, American liberals and leftists must learn to make distinctions between different types of governments...
...The chapters of the book provide an analysis of several of the leading terrorists of the 1970s...
...specifically, the intelligence agencies must be allowed greater freedom to combat political extremists and terrorists and the Congress should vigorously investigate subversive movements...
...Hence American liberals and leftists should be quite willing to support American aid to West Germany in its struggle against terrorism, but should refuse to support such aid to Argentina.h aid to Argentina...
...And just as the refusal by American liberals and leftists to confront the violent crime issue has left the field to the conservatives, so too the refusal by liberals and leftists to face up to the reality that terrorism is a very serious problem has left the conservatives in charge of the agenda of discussion on this issue...
...Specifically, the key question that must be asked is not whether these governments are committing atrocities in the course of their struggle against the terrorists (such atrocities are inevitable in such a struggle), but rather whether these atrocities are a side effect of the struggle or an integral part of it...
...All too often American liberals and leftists have opposed any steps to deal with terrorism on the grounds that such steps infringe on civil liberties...
...2. The United States must strengthen its own internal security preparations so as to be able to deal with the problem of terrorism...
...In reviewing The Terror Network it is essential both to discuss the book itself and to discuss the reaction to the book...
...There is a real danger that the current climate of alarm about terrorism could be exploited to justify M arthy-type measures...
...The reaction of American conservatives to Sterling's book has been to use this book to buttress their arguments in favor of the following two policies with respect to terrorism: 1. The United States should stop criticizing human rights violations by its allies...
...For Sterling this is an error of omission - she acknowledges the importance of local causes and problems, but does not provide much discussion of these causes and problems...
...In contrast, in Argentina in the years since the 1976 coup the security forces have made torture and assassination the key tools in combating the terrorist movements of that country...
...as President Kennedy said in 1962: "Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable.'' The downfall of Somoza and the Shah in 1979 is an eloquent reminder of the wisdom contained in Kennedy's remark...
...In the long run, a policy of vigorously defending human rights is quite compatible with combating terrorism...
...and of the assistance that terrorist movements have received and are receiving from Cuba, Libya, the Palestinians, South Yemen, and the Soviet Union...
...3. the issue of terrorism is a bogus issue that is being used by certain right-wing elements as a justification for curtailing civil liberties...
...4. In deciding whether or not to support U.S...
...depending upon one's favorite cause...
...Any such policy must include the following components: 1. A strong defense of civil liberties...
...In other words, the conservatives may have a bad policy to deal with terrorism, but the liberals and leftists have no policy...
...The chief weakness of the book is that Sterling does not put enough emphasis on the local causes and problems that give rise to terrorist movements in various countries...
...Unfortunately, this error of omission on her part has led to an error of commission by many of her supporters: These supporters have claimed that Sterling's book proves that the terrorism of the past decade is almost entirely the work of the Soviet bloc...
...In a word, just as the claims of national security are not absolute, so too the claims of civil liberties are not absolute...
...American liberals and leftists should use the discussion on terrorism occasioned by Sterling's book to put forward their own policy on how to deal with terrorism...
...there must be a reasonable and fair compromise between these two sets of claims...
...however, such excessive violence is not an integral part of the struggle against terrorism in West Germany...
...The best defense against the emergence of serious extremist movements is for governments to be responsive to the legitimate grievances of their citizens...
...Again, it must be emphasized that this is not a claim that Sterling herself has made...
...This denial by American liberals and leftists that terrorism is a problem is similar to the denial by the majority of these individuals that violent crime is a problem...
...As is the case with the problem of terrorism, liberals and leftists attempt to deny that violent crime is a problem by claiming that the extent of violent crime has been overstated, that other issues are much more important than violent crime, and that the issue of violent crime is being used by racists to stir up a backlash against civil rights...
...second, she has provided a good discussion of the dangers that terrorism poses to the survival of democratic systems of government...
...For example, in the struggle against their domestic terrorists the security forces of West Germany have on occasion used excessive violence...
...of several of the major terrorist campaigns of the 1970s...
...2. Terrorism may be a problem of some magnitude, but the real problems are world hunger, unemployment, the environment, the nuclear arms race, etc...
...Ernest Evans THE TERROR NETWORK is an analysis of international terrorism in the decade of the 1970s...
...The author, Claire Sterling, is a foreign correspondent who has lived in Rome for the past thirty years...
...3. The United States should continue to protest human rights violations in both Communist and non-Communist states...
...Looking first at the book itself, there can be no doubt but that Sterling has made two valuable contributions to the understanding of contemporary terrorism: First, she has documented the extensive assistance given by the Soviet Union and its allies to the terrorist movements of the world...
...This denial takes one or all of the following three forms: 1. Terrorism is not a serious problem because only a very small number of people have been victimized by terrorists...
...the human rights violations of these allies are the inevitable side-effect of the struggles that these allies are engaged in against Soviet-supported terrorist movements...
...2. At the same time that civil liberties must be protected, American liberals and leftists must recognize that the claims of national security are legitimate too...
Vol. 108 • September 1981 • No. 17
