YONAH ALEXANDER
YONAH ALEXANDER GUEST COLUMNIST Iraq has the capability to launch bombings, assassinations and sabotage. If a military confrontation erupts, Saddam might raise the terrorist ante to an...
...Such a high priority, coherent and bipartisan U.S...
...It gives terrorists monetary and military aid, maintains their training camps, supplies them with passports and forged papers and provides sanctuaries for their members...
...prager continued from page 14 than supporters of Israel...
...Currently, Iraq is a major center of Arab and non-Arab terrorist groups...
...It maintains an organization system throughout the Ba'ath Party to control its indigenous groups—for instance, the recently formed volunteer suicide squads recruited from the Popular Iraqi Army...
...Of special concern is the possibility, if not the probability, that Iraq would resort to weapons of mass destruction—chemical, biological and nuclear terrorism...
...He is editor in chief of the international journals Terrorism and Political Communication and Persuasion...
...Its embassies abroad are used as arms storehouses and staging bases for terrorist operations...
...and other locations...
...This war of terrorism constitutes an indispensable pillar of Baghdad's traditional foreign and domestic policy Saddam Hussein has used terror tactics to eliminate his opponents, including his own Ba'ath Party colleagues, senior army officers, members of the opposition, exiled politicians and other Arab and non-Arab enemies worldwide For these purposes, Baghdad has developed Ues with numerous terrorist groups, ranging from the Palestine Liberation Organization to the Irish Republican Army...
...I believe the probability of military confrontation on the battlefield between Iraqi forces and the superior might of the United States and its friends and allies, including a considerable number of Arab countries, is rather low Therefore, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein will most likely continue his self-proclaimed Holy War against "imperialism" and "Zionism" by other means, primarily resorting to convenuonal and unconventional terrorism...
...Additionally, Saddam can recruit "terronst-for-hire" operations from the extensive mafia resources (for example, narco-terror-lsts) as well as from the large pool of currently unemployed East European secret service agents (such as from Stasi, the East German intelligence service) Clearly Iraq has the human capabilities and the political will to launch a wave of terrorist attacks of bombings, assassinations and sabotage in the Middle East and beyond...
...Either alternative is more real than the network news...
...If you must watch television in the early evening, watch "Wheel of Fortune," which, thank God, is broadcast opposite the network news in most American cities...
...s' Demos Prager unites and publishes Ultimate Issues, a quarterly journal on personal, political and rehgious issues...
...Certain conditions could provide Baghdad with an incenuve to escalate terrorist attacks dramatically...
...In light of these very real possibilities, the United States should recognize that Iraq's state-sponsored terrorism should be a central element in America's strategic equation...
...For instance, if, contrary to my expectauon, a military confrontation erupts in the Gulf, Saddam might raise the terrorist ante to an unconvenUonal level Iraq has already, in violation of international law, employed chemfcal weapons, first against Iran and then against its own Kurdish minonty Most recently, it has warned that it will destroy half of Israel with chemical weapons if the Jewish state preemptively attacks Baghdad Saddam's covert and overt options for dispersing chemical agents such as botulinum toxin are virtually limitless He could poison water systems, contaminate food supplies and disperse explosives He could also employ biological terrorism, using living organisms to cause disease or death m people, animals and plants...
...Such non-Arab groups as the Kurdish Worker's Party and the Japanese Red Army have also established a liaison presence in Baghdad These organizations connect with a variety of Middle Eastern terrorist infrastructures that include agents in Jordan and the Gulf states, Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt and ChnsUan extremists in Lebanon Outside the region, the Iraqi terrorist network maintains links with Iraqi citizens and foreign supporters in Europe, the U.S...
...And if you don't like "Wheel of Fortune," watch a plant grow...
...Surely, you wouldn't mind reading a good newspaper the next day...
...The Reason for Anti-semitism (Touchstone, 1985...
...Together with foseph Telushkm, he wrote Why the Jews...
...More than any other nation, Israel has suffered from television's reliance on action videos...
...There is an easy way to ascertain how empty network news is...
...Half a milligram of the poison Racin, for example, developed from castor beans, is fatal Also plausible is the specter of Iraqi nuclear terrorism, such as the use of fissionable materials as a radioactive poison or the seizure and sabotage of civilian nuclear facilities in the West by Iraqi-directed agents Obviously the human, material and psychological consequences of any of these mass destruction terrorist weapons would be catastrophic...
...If a military confrontation erupts, Saddam might raise the terrorist ante to an unconventional level...
...Discussions of our aims in the Gulf crisis often fail to focus on the truly frightful Iraqi terrorist threat—and what must be done about it Iraq is the most dangerous state sponsor of terrorism in the world today In the current situation, Iraq is willing and able to uuhze extra-legal psychological and physical force against approximately 13,000 innocent hostages from 20 countries...
...Should Iraq decide to mount a terrorist campaign against moderate Arab countries (such as Morocco), Moslem states (such as Turkey), the West or Israel, Baghdad can rely on infrastructures already in place...
...8* Yondh Alexander is research professor at the George Washington University Elliott School of International Affairs and director of the Institute for Studies in International Terrorism, State University of New York...
...We must develop appropriate short and long term responses First, we should cease direct and indirect communications, discussions and negotiations with Iraq unless Baghdad immediately and unconditionally releases all foreign hostages Second, we should insist that a peaceful settlement of the Gulf crisis must include a verifiable dismantling of Iraq's terrorist infrastructure and its chemical, biological and nuclear capabilities Third, we must implement the various counter-terrorist recommendations incorporated in several governmental reports such as the Vice-President's Task Force on Terrorism and the President's Report on Aviation Security...
...Baghdad also serves as a key base for several Palestinian groups, including George Habash's Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, Abu Abbas' Palestine Liberation Front and Abu Nidal's Fatah Revolutionary Council...
...Videotape tonight's news and see if you have the slightest interest in watching it tomorrow...
...strategy, coupled with the support of like-minded nations, will be required to meet the challenge of Iraqi-sponsored terrorist activity...
Vol. 16 • February 1991 • No. 1
