Terrorism: Battle of the Budget

By Michael Kraft

By Michael Kraft

Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice�s first testimony to Congress Wednesday in support of the Fiscal Year 06 Foreign Assistance budget drew some press attention for the request for $5.8 billion to fight terrorism but this impressive figure hides the shortchanging of some key programs.

These programs are relatively small in dollar terms, buried deep in the budget and were not even mentioned in her prepared Feb. 16 testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But in fighting terrorists, the details are essential in countering the devils.

Most of the $5.8 billion referred to in her testimony goes for a variety of general assistance programs to help strengthen a wide number of countries, including those in trouble spots such as South Asia and the Middle East.

This kind of institutional building assistance is needed. But in the long term, effectively countering terrorism requires the strengthening of not only the physical infrastructure but also the management capabilities and judicial and law enforcement capabilities of developing countries. It also requires strengthening our faltering public diplomacy effort. And it requires assisting some countries in developing strong school systems to counter the appeal of the Islamic fundamentalist schools that have become terrorist breeding grounds in such countries as Pakistan.

In recognition of these long term needs, the Agency for International Development (AID) last week released a Fragile States Strategies report addressing these problems.
http://www.usaid.gov/policy/2005_fragile_states_strategy.pdf

We cannot, however, short change the current needs, as we have been doing in the past.

Right now, there are important although unglamorous steps that can be taken now to strengthen the fight against terrorism as well as addressing organizational and long range issues.

President Bush�s reelection campaign repeated the theme that we need to fight terrorists overseas so they cannot strike us at home. For example, during his trip to Canada last autumn, the President repeated: �there�s only one way to deal with enemies who plot in secret and set out to murder the innocent and the unsuspecting: We must take the fight to them.�

Although this theme originally was part of an effort to link al-Qaeda with Iraq in the public mind (despite the continuing lack of proof of a working relationship) the basic thesis is correct. International cooperation is essential to combating international terrorism.

But the Administration and Congress have been short-changing the fight against terrorists. Key programs to fight terrorism overseas by strengthening the capabilities of foreign law enforcement and military officials to help them fight terrorists on their soil have been given short shrift.

To cite just one example, the State Department runs a program to help train foreign law enforcement officials to more effectively deal with terrorism and to improve working relationships. It is known as the Antiterrorism Training Assistance (ATA) program. It provides a wide range of proven-valuable courses, ranging from airport security to bomb detection, hostage negotiation and. more recently, to handling threats from weapons of mass destruction threats.

Foreign personnel trained under this program have thwarted or mitigated a number of attacks. For instance, Jordan, a major ATA participant, disrupted major attacks planned against American tourists during the December 1999 millennium threat. But successful terrorist attacks in other countries such as Saudi Arabia, Indonesia and Morocco demonstrate the need to expand and deepen the program.

This is the kind of hands-on direct program that is needed to help counter the threats of the immediate future.

This year�s FY 06 budget requests $133 million for the program. And that request submitted by the White House�s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) was cut in the OMB process. OMB which has been lopping an average of 20 per cent annually from the State Department�s request for this and related smaller programs, even after 9/ll.

On top of this, Congress has made further cuts. The Congressional Appropriations Committees cut the Administration�s $128 million Fiscal Year 2005 request down to $120 million. This cut came on top of the White House�s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) earlier cut of about 15 per cent in the State Department�s original request.

Furthermore, OMB and Treasury cut the Internal Revenue Service's request for additional financial investigators to unravel complex terrorist money trails. Treasury's new Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence and the State Department�s unit that counters terrorism financing also have been on a shoe string, even lacking travel funds, during the past couple of years when their efforts were most needed. Other counterterrorism programs also have been cut at the OMB level.

Part of the problem lies with the typical approach of budget officials and appropriations committees�using the previous year�s appropriation as a �bench mark� and considering any increase in comparison with that previous level instead of the actual needs. This approach overlooks the growing counterterrorism training requirements, especially as al Qaeda continues to evolve into loosely affiliated groups in a wide variety of countries, gaining inspiration and recruits from the Iraq insurgency. Meanwhile Congress funds scores of pork barrel and other favorite but questionable programs, but reduces funding available for counterterrorism and other security-related programs

If we are serious about fighting terrorism, Congress and the Executive Branch need to match their anti-terrorism rhetoric with the needed resources.

The writer is a consultant and former senior advisor for legislative and budget affairs in the State Department Office of Counterterrorism.

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Attached is a description of the key programs, taken from the Congressional Presentation Document submitted to Congress earlier this year.

Anti-Terrorism Programs (From the Non-Proliferation. Antiterrorism, Demining and Related Agencies (NADR) account.)
� $133.5 million for the Anti-Terrorism Assistance (ATA) program to support the global campaign against terrorism by providing strategic, operational, and technical training and enabling equipment to coalition partners to assist them in detecting and eliminating terrorists threats and in protecting facilities, individuals and infrastructure. Funds will support expanding the scope and volume of existing U.S.-based training capabilities and also provides for development of new courses to respond to shifting requirements emanating from the evolving terrorist threat. In addition, the FY 2006 request supports new in-country programs in participating countries critical to the U.S. counterterrorism effort, increasing training for the Middle East, Central and East Asia, and follow on funding for special programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Indonesia, Kenya and Colombia. The request funds the Mobile Anti-terrorism Training Team component to facilitate implementation of in-country ATA training for priority, short-notice requirements. Lastly, the request continues to fund activities at the regional training center established by the Government of Malaysia.
� $7.5 million for Counterterrorism Financing Programs to assist foreign countries� efforts to detect, investigate and root out terrorist networks proactively by "following the money," as well as to freeze assets, and to prevent the abuse of financial institutions, businesses, and charitable organizations as conduits for money to terrorist organizations.
� $7.5 million for the Terrorist Interdiction Program to support a multi-pronged border security program designed to assist selected vulnerable countries in stopping terrorists from crossing their borders or using their territory as transit points or staging areas for attacks. Funds will support installing or expanding operations of the capability in up to seven countries including Pakistan, Mexico, Thailand and Iraq. Funds will also enable us to sustain operations in the 25 countries expected to be participating in the program by the end of FY 2005, with the intent to implement a program in each of the 60 countries currently assessed as being at risk of terrorists transit and in need of U.S. assistance to counter the threat.
� $2 million for Counterterrorism Engagement with Allies supports funding for bilateral and multilateral CT engagement activities that bring together senior officials from key partners to promote cooperation on CT issues and to fund select projects aimed at reducing terrorist threats.

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