SENATE NEEDS TO RESTORE CUTS IN COUNTERTERRORISM PROGAMS

By Michael Kraft

By Michael B. Kraft

Apparently the House of Representatives was not listening or not buying the line when President Bush said in his televised address Tuesday night that �there is only one course of action against them (the terrorists): to defeat them abroad before they attack us at home��

The President has repeatedly used the line in the past, including during the election campaign

Nevertheless, on Tuesday night the House passed a FY 06 foreign assistance appropriations bill that cut by about 9 per cent the Administration�s primary program to train foreign civilian counterterrorism and law enforcement officials to help fight terrorists terrorist abroad.

It also cut two smaller, related counterterrorism programs designed to help stop the terrorists overseas.

Hopefully the Senate, where the Appropriations Committee is marking up its Bill this afternoon, will heed the President�s often used phrase and provide full funding for the counterterrorism programs and then prevail in the conference committee on the final version.

The House, without any discussion or perhaps even looking at the details, went along with its Foreign Operations Appropriation�s Committee�s cut of $11 million dollars from the Administration�s $133.5 million request for the State Department�s Antiterrorism Assistance Program (ATA). The program provides a wide range of proven-valuable courses, ranging from airport security to bomb detection, hostage negotiation and 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 and mid-term future.

The cut of $11 million, may not sound like much in the greater scheme of the Foreign Aid budget but it could provide about an additional 25 or more courses, which typically run two to four weeks, depending on the subject for about two dozen foreign law enforcement officials.

Funding for the ATA program is buried in the Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and related programs (NADR) account (House Report 109-152). The House bill also cut two smaller programs, the Terrorist Interdiction Program (TIP) which provides sophisticated monitoring at airports and border crossings, and the small program for regional workshops and other activities to improve international cooperation.

The House Foreign Operations Committee�s action reflects the traditional way of acting on budgets�mark up against the previous year�s base line instead of future requirements. I saw this pattern repeated over the years, even after 9/11 while working in the State Department�s Counterterrorism Office. The Coordinator for Counterterrorism provided guidance on which countries should be included in the program and the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, which has security officers in embassies overseas, implements the program. the House Committee report language merely notes that the panel provided $4.7 million above the FY 05 level without referring to the cuts.

The OMB and Congressional budgeteers should look ahead at the current and future needs for counterterrorism training, not last year�s base line. Deferring training or TIP program installations in foreign airports just leaves more barn doors open for the terrorists to exploit. The need for ATA training is growing as al-Qaeda continues to morph into locally based cells in a wide number of countries.

The President may have been referring to Iraq when he talked about defeating terrorists overseas but the terrorism problem is much more widespread. These counterterrorism programs are one place where the Congressional leadership and members should back up the strong Presidential and Congressional rhetroric against terrorism� rhetoric with the money needed to do the job.

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