Counterterrorism Blog

By Michael B. Kraft
Congressional Conferees are expected to meet soon on the Foreign Operations Appropriations Bill, currently scheduled for late this afternoon (Tuesday) and their actions will be another indication of whether Congress is willing to match Washington�s strong antiterrorism rhetoric with the money requested for key programs.
The House bill, passed in June, 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. The cuts in the Antiterrorism Assistance Training(ATA) program and the Terrorist Interdiction Program (TIP) came despite a theme repeatedly voiced by President Bush, that �there is only one course of action against them (the terrorists): to defeat them .�
The Senate Bill, passed in July, approved the Administration�s full requests for the State Department counterterrorism programs, including $133.5 for the ATA program and $7.5 million for the TIP program.

The program provides other countries with sophisticated computer data base systems helpful in identifying terrorist suspects and other criminals when they try to cross international border.
Unfortunately, unless there is a last minute re-evaluation, it looks like the conferees will come in short of the Administration�s request according to a source close to the conference. The source also said Monday that the conference meeting schedule could slip.
Since July, the Katrina disaster in New Orleans, and other events, including the famine situation in Africa and the earthquake in Pakistan have put additional pressure on the foreign assistance budget. Foreign aid politically is one of the easiest programs for members to cut as a result of years of being tagged in election campaigns as the �foreign giveaway program. And this year�s Congressional budget allocations are putting additional pressure on the foreign assistance appropriations.
The counterterrorism programs however are not just for the benefit of foreigners. They help protect Americans overseas. The host countries have the primary responsibility for protecting foreign citizens living or traveling in their boundaries. The ATA program provides friendly governments with a wide range of valuable courses, ranging from airport security to bomb detection, hostage negotiation and to handling threats from weapons of mass destruction threats. Improving the capability of foreign countries contributes to the safety of Americans traveling or working overseas.
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. However successful terrorist attacks in other countries such as Indonesia, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, show the need to expand and deepen the training programs.
This is the kind of hands-on direct program that is needed to help counter immediate and mid-term threats. Unfortunately, the actions by OMB and then the House Appropriations Committee to cut the State Department �s requests for counterterrorism programs reflects the traditional way of acting on budgets�mark up the request by comparing with the previous year�s base line instead of future requirements. Details are buried in the Nonproliferation, Anti-terrorism, Demining and related programs (NADR) account (House Report 109-152).
Congressional budgeters �and OMB 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 or land border crossings 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 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. Cuts in counterterrorism programs may well be another case of �penny wise but pound foolish.�