Remembering 9/11 - “The Evil That Men Do Lives After Them”

By Victor Comras

It has become customary for commentators on terrorism to mark the anniversary of Al Qaeda’s 9/11 attack against the United States as an occasion to review and assess the progress we have made in combating terrorism. Our government and other governments around the world have expended enormous efforts to isolate Al Qaeda’s senior leaders, reduce their appeal, and to better secure our safety. Much of our confidence has been restored as we go about our normal daily business; although we have had to acclimate ourselves to new restrictions, airport inspections, a diminution of our civil liberties, and a massive invasion of our privacy. But, the fact is that terrorism has not abated. And while Al Qaeda may well be on the run, terrorism has morphed from being an “Al Qaeda thing,” into a tactic of choice for a growing number of disaffected groups and insurgency movements around the world. Funding for terrorism, and the number of those recruited to carry out suicide bombings and other terrorist attacks, has increased.

Seven years after 9/11, Coalition forces are still fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan; and Al Qaeda, Sunni and Shiite terrorists in Iraq. Bin Laden and Zawahiri remain well hidden among friends somewhere in Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province. Hizbollah holds sway in Lebanon, and Hamas in Gaza. Well-funded terrorist groups remain well entrenched in the Caucasus; Kashmir; North, East and West Africa, and throughout much of South East Asia. ETA is still active in Spain, and the FARC strong in and around Columbia. European and American security and police forces remain on alert. And, China contends with separatists using terrorist tactics in Xinjiang province. The latest State Department’s counter-terrorism report, confirms that state support for terrorism remains strong and that private source funding for terrorism remains substantial.

Just yesterday a special UN forum hosted by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the plight of victims of terrorism suffered untoward acrimony with members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference protesting the selection of Israeli victims of terrorism invited to speak at the meeting. In their view, Israeli’s killed or injured by suicide bombers do not fit their definition of terrorism. That brings us to the continuing failure of the United Nations to define terrorism. This failure manifests the continuing lack of political will in large parts of the world to hold accountable those who employ terrorist tactics in furtherance of political aims with which they might agree.

The UN’s failure to reach consensus on a definition of terrorism has also seriously hampered the international community’s ability to stem terrorism financing. In the absence of an agreed definition of terrorism every country remains free to interpret its own obligations and to define for itself which groups they will consider terrorists and which they will support as “freedom fighters.” For too many countries terrorism is defined not by the use of terrorist tactics, but, rather by whether or not they agree with the group’s political objectives or aspirations.

We simply cannot be satisfied with these results. So, as we remember those who died from, and suffered from, 9/11, we here on this counterterrorism blog will remain committed to reminding all who read what we write that there is still so much that needs to be done.

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