DATE=12/22/1999
TYPE=U-S OPINION ROUNDUP
TITLE=TERRORISM THREAT CLOUDS U-S HOLIDAYS
NUMBER=6-11606
BYLINE=ANDREW GUTHRIE
DATELINE=WASHINGTON
EDITOR=ASSIGNMENTS
TELEPHONE=619-3335
CONTENT=


INTRO:  Following the arrest of an Algerian man at the 
U-S-Canadian border with a history of terrorist 
connections, this country is facing the Christmas and 
New Year's holiday with more apprehension than usual.  
Security at airports and border crossings with Canada 
and Mexico has been increased.  The government has 
asked Americans at home and abroad to be especially 
watchful as they celebrate.

Because of these warnings, the U-S press is lamenting 
that the threat of terrorism is clouding what would 
normally be a festive and happy time in the United 
States.  ________________ joins us now with a sampling 
in today's Editorial Digest.

TEXT:  At midweek, the U-S government sharply 
increased security measures at the nation's airports, 
while sending about 350 additional customs agents to 
remote border crossings to monitor those entering the 
country.

The steps came after an Algerian citizen with a false 
passport was arrested at a remote border crossing in 
Washington State last week.  His car was loaded with 
bomb-making ingredients, but security officials feel 
he was only transporting the equipment and may have 
planned to link up with a bomb-maker once inside the 
United States.  The arrest a few days later of another 
Algerian man, also with falsified documents, trying to 
cross the border from Canada into Vermont, only 
intensified fears that an organized plot of some kind 
was underway.

The White House has been walking a fine line between 
urging Americans to be unusually observant of their 
surroundings as they celebrate, while refraining from 
any statements that could induce panic.  As it is, 
many lavish millennium celebrations planned around the 
country have been scaled back or cancelled for lack of 
interest as people decide to stay close to home.

We begin our sampling in the state of Ohio, where The 
[Cleveland] Plain Dealer says the United States is now 
"commendably alert," and praises the agents in 
Washington State for their arrest of the Algerian 
suspect.

VOICE:  Even as Americans' fears of a Y-2-K (computer) 
meltdown recede, the State Department has done its 
best to impress on them that the world remains a 
dangerous place.  But just as we were trying to figure 
out where on the planet imminent danger might lurk, 
confirmation that a terrorist threat might be real 
enough was detected on our own soil.  . the suspicious 
conduct of the arrested man . and the contents of his 
car trunk are reason to conclude the customs officials 
did their job well.   . The target and whatever his 
accomplices had in mind for it are not known.  It is 
not alarmist to speculate, however, that at the very 
least, a big building could have been devastated.  .. 
It is difficult to see what, without resorting to 
extravagant precautions, Americans, going about their 
daily lives can do to defend themselves against 
determined terrorists who manage to evade the kind of 
diligent watch that trapped [Ahmed] Ressam. . Ordinary 
folks must depend on the intelligence services to stay 
informed of likely threats, at home and abroad. .  And 
they will be well served if their guardians are as 
vigilant as the Port Angeles customs agent who almost 
certainly averted disaster.

TEXT:  In Boston, The Globe tries to be both prudent 
and philosophical about the threat. 

VOICE:  As always, there is philosophical wisdom in 
the advice from government officials that Americans 
should not hand terrorists a victory by ceding to 
anxiety about recent warnings of terrorist attacks.  
Nonetheless, the capture of an Algerian transporting 
bomb-making materials into the United States from 
British Columbia last week has properly set off alarm 
bells among intelligence and law-enforcement 
professionals.  They have reason to take very 
seriously the menace from the materials found in the 
trunk of Ahmed Ressam's rented car: almost 59 kilos of 
urea and sulfate, two jars of nitroglycerine, four 
black boxes, each containing a circuit board, a Casio 
watch, and a nine-volt battery.   . The Casio watches 
suggest to counter-intelligence specialists bomb-
making procedures that followers of [Saudi extremist 
Osama] bin Laden teach in their camps in Afghanistan.  
. Since [Mr.] Ressam appears to be merely a "mule" 
delivering bomb-making materials, the F-B-I and the  
C-I-A are in a race to locate his accomplices before 
they can carry out a terrorist act.  Americans cannot 
let a terrorist threat change their way of life, but 
they also need as much good intelligence as possible 
about that threat.

TEXT: "Caution, Not Panic" is the headline in 
Tuesday's [12/21] Los Angeles Times, as it urges the 
middle road for the American public.

VOICE:  Government warnings of potential anti-American 
terrorist operations coinciding with the end of the 
century were given chilling emphasis with last week's 
arrest of Ahmed Ressam, an Algerian . trying to enter 
the United States from Canada with . bomb-making 
materials hidden in his car.  Meanwhile, in Jordan and 
Pakistan, authorities have jailed scores of people 
suspected of having links to the exiled Saudi Arabian 
militant Osama bin Laden, whose followers are accused 
of bombing two U-S embassies in Africa last year ... 
Until recently the F-B-I had focused on the potential 
threat of terrorist violence by Americans - anti-
government activists and religious cultists energized 
by planned millennial observances.  More recently, 
noting the coincidence of the Muslim holy months of 
Ramadan and the end of the century, and using 
intelligence gathered overseas, the F-B-I has expanded 
its scrutiny of Middle Eastern extremists, but it has 
become increasingly difficult to penetrate the close-
knit structure of many terrorist groups.  Heightened 
vigilance is surely required. . [However] As a free 
society we have no choice but to live with an 
inevitable measure of exposure to terrorism.  The 
alternative . would mean an end to our civil 
liberties.

TEXT:  In mid-America, Nebraska's Omaha World-Herald 
is also trying to balance the threat with common sense 
advice for readers.

VOICE:  Is the average American, at home or abroad, in 
serious danger from any such agents?  No.  Should that 
average American be deterred from celebrating 
appropriately in the coming holidays as the 1900s draw 
to a close?  Again, no.  But note that these sentences 
contain the word "average," twice.  Most of us will be 
quite safe, but that leaves open the possibility that 
some small number could be subject to attack with 
little or no warning.  A couple of weeks ago, Neil 
Gallagher, head of the F-B-I's national security 
division, said his agency wanted the public to be 
"aware but not scared," which probably gets it just 
about right.  ... Of course, everyone could just stay 
home, safe and scared.  But that feels like handing 
any evil-doers, real or imagined, a victory by 
forfeiture.  This is the height of the holiday season, 
just like any other year only more so.  Part of the 
idea is to have fun, within reasonable and sane 
limits.  Let's do so, while at the same time watching 
our backs.

TEXT:  Finally, some thoughts from U-S-A Today, the 
national daily published in a Washington, D-C suburb. 

VOICE:  From the White House to law enforcement, 
officials are tight-lipped about specifics.  But 
behind the scenes, the recent chain of events has 
ratcheted counter-terrorism officials' concern to 
extraordinarily high levels.  "There probably hasn't 
been a comparable level of concern" says Vincent 
Cannistraro, former chief of counter-terrorist 
operations at the Central Intelligence Agency.  
Warning the public in more direct terms than 
"Americans should be vigilant," as National Security 
Adviser Sandy Berger put it Sunday, could spread fear.  
And such panic would constitute a victory for 
terrorists.  But saying too little could leave people 
at risk.  Reflecting the difficulty of the decision, 
the F-B-I planned, then postponed, a counter-terrorism 
news conference Tuesday.  But the right choice is 
clear: Err on the side of disclosure, so that regular 
Americans can judge for themselves what constitutes 
self-preservation on this already-jittery New Year's.

TEXT:  That concludes this sampling of editorial 
comment on the heightened terrorist threat against the 
United States.

NEB/ANG/JP




22-Dec-1999 16:35 PM EDT (22-Dec-1999 2135 UTC)
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Source: Voice of America
.