FWD: USA ignored... 2

[KXX4493553 at aol.com]

Clinton appeasement 
   Despite its stated policy of not negotiating with terrorists, the Clinton 
administration went out of its way to appease a few of the 20th century's 
most notorious terror groups: the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia 
(FARC), the PLO and the Irish Republican Army. All are heavily involved in 
the drug trade. 
   On the eve of the 1993 handshake on the White House lawn between Israeli 
Prime Minister Yitzak Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, Britain's 
National Criminal Intelligence Service estimated the PLO's ill-gotten gains 
to total between $8 billion to $10 billion, with an annual income of about 
$1.5 billion to $2 billion from "donations, extortion, payoffs, illegal arms 
dealing, drug trafficking, money laundering, fraud, etc." 
   Since then, Washington has only aided and abetted the PLO. Since the start 
of the Oslo process, Arafat has received at least $3 billion more from the 
United States and the international community, without any serious demand for 
accountability, according to a report this year to Congress. Arafat, in 
well-documented instances, has been systematically skimming off portions of 
these funds, as he has with monies given to him on behalf of the refugees in 
the camps. 
   The PLO was in the drug trafficking business almost from the beginning. 
Operating from Lebanon, under Habash's able leadership and assisted by a 
PLO-owned shipping company SUMUD, the organization exported hashish, opium, 
heroin and cocaine, first to Europe and later even to the United States and 
Australia. In return, it obtained weapons for their war against Israel and 
the West, and amassed a massive treasure trove. In addition, the PLO and 
Arafat, who enjoy the financial and strategic support of Hussein and bin 
Laden, have the distinction of being the organization that promoted "suicide 
bombers" as a weapon. 
   Yet the Clinton administration subsidized a multitude of radical 
Palestinian groups, ranging from Arafat's Fatah branch of the PLO and its 
military wing, the Tanzim, to the socialist-nationalist Popular Front for the 
Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), headed by George Habash, all with close ties 
to bin Laden, Iraq and Iran. 



   
Will Bush repeat errors? 
   The Bush administration seems destined to repeat the same mistake as its 
predecessor, dismissing verbal Palestinian leadership attacks on the United 
States as a need for internal "propaganda." It fails to understand, even 
after the terrible attacks, that all terrorist organizations are the same. 
   Thus, it is difficult to comprehend that the administration has just 
offered to remove Damascus from the State Department's list of terrorist 
sponsors if Syria joins the U.S.-led coalition against bin Laden. It was the 
Clinton White House that, despite evidence to the contrary, removed Syria 
from its list of the drug trafficking countries, to entice Syria to join the 
"peace process" in the Middle East. 
   The failure of that process and the compromises the United States has made 
to maintain an illusion of peaceful prospects had no doubt added to the 
Muslim radical terrorists' resolve to attack what they see as a naive and 
vulnerable America. 
   In another example of self-delusion, in 1999, then Secretary of State 
Madeleine Albright suggested a U.S.-led coalition to negotiate with the FARC 
and supported Colombia President Pastrana's "land for peace" initiative, 
despite a report from the General Accounting Office that the FARC is running 
a major international criminal enterprise that, among other things, supplies 
hundreds of tons of cocaine and heroin to the U.S. black market. 
   This second Clinton "land for peace" initiative gave half of Colombia to 
the narco-terrorist FARC, while doing nothing to diminish its violence or 
appetite to control the rest of the country. 
   Instead of re-evaluating this misguided policy, the Bush administration, 
even after declaring war on terrorism, appears to be drifting toward 
embracing it -- by giving some regimes that sponsor terrorism a pass for 
their cooperation in a U.S. coalition. 
   More difficult to comprehend is the omission of two of the most vocal 
radical Muslim, anti-American terrorist organizations -- Hamas and Hezbollah 
-- from the presidential order to freeze their assets. 
   Even if America receives help, it will remain important to follow and cut 
off the money supply to terrorist groups and their state sponsors. The United 
States may achieve a short-term goal of finding bin Laden and perhaps 
unseating the Taliban, but there will remain plenty of anti-U.S. terrorists 
prepared to take their place. 
   The West has already had several warnings. If it doesn't try to choke the 
financing of terrorism now, it invites another tragedy like the attacks on 
the World Trade Center and the Pentagon -- probably with even deadlier 
weapons. 





Kurt-Werner Pörtner