Family and friends of those killed mark the third anniversary of the July 7 bombings on the London Underground in 2005.

08 October 2008

(Struggle remains fight for universal values, principles, U.S. official says)

Washington — No cause can justify or excuse the murder of innocent people, which makes the struggle against terrorism a fight for values and principles that are universal, says Ambassador Dell Dailey, the U.S. State Department’s coordinator for counterterrorism.

“In the last several years, we’ve been working with our partners on a regional strategy to disaggregate terrorist networks, eliminate terror safe havens, and disrupt terrorist links, including financial, travel, communications and intelligence,” Dailey said in a recent informal meeting with journalists in Washington.

Dailey said that in the past seven years, new legislation in scores of countries has introduced or upgraded counterterrorism measures, including money-laundering and finance legislation making it more difficult for terrorist groups to survive.

The struggle won’t end with a single action or program, Dailey said. It must include a common goal approached in a strategic, coordinated and international manner.

“We can marginalize violent extremists by addressing people’s needs and grievances, by giving people a stake in their own future, and providing alternatives, both physical and ideological, to what the terrorists offer,” Dailey said.  “Over time, our global and regional cooperative efforts will reduce the terrorists’ capacity to harm us and our partners, while local security and development assistance will build our partners’ capability.”

NEW MEASURES, NEW PROGRAMS

All 27 nations of the European Union have formed financial intelligence units designed to track and thwart terrorist financing efforts.  “Document security and securing borders [have] also been very progressive and successful,” Dailey said.

And the State Department’s Anti-Terrorism Assistance Program has trained more than 6,000 individuals in 150 partner countries and provided equipment and technology.

“Foreign assistance is another vital component of our efforts,” Dailey said.  “It addresses conditions that terrorists exploit for recruitment and ideological purposes.”

Two examples of foreign assistance programs that support U.S. counterterrorism efforts are the Middle East Partnership Initiative and the Millennium Challenge Corporation, he said.

“These programs … increase access to education [and] improved health care, and focus on democratic and economic reform,” Dailey said. “For example, the United States is partnered with governments, NGOs [nongovernmental organizations] and local communities around the world to rebuild schools and create education programs that reach marginalized children: girls, ethnic minorities and children affected by HIV/AIDS, wars and other catastrophes throughout the Middle East and South Asia.”

Dailey said these efforts have been reflected in public opinion polling by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. It shows that support for the transnational terrorist group al-Qaida has been declining throughout the world in recent years, and that support for suicide bombing has fallen by half or more in the past five years.

But dealing with al-Qaida is complicated by the fact that it is a decentralized enemy that is professional and highly adept at using sophisticated propaganda to exploit electronic data through the Internet, Dailey said.

“The international community, the governments and international organizations, politicians, academics, religious and community leaders, in general, need to do better in disrupting terrorist propaganda and its misinformation,” Dailey said.

“We can destroy terrorist leadership, disrupt terrorist networks, and eliminate terrorist safe havens, but unless we prevent terrorists from recruiting new members locally and expanding its reach globally, we will not be truly successful.”

Dailey said a key component in U.S. counterterrorism policies is counter-radicalization and its precursor, anti-radicalization.

“Evidence shows that terrorists manipulate grievances, whether real or perceived, to subvert legitimate authority and create unrest,” he said.

Dailey likened this process to a conveyor belt in which terrorist groups convert alienated populations to extremist viewpoints and turn them by stages into sympathizers, supporters and finally terrorists.

See a transcript of Dailey’s remarks on the State Department Web site.

For more information, see Confronting Terrorism on America.gov.