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Ramzi yousef brought to justice with tips program { December 14 2000 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/14/terrorism.report.02/http://archives.cnn.com/2000/US/12/14/terrorism.report.02/
Cash offered, new strategy pushed in U.S. fight to foil terrorism
December 14, 2000
Web posted at: 9:36 p.m. EST (0236 GMT)
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The United States has taken new steps to ensure it's no sitting duck for terrorists.
A new campaign of cash rewards for tips, and a push for a national anti-terrorism strategy, both got under way Thursday.
U.S. State Department is offering rewards of up to $5 million for information about terrorists and planned attacks against American citizens and interests.
"Money talks, money works," said the reward program's director, Mark Etelmaki. "The United States government has been offering rewards since the days of the Old West. It worked then, it works today."
The push for a national strategy comes from an anti-terrorism panel established by Congress in 1999 after the bomb attacks on U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in August of 1998.
"Because the stakes are so high," within a year of taking office President-elect George W. Bush should develop and present to Congress a national strategy for combating terrorism on U.S. soil, the committee advises in its second annual report..
"A terrorist attack at some point inside our borders is inevitable and the United States must be ready for that attack," the panel's chairman, Virginia Governor James Gilmore, said Thursday.
In its report, the panel describes present approaches to dealing with an attack on U.S. soil as "fragmented, uncoordinated and politically unaccountable."
And while major terrorist incidents in the United States to date have involved the use of conventional explosives, the panel warns that it is only a matter of time before terrorists resort to nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.
Gilmore also said that while the nation's first goal is to prevent any such attack, another very important goal should be to make the effect of any attack "so insignificant, so inconsequential that it just won't be worth the effort to attack this strong and decisive nation."
Anti-terrorist recommendations
The panel's report, which was presented to Bush, President Clinton and Congress, concluded that any plan should give local law enforcement, fire departments and emergency medical services a major stake in planning and executing any new approach to domestic terrorism.
Other recommendations include:
• The creation of a powerful National Office for Combating Terrorism, with a Cabinet-level director chosen by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
The mandate for the office would be to "deter, prepare for and respond to international and domestic terrorism." The office could also do extensive budget reviews and "eliminate conflicts and unnecessary duplication among agencies."
• Streamlining 25 congressional committees that currently have jurisdiction over terrorism issues down or one or two committees. Experts suggested the creation of a Special Committee for Combating Terrorism as either a joint Senate-House committee or a separate committee in each chamber.
• More federal money and coordination for state and local efforts to respond to a terrorist attack somewhere in the United States.
For example, while the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently contracted for 40 million doses of effective smallpox vaccine, "much remains to be done to ensure effective distribution of vaccines, including better coordination with state and local agencies."
'Nefarious people' necessary
The panel also recommended scrapping 1995 regulations issued by the CIA which prohibit recruiting foreign intelligence informants if they may have been involved in human rights abuses.
"Out of necessity, we will be dealing with nefarious people when you collect information on nefarious activities, so it stands to reason that we should do that," said former CIA director, retired Lieutenant General James Clapper.
The rules were imposed after a paid CIA informant in Guatemala, Col. Roberto Alpirez, was found to have been involved in the killings of a U.S. citizen and a Guatemalan who is married to a U.S. Citizen, Jennifer Harbury.
Cash for saving lives
The U.S. State Department's new rewards-for-tips campaign was launched in eight languages and on the Internet as well as the traditional media.
"Tell us about something that's going to happen and we will pay you for helping save lives," State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said Thursday in announcing the campaign.
The Rewards for Justice Program, run by the State Department's Diplomatic Security Service, has primarily been used to generate leads in investigations of terrorist attacks against Americans. Posters and matchbooks with pictures of suspects have been distributed globally.
The program offers a reward of up to $5 million for tips which lead to the apprehension of anyone involved in such an attack. Since the program's inception in 1984, more than $6 million has been paid out in more than 20 cases. Boucher said more than 20 terrorists have been brought to justice as a result.
In addition to the reward, those who come forward are offered relocation and their identities are kept confidential.
Most leads come from Pakistan
Ramzi Yousef, mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing, was apprehended in 1995 and brought to justice through the program.
But a $5 million bounty on the head of Osama bin Laden, suspected mastermind of the East Africa bombings and lead suspect in the attack of the USS Cole, has not borne fruit. Boucher blamed Afghanistan's ruling regime, the Taliban, which is harboring Bin Laden.
"People manage to hole up in Afghanistan and not get expelled and not get brought to justice," he said, noting that a new UN resolution adding new sanctions to the Taliban was another component of the campaign to bring bin Laden to justice.
The new campaign hopes to prevent attacks before they start. It is during "the long planning cycle" when an attack can realistically be foiled, Etelmaki said.
Etelmaki said that 75 percent of the leads are motivated by the monetary reward.
The program brings in over 100 phone calls, 600 letters and 1,200 e-mails a year, in addition to 1.2 million hits to its Web site. Boucher said 12 per cent of the tips brought in are hard leads, and over 100 of those tips are investigated each year.
According to a profiling study done by the Diplomatic Security Service, 70 per cent of the recipients of rewards were Middle Eastern and South Asian males in their 20s.
Etelmaki told CNN a majority of the leads come from Pakistan - a main reason why the ads were produced in Urdu, which is commonly spoken throughout the country.
The reward program Web site is: www.dssrewards.net
CNN National Security Correspondent David Ensor, CNN State Department Producer Elise Labott and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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