suspects

The Jihad Trail, Part 3

By Chris Mitchell
Middle East Bureau Chief

President Bush has told the world that the U.S. war on Osama bin Laden and the Al Qaeda network is only the beginning of the war on terrorism. In this latest installment of "The Jihad Trail," CBN News looks at some of the terrorist groups that have long been enemies of the U.S. and Israel.

JERUSALEM (CBN News) — While Americans follow the U.S. attack on Osama bin Laden, other terrorist groups around the world are taking the measure of our leaders. They are waiting to see if President Bush means it when he says we will go after all terrorists and the states that sponsor them.

If he is serious about that claim, the U.S. will have to punish a number of leaders who have helped kill Americans, some of whom claim to be part of our coalition.

With the campaign against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban underway, President Bush has made a point of reminding the world that the U.S. war on terrorism extends beyond the Al Qaeda network.

"Today we focus on Afghanistan," Bush said. "But the battle is broader. Every nation has a choice to make. In this conflict, there is no neutral ground. If any government sponsors the outlaws and killers of innocents, they have become outlaws and murderers themselves; and they will take that lonely path at their own peril."

The President's message is a clear warning to every group that practices terrorism. But if the United States and its allies want to stop all the terrorists who threaten us, the war becomes more complicated and more dangerous beyond bin Laden.

Dozens of radical Islamic groups are based in nations that sponsor or at least welcome their presence. Those nations include Syria and Syrian-occupied Lebanon, Sudan, Iraq and Iran. They provide a lifeline to such groups as Islamic Jihad, Hamas, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and Hezbollah.

In Lebanon, where the Iranian-sponsored Hezbollah has built the front line of a Shiite holy war, their defiant leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah leaves no doubt that America is high on the list of his enemies.

"Honest people can turn your embassies to rubble and send your diplomats back in coffins," Nasrallah said.

Some terrorist leaders are laying low in the face of the assembled U.S. military might, but not Sheik Nasrallah. The Hezbollah leader heads a group which was behind the kidnapping and killing of more than 300 Americans in Lebanon in the 1980's.

CBN News reported on the 1983 bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Beirut, where 241 people were killed. "Sunday's bloody attack was the greatest American loss of life since the Vietnam War," said one analyst in the 1983 CBN coverage.

Also in that report, White House Spokesman Larry Speakes sounded a prophetic note with the U.S. reaction. "We will not yield to international terrorism because we know that if we do, the civilized world will suffer and our values will be fair game for those who seek to destroy all we stand for," Speakes said.

But after that deadly attack, U.S. troops left Lebanon and Hezbollah grew stronger, orchestrating the killings of Lebanese Christian soldiers and civilians in their war against Israel. Today, Nasrallah warns the Islamic world to stay away from the U.S. anti-terror coalition.

"No one is allowed to give a helping hand to America in her aggression against the Afghan people or against any nation of this world. That will be condemned. That is a contribution to this contemporary crime that they intend to commit," he said.

Hezbollah forced Israel to pull out of South Lebanon last year, boosting hopes among all Islamic radicals that Israel could be driven from the Middle East and America's role reduced.

Palestinian groups such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad, infamous for their suicide attacks on civilians, wave the flag of Hezbollah at their rallies.

Despite Hezbollah's ongoing threats, and its nearly permanent place on the State Department's terrorist list, the U.S. has not yet formally targeted the group as an enemy in the new war. One reason is the U.S. efforts to enlist help from sponsors of terrorism such as Iran, Syria and Sudan in the fight against bin Laden.

Frank Gaffney of Washington's Center for Security Studies says it would be dangerous for America to give its enemies a pass in the name of coalition building.

"And now if the United States were to say, ‘Well, for our own reasons we're not going to regard Hezbollah as one of our enemies, we're not gonna fight them,’ it would be seen, I think not unreasonably, by Hezbollah and its friends as a strategic defeat for the United States, as a manifestation of Hezbollah's power," Gaffney said.

The problem is magnified here in Israel, where terrorism from Hezbollah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad is a daily and deadly threat. Israelis point out that Americans are dying in the attacks in Jerusalem and other parts of Israel.

Last week, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon called on the U.S. and the free world to brand the three groups as terrorist entities. And the State Department did release a list which includes financial sanctions against all three organizations. But the U.S. also put strong pressure on Israel to resume talks with Yasser Arafat, whom Israeli leaders call their own Osama bin Laden.

And President Bush's timing on the suggestion of a future Palestinian state raised some warning flags in both Jerusalem and Washington.

"The talk that is now coming out that we are prepared to recognize a Palestinian state — which, let's be clear, would be a new state sponsor of terrorism make no mistake about it — is I think, a serious if not mortal peril to Israel, and very ill-advised in terms of the United States' own strategic interests in the war on terrorism as well," Gaffney said.

U.S. officials say the effectiveness of the war on terrorism can not be judged on the tactics of the first few weeks. The intelligence and financial battle of the war, to dry up funding for terrorist cells, is a key component in the strategy to root out their activities around the globe.

Meanwhile, America's friends in Israel and elsewhere hold out the hope that the war will not end with Osama bin Laden, and that President Bush will carry out his promise to stamp out terrorist groups no matter where they kill innocent people.

But the U.S. effort to shut down these terrorist groups was made more difficult on Monday. The United Nations voted overwhelmingly to give Syria a seat on the U.N. Security Council. Syria occupies Lebanon with nearly 30,000 troops, and has been on the U.S. State Department list of nations involved in terrorism for years. The United States took no public action to try to change the U.N. vote.

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