Cohen strategy short on terrorism

The final annual report to Congress from President Clinton’s defense secretary did not list terrorism as an urgent threat against the United States, but instead grouped it among “transnational threats” that also included illicit drugs and piracy at sea.

Former Clinton administration officials have talked publicly of the “urgency” with which they fought al Qaeda and its leader, Osama bin Laden. Richard A. Clarke, a former Clinton and Bush administration counterterrorism official, testified before the commission investigating the September 11 attacks that the new Bush team failed to match the Clinton White House in maintaining counter-al Qaeda operations as a top priority.

But in the final military strategy report to Congress just weeks before George W. Bush took office, Defense Secretary William S. Cohen did not elevate or highlight terrorism as a top threat. In his 350-page “Annual Report to the President and the Congress,” Mr. Cohen does not mention al Qaeda. He refers to bin Laden once in describing the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa.

Today, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States hears its first public testimony from Condoleezza Rice, Mr. Bush’s national security adviser. She is expected to rebut Mr. Clarke’s testimony that she did not consider al Qaeda an immediate threat.

Mr. Clarke’s searing attacks have touched off a game of finger-pointing in an election year. Democrats say Mr. Bush did not do enough in his first eight months in office to head off the September 11 attacks. Republicans say Mr. Clinton did too little against al Qaeda in his eight years in office.

The Washington Times reported Tuesday that the Clinton White House’s final national security report in 2000 to Congress never referred to al Qaeda by name. Mr. Cohen’s 2001 Pentagon report was a different strategy paper. It was meant to show the status of the armed forces and single out the top national security threats facing the United States.

Mr. Clinton’s defense secretary, in the part of the report titled “U.S. Defense Strategy,” listed his top seven “security challenges.” None focused exclusively on fighting terrorism.

The challenges, in the order in which they appeared in the report, were “Cross-Border Conflict,” “Internal Conflict,” “Proliferation of Dangerous Military Technologies,” “Transnational Threats,” “Humanitarian Disasters,” “Great Power/Peer Competitor” and “Wild Card Scenarios.”

Only the fourth category in the list, Transnational Threats, mentioned terrorism. It shares space with the illegal drug trade, organized crime and piracy. The section does not mention al Qaeda or bin Laden.

“Terrorists capable of increased levels of violence, for example, can directly threaten American lives and institutions and seek to undermine U.S. policies and alliances,” the Cohen report says.

The report also contains a one-page description of threats called “The President’s National Security Strategy.” Again, there is no mention of al Qaeda or bin Laden, and only one reference to “terrorism” as an example of transnational threats.

There is no call in Mr. Cohen’s report to take a tougher stand against al Qaeda or in any way to label the terrorist organization an urgent threat.

Deeper into the 26-page strategy portion is a discussion of “U.S. defense objectives” in the Persian Gulf region. It has only one reference to terrorism in the last sentence, which reads, “Developing successful counters to terrorism is also a major objective for the region.”

There is no mention of Afghanistan, from where bin Laden planned attacks on two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998 and the bombing of the destroyer USS Cole in 2000.

The only discussion of terrorism is in the last page of a chapter titled “The Military Requirements of the Defense Strategy.”

Again, there is no call to attack terrorists, or a specific mention of bin Laden or al Qaeda, but more of a call to create better defenses.

The section reads in part, “As a result of the dynamic environment influencing terrorism, recently demonstrated by the attack on the USS Cole, the United States must continue to improve its ability to stay ahead of terrorists’ increasing capabilities.”

Mr. Cohen wrote in the paragraph on counterterrorism that “U.S. armed forces posses a tailored range of options to respond to terrorism directed at U.S. citizens, interests, and property, both domestically and overseas.”

In fact, Mr. Cohen never ordered any special operations attacks on al Qaeda. He and his top general, Henry H. Shelton, often opposed missions as too risky.