The continuing war on terror, and progress in the Balkans
Your ambassador in Greece [Charles Ries] in several interviews suggests that members of the November 17 organization have not been captured. This is something we can discuss… What we do know is that over the last several years localized terrorism has linked up in important ways with international terrorism and used many of the same vehicles, many of the same weaknesses in border controls. It’s not something that unique, in any one place. So we do have to continue to be vigilant, but we were very pleased for Greece and very admiring of the effort that had gone on for many years and finally with the arrest of the members of 17 November. But I think vigilance is probably warranted because you wouldn’t want to find later on that there are still elements that will continue to act. What do you think is the biggest obstacle for winning the war on terror? The biggest obstacle? A very good question. I think that there is one short-term one and one long-term. Al-Qaida, in particular, which is a sort of archetype of international terrorism, exists as a kind of shadowy, virtual network that can use modern technology like the Internet to communicate, which is effective at linking across vast spaces and using vast financing networks, And frankly, it doesn’t take very much in the way of resources, financial resources, to carry out an attack. I think we believe that the [September 11] attack on the United States, which was devastating, probably cost them hundreds of thousands of dollars, which is extraordinary when you think about it. So in all free societies, finding ways to have appropriate information to stop them before they act is the biggest challenge. The problem with international terrorism of this kind is that its entire purpose is to kill innocents. When you go after a Palestinian wedding party in Jordan, innocent people are a prime target, and that’s very different from a criminal attack. And you can’t therefore wait until they have committed their crime or hundreds or thousands of people – or children, as in Beslan in Russia – die. And so the hardest challenge is to get information and intelligence to stop them before they act. The great long-term challenge is to deal with the environment that created this extreme threat. And here the extremist threat that has emerged out of the Middle East, a region which for decades now has had a freedom deficit and an absence of legitimate political channels for the exercise of political activity and has spawned this ideology of hatred. And I think if you had more channels for legitimate political activity you would have fewer people turning to these extremist channels. The longer-term goal has to be a more democratic, more open Middle East in particular, but in other places too, so that there are legitimate ways to pursue political goals, rather than ceding the ground to extremists. Balkan business I also expect to spend a good deal of time on the Balkans. There are important decisions to be taken about how to move forward. We’re watching the evolution of Bosnia-Herzegovina toward a more normal state and trying to support that, at the same time that we try and encourage the continued democratization of Serbia-Montenegro and try to determine how to think about the future of Kosovo. So that’s another area of importance, as well as Cyprus. How do you see Greece’s role in the area? Greece has played a constructive role, of course. When you think about where the Balkans were 15 years ago, it’s night and day. And now there’s still a good deal of unfinished business. A European horizon for the countries of the Balkans is also at issue. And of course Greece, as a member of the EU, has a role to play in that. And its support for the efforts to bring to justice the remaining war criminals from the Balkan wars. We’ll talk about broader issues too – NATO is involved in Afghanistan, we’ve got the training mission in Iraq, we have work to do in the broader Middle East, not just Iran. Do you see the future of Kosovo as independent, or as part of Serbia? We need to support Special Representative Martti Ahtisaari in his work. These are very delicate issues, and we want both a democratic and a stable Balkans. That is going to require a realistic assessment of what the final status can be but it is appropriate to have discussions to see what the interested parties can come to on their own. The goal will have to be a final status outcome that can contribute to a democratic region.
