9/11 - eight years on

By Pramod DE SILVA

New York is one of my favourite places on Earth. It is a place where I feel right at home. Perhaps the only other places where I get this feeling are Colombo and London. Having visited the Big Apple several times over a decade, I have had the pleasure of exploring Manhattan and the other boroughs thoroughly. But Manhattan is special. Its myriad avenues and streets which cross each other, the Central Park, shopping centres and iconic buildings all combine to give a unique feeling. Truly, no other city on Earth could be like New York.

There are several buildings that define New York and Manhattan. The Empire State building is one. It used to be the tallest building in the world a long time ago and it is still a majestic spectacle. I have gazed at the world down below from the top of Empire State and it is not a sight that can easily be forgotten.

Back in 1995, when I first visited New York, there was another building on my must-see list. That was the twin towers of the World Trade Centre. As I raised my head towards infinity to catch a glimpse of the Towers at 34th Street , I had no idea that it would be no more in just a few years.

The multiple terror attack of September 11, 2001, hit me hard for a variety of reasons. Over the years, I had developed a bond with New York and New Yorkers. Seeing two planes flying into the East and West towers of the WTC on my television screen was thus an unprecedented shock. In my mind, I was there, suffering with the people of New York. The carnage was unimaginable - the twin towers were reduced to rubble and more than 3,000 people were killed. It still remains the single biggest act of terrorism. When the twin towers finally collapsed to the ground, I knew one thing: The world would never be the same again.

Last year, I paid homage to Ground Zero, a reminder of man's inhumanity to man. It still resonates with the embers of the last moments of life of those who were on the planes and those were in the buildings, even as a new 'Freedom Tower' rises from the ashes. It tells of the courage of firefighters and volunteers who risked their lives to save others. It is a testimony to the determination of New Yorkers - and Americans - to stand up to terror. Terrorism can destroy lives and buildings, but not the collective will of a people to fight terror.

Another potent reason that the 9/11 attack, as it quickly came to be known, had such an impact on me (and all Sri Lankans) was that we ourselves had suffered enough as a result of terrorism. In fact, just two months before 9/11, the LTTE attacked the Bandaranaike International Airport, destroying many aircraft. Terrorist bombings and civilian deaths were a regular occurrence. Thus the events of 9/11, though happening on the other side of the world, had an immediacy that we could easily identify with. When many New Yorkers experienced terror for the first time, we knew how they felt: We had been there.

As the world marks the eighth anniversary of 9/11, it is time to take stock of how that seminal event changed the world. The immediate reaction of the US was to declare a 'War on Terror' marked by George W Bush's famous words "you are either with or against us". While this was aimed mainly at al-Qaeda, the main suspects, it gave impetus to campaigns by other countries to crush terrorism. Sri Lanka was one of the beneficiaries of this approach, as many countries which previously turned a blind eye to the activities of the LTTE on their soil began to tighten the noose around that organisation.

It also became evident that terrorist groups learn from and collaborate with, each other. The events of 9/11 propelled the world to cooperate with regard to fighting terrorism within and beyond their borders. Suddenly, terrorism in one country could not be treated as an isolated chain of events. The world community realized that all countries could be affected. The UN has passed several resolutions to contain acts of terrorism.

An inevitable fallout of 9/11 was a restriction of personal liberties which had been taken for granted in the West. The US hurriedly passed several laws including the Patriots Act which gave unprecedented powers to the authorities to detain and interrogate suspects. A separate department called Homeland Security was also created to coordinate the activities of dozens of security and spy agencies. The authorities could also tap phones, bypassing normal legal channels. The 9/11 events also gave rise to what has become known as 'racial profiling' whereby individuals belonging to a particular ethnic or religious group could come under extra suspicion. If you have travelled abroad after 9/11, you know the hassles that travellers have to face. Yes, these measures can sometimes be humiliating, but they are also necessary. It might not always be possible to balance security and privacy/liberty concerns while battling terrorism. There were other aberrations of the War on Terror, exemplified by the horrors of Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib.

Nor did the War on Terror always find the correct target. The US invaded Iraq on March 20, 2003, promising to find Weapons of Mass Destruction. These have not been found to date and there is also no evidence that the Iraqi regime had any links with al-Qaeda. Thousands of coalition soldiers have died, Iraq is in fragments and life has become hell for ordinary civilians.

The same picture is true for Afghanistan, except that the Taliban was ousted from power. Just last week, a US airstrike killed over 90 civilians.

Terrorism has also taken a turn for the worse in Pakistan where a former Prime Minister was killed in a suicide blast.

In the meantime, the mastermind of 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large.

No one knows where he is. The US has however succeeded in killing a number of key al-Qaeda operatives. While nothing could perhaps equal 9/11, al-Qaeda has staged devastating attacks in Madrid and London. Other terrorist groups which may be connected to al-Qaeda have perpetrated attacks in Bali, Pakistan and India. The Mumbai attack of November 26, 2008 and the attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore on March 3, 2009 also marked a deviation from the usual truck or suicide bomb tactics - the heavily armed terrorists were out in the open, fighting Police and Forces. These cases are still being investigated.

There is raging debate as to whether global terrorism can be defeated in its entirety. One school of thought is that constructive engagement or negotiations must be the basis for resolving terrorism. Post 9/11, there are instances where terrorist groups have given up arms and entered the democratic mainstream. Aceh and Nepal are two examples. But what if a terrorist group spurns talks and literally sticks to its guns? That was the case in Sri Lanka, where several rounds of peace talks had been held with the LTTE. Sri Lanka has indeed shown that terrorism can be defeated militarily. Defeating an internationalized terror group was a big victory for Sri Lanka and several other countries are said to be keen to learn from that experience.

Separatism still seems to be the main aim of most terrorist groups, as it was in the case of the LTTE. But there are other causes espoused through violent means. Groups such as al-Qaeda, Abu Sayyf and JI have distorted religious edicts to wage a 'war' against the West and Western interests. It is also difficult to battle elusive terror groups who have no 'territory' so to speak. They cross porous borders with ease and usually blend into the civilian populations to evade capture. It may not be possible to launch conventional war tactics against these groups except for air strikes against possible hideouts, which comes with the possibility of collateral damage. It is also not quite possible to offer so-called 'political solutions' to groups which have no 'demands' in the conventional sense but only hazy objectives shrouded in religious or ethnic garb.

Almost all terror groups aspire for some sort of 'liberation' though it is not always clear who is to be liberated and from whom. But as the years go by, they usually lose sight of such goals and become the sole vehicle for fulfilling power-hungry objectives of their leaders, leading to the suppression of the very communities they are supposed to 'liberate'. The LTTE is a classic example.

Another cause for worry is the increasing sophistication of terror groups.

They have been using ingenious methods to attack military and civilian targets. Although the LTTE was not the first out of the block with suicide bombers, it perfected the deadly craft. All other modern terror groups have copied the LTTE's modus operandi. The LTTE also used suicide boats against the Navy. The same concept was used by Middle Eastern terror groups against US ships. The LTTE was also the first contemporary terror group to have used small aircraft for attacks. None of these attacks was particularly effective or accurate, the final ones being essentially suicide missions in the very last days of the LTTE as a conventional force. But the fact remains that other terror groups could use the same method. The LTTE also had submarines, though they had apparently not been used for any missions. They were more likely to have been used as a means of escape for top brass, but that too did not happen. Again, there are other terror groups capable of copying this method.

Terror groups also use innovative methods to raise funds for arms procurements. Since most terror groups are banned in the US and the EU, they resort to the use of front organisations to raise funds. Drug trafficking, gun running and human trafficking are also used to raise funds. Most terrorist groups also use the Diaspora of their community to raise funds by coercion or voluntary means. The LTTE was one group which depended heavily on the Tamil community overseas.

Eight years after 9/11, the world is no closer to a single accepted definition of terrorism. There are more than 100 definitions of the word, the first use of which was recorded in 1795 in the London Times. The US Federal Bureau of Investigations defines terrorism as "the unlawful use of force or violence against persons or property to intimidate or coerce a Government, the civilian population, or any segment thereof, in furtherance of political or social objectives". This gives a very good idea of what terrorism is all about.

As I turned away from Ground Zero to catch a taxi back to my hotel, I could not help thinking that September 11, 2001 had changed the world in more ways than one. It hardened the attitudes of many Governments around the world towards terrorism. Many saw 'freedom fighters' for what they really are.

Today, more than ever, there is a greater international will to fight terrorism. There should be no pauses in this struggle.

The simple truth is that Governments have to be lucky all the time, whereas terrorists have to be lucky only once. Eternal vigilance is the only answer. Terrorists must not be allowed to destroy our democratic and moral values, even if they succeed in destroying our mortal lives.

They must not be allowed to destroy our societies, our future. That is the biggest tribute we can pay to the victims of 9/11.