Under Siege
"This is pure, unadulterated evil."; "There was fire and smoke everywhere. It was surreal."; The terrorists flew on devil's wings in a horrifying moment, singular in history. They changed the course of a presidency, a nation, and, quite likely, the world
Critics say Washington needs to go "dirty" and develop the kind of human sources who can penetrate terrorist organizations, even if it means using criminals and terrorists, to thwart the growing network of terror operations. Some fear an overreliance on electronic intercepts, eye-in-the-sky satellites, and other technical collection systems. "They are expensive and clean, and when they blow up, there's no blowback, no scandal," says a former CIA hand. "Human operations, by definition, are messy."
But messy isn't allowed any more. In 1995, Washington adopted new rules restricting recruitment of clandestine operatives overseas. The rules require CIA recruiters to identify possible operatives who have committed human-rights abuses. "We only touch nice spies nowadays," groaned one U.S. official. Senior intelligence officials in the Bush administration reject the criticism. "Trust us, we live in the real world, and we know how difficult it is to penetrate terrorism cells," says one official familiar with the CIA's recruitment operations. "You have to deal with people you might not ordinarily want to take home and meet Mom." He adds that there hasn't been a single case in which such an informer had been rejected by top CIA officials.
If the specifics of last week's attack came as a surprise, the general intention didn't. Last month, the CIA issued a secret report to the National Security Council, among other agencies, warning that Islamic militants wanted to attack the United States on its own soil. The agency did not have "a specific time or place," an official familiar with the report says, but there was evidence suggesting that bin Laden was gearing up to strike here. Intelligence officials regularly briefed Congress and senior policymakers in the Bush and Clinton administrations on bin Laden's plans. Equally troubling, U.S. intelligence learned that his network was recruiting and training pilots, sources say. In February, George Tenet, the director of central intelligence, told the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence that "bin Laden has declared all U.S. citizens legitimate targets of attack."
There was no small irony in the fact that the world's remaining military superpower might have been crippled by bin Laden, the wealthy Saudi exile thought to be living in Afghanistan. A man whose personal safety is so compromised that he moves from hut to hut seeking daily refuge, bin Laden now stands as a foe who committed acts of war Moscow never dared in 50 years of Cold War.
If there's one good thing about having an enemy, though, it's his ability to make people pull together. On Capitol Hill last week, Democrats and Republicans quit their partisan bickering and proffered unity of purpose, appropriating more than $40 billion for a military campaign that hasn't even been outlined yet. "This is a moment," said Dick Gephardt, the Democratic leader in the House, "when we've got to trust each other." That's a strong base to start from, but the next steps are anything but clear. Going after bin Laden, after all, is no simple proposition. There is no military or seat of power to destroy. And the hunt in the jagged hills of Afghanistan--presuming that's even where bin Laden is--could be tougher than the failed efforts to track Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
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