Speeches

Statements by Senior

Embassy Officials

Keynote Address at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism
September 11, 2007
IDC Herzliya

Madame Foreign Minister, Professors, colleagues, friends, ladies and gentlemen. I want to thank you all for the opportunity to address you this evening as we remember the tragedy of September 11th, 2001, and reflect on what you have discussed at this year’s annual conference on terrorism.

I understand that Boaz Ganor will share his experiences on 9/11 with us shortly. It’s important that we continue to talk about the events of that day. I remember very well where I was when the attacks began. I was in Arabic class at our Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia. I had heard on the radio driving into class that day that a commuter plane had accidentally crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. I went to class, and we started the way we normally do – with a warm-up, discussing free form any topic that we chose.

I mentioned the strange report I had heard on the radio. We agreed to check the television to learn more. Ours being an Arabic class, the channel was set to Al Jazeera, which was already covering the plane crash, picking up the video feed from CNN and transmitting it live. The presenter was speaking rapidly and excitedly in Arabic, and I could only pick out bits and pieces of what he said.

Then, I recall hearing him say “ta’iratain” (two planes). I confirmed this with my Arabic instructor. That was the moment we realized that it must be an act of terrorism.

A while later, during a break from class, I was standing with other students watching TV in one of the institute’s lounge areas. The break ended but none of us could return to class. We were transfixed, completely focused on the news reporting of the events transpiring in New York. A fellow ambassador who was also there to brush up on his Arabic stood beside me. I remember us looking at the horror on the faces of the younger students as the towers began to fall. He asked me: “Why are we the only ones watching without a look of disbelief on our faces?” I told him, “That’s because we know how much work this is going to be; it’s war.”

Unfortunately, I was right. We have been at war ever since – at war with Terrorism.

After six years, it is fitting to share ideas on how we might ultimately win this war. It is inevitable that we will continue to use force. On 9/11, our enemies showed that they were prepared to murder literally thousands of civilians and to commit suicide to accomplish their goals. Those who plotted this atrocity, along with their apostles in this region and around the world, are still committed to violence, and will not be stopped except through the use of force.

Establishing security and deterrence are critical to our ability to protect our people and to establish a safe base from which to wage war on all fronts. So, not surprisingly, after 9/11 we addressed the security issue first. Within two weeks I was on the ground in Kuwait preparing the way for what became known as Operation Enduring Freedom. By November we were taking the fight to al-Qa’eda in Afghanistan -- and later to Saddam in Iraq -- bringing with us NATO Allies and coalition partners from more than 30 countries. As U.S. Ambassador to Kuwait in this period, I was gratified by the strong support we received from the people and government of that loyal ally. Other Gulf States also played critical roles in our successful efforts – first to rout the Taliban and send Al-Qa’eda fleeing, and then to end Saddam’s outlaw regime.

The Global War on Terrorism is aptly named; it is indeed a world-wide war. American and coalition militaries, police and intelligence agencies are confronting terrorists throughout the Middle East, Europe, Latin America, South and Central Asia, Africa, and the Far East. This violent phase of the struggle is likely to last for some time yet, with ups and downs for the U.S. and our friends and allies. As we fight the terrorists collectively, we need to continually assess our own situations and bolster one another as necessary. We also need to persuade more partners to join us in our fight particularly in the developing world, so that we can deny safehavens for the terrorists to regroup and re-arm.

But this conflict does not only take place in foreign lands. We also have a need and a duty to protect our homefronts. Israelis is more familiar with this than Americans, but Americans are slowly coming to grips with the new, post-9/11 reality. We now have tighter security procedures in place at our air and seaports. We have set up a nationwide alert system, and Americans are reminded daily of the threat level. Congress has passed laws like the Patriot Act that grant our law enforcement establishment more scope to monitor terrorist suspects and bring them before our courts. Of course, we should use these tools wisely and always remain sensitive to the need to protect our Constitutional rights to privacy and free expression.

Even as we exert our physical and legal efforts, we must recognize that the War on Terror is also a political and ideological struggle without well-defined geographic boundaries. The ideological and political front of this war is fought in homes and workplaces, in town squares and shopping malls, and perhaps most importantly in the media and cyber-space. We need to take the battle of ideas to each of these places, and we must to win this battle. We have to reach out to the hearts and minds of young people around the world and future generations everywhere to convince them that joining the terrorist campaign against us is neither justified nor in their interests. To succeed we must keep our eyes and ears open and be ready to hear things that we may not necessarily want to hear. And then we need to figure out how to tailor our deeds as well as our words to resonate with our target audiences.

We’ve learned a lot of things since 9/11. One of the most important lessons has been that terrorists cooperate with one another; so must we. Although we’ve made progress in this area, we still have to do a better job of it. This increases the importance of the United Nations as a venue where we can explain our actions, build consensus, coordinate our activities with our allies and partners, and reassure skeptics of our motives and good intentions. Because this is a global war, it requires international cooperation among governments and peoples of good will.

Another important lesson we’ve learned is that, while operating globally, our opponents organize in smaller units that make them more flexible and capable to plan and act quickly. It means that as governments, we are going to have to transform our traditional ways of doing business if we are to outmaneuver and defeat them.

We must streamline our consultative and decision-making processes within our governments, as well as between them. This is tricky because we must not sacrifice the checks and balances that help us protect our democratic institutions, or the legal rights of our citizens. We need to beat our opponents without becoming like them. Perhaps that sounds like a cliché, but it cannot be overstated. It also demonstrates how difficult waging and winning this war is for democratic countries like the U.S. and Israel that care deeply about human rights and the rule of law.

In closing, I’d like to reiterate that if we are to defeat terrorism globally, we must do more than just prepare ourselves for any security eventuality. We must also pay attention to the world around us – and work hard every day to win more allies and friends to our side, to shrink the physical and ideological spaces where our enemies operate and recruit their foot-soldiers. We can best accomplish this by standing up for our democratic values, not putting them on the shelf. This is because we need to offer those teetering on the edge a positive vision of a better future for themselves and their loved ones; something our enemies can never do. Through such a multi-pronged approach, I believe we will not only win the war and make the world safer for everyone. We will also improve ourselves as nations and remain as beacons of freedom and democracy unto all the world. Thank you.