Ambassador’s Remarks
9/11 Commemoration Ceremony
September 11, 2006

Good Afternoon.  Vice Prime Minister Peres, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for joining us today as we honor the memories of those who lost their lives five years ago in the terror attacks launched against New York and Washington. 

Five years?  Can it really be that long? The memories of that awful day are still so fresh in our minds; it is hard to believe that it has already been five years since the twin towers fell, the Pentagon shook and three thousand innocent victims from so many countries perished in the span of a few hours.  Still, so much has happened that it seems like it could have been ten or twenty years ago.

Most of those who planned the 9/11 attacks are now dead, in custody or in perpetual flight.  The terrorist state that sheltered them has been destroyed.  The international community has united to clamp down on sources of terrorist funding, and to increase cooperation among our military, intelligence, and law enforcement agencies.  Such efforts have prevented dozens of terror attacks and led to the arrest of many would-be perpetrators.  Despite the arrogant boasts of Osama bin Laden and other terrorist godfathers, there have been no new attacks anywhere near the scale of 9/11.

However, notwithstanding our many successes, we cannot deny that terror is alive and well.  It has become a constant feature of our daily life – whether we live in Europe, Asia, Africa, Oceana or the Americas -- and has brought tragedy, destruction, death and terrible grief to many other innocent people in all these places.   Although we are winning almost every battle, one may well ask, “Why is it taking so long to defeat terrorism?”       

One explanation is that we are facing cunning adversaries, whose strategies and tactics are constantly evolving.   Like bacteria treated too often with the same antibiotic, the terrorists are learning to adapt to our methods, and are actively seeking new ways to attack us despite our best defenses. 

Terrorist cells are becoming smaller and more autonomous.  Finding purpose in a dangerous mix of local grievances and global shibboleths, these new groups rely on local resources to recruit, plan and conduct operations.  They draw inspiration and sometimes technical expertise from global groups like al Qaeda, but are not controlled by them.  They receive funding from individual patrons, charities and nongovernmental organizations that may or may not be aware of where their money is going.  They are sometimes aided by criminal enterprises and regional terrorist franchises, such as Jemaah Islamiya in SE Asia, that facilitate travel and serve as conduits to global sources of information, training and finance. 

While this trend reflects our success in disrupting and constraining larger, hierarchical groups like al Qaeda, it also poses new challenges.  These smaller, less organized and less capable groups are also less detectable.  Like a spider web, this emerging network of autonomous but interconnected groups is resilient and difficult to see.  To combat them successfully we will need to cut the threads, isolate the parts, and defeat each node with tools tailored to local circumstances.  This will require a tremendous amount of flexibility, patience and cooperation on the part of the international community.  It will also require dedication and creativity on the part of individual governments to design new law-enforcement tools that are effective without compromising our basic freedoms.

Unfortunately, even as the international community is rising to these challenges, terrorist groups are at work spreading sophisticated propaganda with the help of international media and the internet. Like the spread of a cancer beyond a single tumor, this is a very dangerous development.  Together, we must find ways to attack terrorist groups without inadvertently helping them to spread their hatred to a new generation that has not yet chosen the path of terror.

We must also remember the dangerous role that state sponsors of terrorism play in creating and sustaining terrorist organizations.  As Israelis know all too well, Iran and Syria continue to behave outside the norms of morality, and continue to provide material and political support to numerous terrorist groups.  All UN member states must now work together so that the new arms embargo created by UNSC resolution 1701 becomes an effective first step in ending forever the duplicitous shell game that these two rogue states have played for years to mask their violent foreign policies.   

Iran is a particularly worrying case.  On August 31, when it failed to meet the United Nations Security Council deadline on suspending its nuclear activities, Iran passed up an historic opportunity to resume constructive diplomatic dialogue on its nuclear program.  We are deeply disappointed that Iran chose isolation over cooperation and defiance over the best interests of the Iranian people and the community of nations.  The five permanent members of the Security Council, together with the rest of the international community, agree that the world cannot tolerate the pursuit of nuclear weapons by Iran, a country which chooses to arm terrorist groups with sophisticated weaponry!  The threat posed by Iran’s brazen defiance of the international community is unacceptable, and the regime in Tehran must understand that such irresponsible behavior will have consequences.

The example of Iran underscores the special danger posed by the potential for weapons of mass destruction falling into the wrong hands.  A nuclear-armed Iran that also fosters terrorism in the Middle East and denies the fundamental right of a neighboring country – Israel – to even exist, represents a scenario that simply cannot be allowed to occur.  Nuclear blackmail and emboldened terrorists would soon follow.  Even worse, nuclear materials would no doubt eventually find their way into terrorist hands – by design, through technological leakage, or as a result of inadequate safeguards.  The United States is working and will continue to work with the international community to hold Iran to account and to prevent such a nightmare from ever being realized.

Until now, our collective strategy for defeating global terrorism has emphasized capturing or killing individual terrorists, infiltrating and breaking up known groups, disrupting financial supply lines and restricting movement.  As many foiled plots – including the recent airline plot uncovered in London – attest, these efforts have diminished the ability of terrorists to carry out spectacular attacks.

However, the rapid evolution of global terrorism over the past five years strongly suggests that victory cannot be achieved by military and law enforcement means alone.  There is no doubt that we must continue to isolate state sponsors of terrorism and to fight terrorists face-to-face whenever and wherever we find them.  However, the ultimate victory can only be won in the hearts and minds of those young people the terrorist masterminds seek to enlist in their evil plots.  Individuals and communities, mothers and fathers, throughout the world are facing a difficult challenge: to convince their youth to reject the oppressive dogma, fascist tactics and extreme violence of global terrorists, and to embrace moderation and tolerance.  They need our help. 

We in America believe this challenge will be met, and terrorism rejected, wherever real hope and opportunity prevail.  Americans seek to foster a spirit of international partnership to ensure that people everywhere are treated with dignity and respect, that they enjoy the freedom to speak their minds and worship as they please and have the right to seek recourse for legitimate grievances through just and humane institutions.  We will all be safer when freedom prevails.

On this solemn anniversary, let us remember again the lives that were so tragically lost on that beautiful September morning five years and a lifetime ago.  I hope that you had a chance to gaze for a moment at some of their faces as you came in.  These were good, ordinary people of many nationalities religions and ethnicities going about their daily lives – no different than those of us gathered here this evening.  They did not deserve to die!   No terrorist’s sophistry can ever change this simple, incontrovertible fact: no faith condones the deliberate targeting and killing of innocent civilians, and no political cause or grievance – no matter how legitimate – can ever justify it.

So, as we measure the successes and failures of our struggle against terrorism, we vow to continue the fight.  Thank you for your solidarity, then and now, as we work together to create a freer, more tolerant and humane world, a world free of the scourge of terrorism.  Thank you.

And now it gives me great pleasure to introduce the Vice Prime Minister of the State of Israel, His Excellency, Mr. Shimon Peres.