Terrorism talk at UD attracts crowd

Speakers stress U.S. needs understanding

By CHRISTOPHER YASIEJKO / The News Journal

11/19/2004

Lee Hamilton turned to Peter Bergen midway through their moderated public discussion at the University of Delaware on Thursday night and asked a question: Do members of al-Qaida think they're winning?

Bergen, a freelance journalist who interviewed Osama bin Laden in 1997, has spent much of the past decade studying bin Laden and his followers.

"They see an inevitable clash of civilizations that will pit Christianity against Islam," he said. "I don't think we're winning the war on terrorism. I don't think we're losing, either. Twenty years from now, maybe we'll know."

Before a near-capacity audience, Ralph Begleiter, the organizer of the university's Global Community Initiative series, moderated the discussion in Mitchell Hall titled Forgotten, But Not Gone: Update on Terrorism and the Hunt for bin Laden.

Bergen and Hamilton, a former congressman and vice chairman of the 9/11 Commission, stressed throughout the 90-minute session that the war on terror is more than a quest to capture bin Laden. It is, they said, a battle of ideologies.

Hamilton lambasted the U.S. government's handling of information before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

"They stovepiped their information," he said, "and we didn't share that information from one pipe to another."

He said the United States cannot achieve its goals without widespread international support. Part of that, he said, means America's foreign policy must let the general Muslim population know, "We're on your side."

"We haven't done a good enough job of that," he said.

Bergen noted the patience al-Qaida has shown with its long-term plans of attack.

"We're very focused on this year, this election cycle," he said. "They aren't."

He mentioned so-called "dirty bombs" as a very real threat. "I'm no scientist," Bergen said, "but I think I could assemble one myself."

Begleiter asked his guests to "write a prescription" for the policies the United States should take. Hamilton said, "If you think you could win the war on terrorism with military force [alone], I would respectfully say you're wrong."

America, he said, tends to rely on one or two of its tools - military power and intelligence - and it needs to integrate them.

Bergen named conflicts in several hot spots like Chechnya and Israel as being essential concerns for the future.

"We've reached the point where arresting people isn't enough," Bergen said. "This isn't the Gambino crime family, where if you arrest them all, they'll go out of business. Arresting people is easy. But you can't arrest an ideology."

Steve Spence, vice president of the university's College Republicans, said the discussion was relatively non- partisan. "I think it fell pretty much in the middle of the aisle," he said.

Both speakers said they believe bin Laden won't be captured. "He intends to become a martyr," Bergen said.

Contact Christopher Yasiejko at 324-2778 ory asiejko@delawareonline.com.