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$10 billion for "anti-terrorism" plan
Clinton proposes huge police buildup
By Martin McLaughlin
26 January 1999
In a speech January 22 to the National Academy of Sciences, President
Clinton announced a $10 billion plan to strengthen the repressive powers of
the federal government, in the name of waging war against "terrorism."
Combined with $6.6 billion in new spending on anti-missile systems and a
$110 billion increase in the Pentagon budget over the next six years, the
Clinton administration will launch the biggest military-police buildup
since the heyday of Ronald Reagan.
In both the speech, and an interview given the previous day to the New York
Times, Clinton gave a picture of America in the twenty-first century
beleaguered by terrorists threatening to kill millions with biological,
chemical and nuclear weapons, or to disrupt the US economy through attacks
on its computer-based infrastructure.
"We must be ready," Clinton declared, "ready if our adversaries try to use
computers to disable power grids, banking, communications and
transportation networks, police, fire and health services--or military
assets ...
"We have to be ready for adversaries to launch attacks that could paralyze
utilities and services across entire regions. We must be ready if
adversaries seek to attack with weapons of mass destruction, as well. Armed
with these weapons, which can be compact and inexpensive, a small band of
terrorists could inflict tremendous harm."
Clinton boasted that he had tripled FBI anti-terrorist efforts since 1993,
and that last year the administration obtained from Congress a 39 percent
increase in spending for preparedness against chemical and biological
weapons. The new budget will more than double this effort to nearly $1.4
billion, including $683 million to train and equip emergency personnel in
major cities, $206 million to protect federal facilities and $381 million
for dealing with "nuclear emergencies."
Another $1.46 billion will be expended on measures to protect US computer
systems from external or internal attack, including the formation of a
"CyberCorps" of computer specialists working as an arm of the police and
military. While Clinton cited the threat of hackers invading Pentagon and
other critical computer systems, the creation of a specialized detachment
of military and police officers with computer expertise raises an obvious
threat to the present relatively unrestricted access to information on the
Internet.
The bulk of the anti-terrorism funds will be expended on a massive effort
to fortify American embassies around the world, in the wake of last year's
bombing of the Kenyan and Tanzanian embassies. The effect will be to
transform these facilities from diplomatic missions into essentially
military bunkers, outposts of the American military-intelligence complex in
every country of the world.
Clinton defended his decision to order missile strikes against the Sudan
and Afghanistan in the wake of the African embassy bombings, although the
Sudanese target was a pharmaceutical plant which produced the bulk of that
country's medicine and no connection has been demonstrated between either
target and the bombings. Future preemptive actions would be taken, he said:
"We are doing everything we can, in ways I can and in ways that I cannot
discuss.... We must be deliberate, and we must be aggressive."
Clinton told the Times that he was considering a proposal from the Pentagon
to restructure the military command through the appointment of a commander
in chief for the defense of the continental United States--a measure never
undertaken even in World War II or at any time during the Cold War. Such an
action would be the precursor to ending 130-year-old policy, under the
posse comitatus law, which bars the use of American military forces for
internal police purposes.
Just as significant as the measures themselves was the nearly hysterical
language in which Clinton presented the danger of terrorism. He claimed
that the threat of biological and chemical attack "keeps me awake at night
and bothers me." He described the prospect of such attacks as the greatest
threat to US national security in the twenty-first century, justifying a
vast mobilization of federal resources.
Introducing Clinton to his audience at the NAS, National Security Advisor
Sandy Berger noted the unprecedented scale of the administration's proposed
deployment against the supposed terrorist threat, including not only the
Pentagon, Justice Department and CIA, but the Department of Energy, the
Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Department of Transportation
(aviation security) and even the Department of Health and Human Services,
which will oversee some of the preparations against biological warfare.
Richard A. Clarke, recently appointed by Clinton to the new post of
national coordinator of counterterrorism and computer security programs,
warned of the threat of "information warfare" involving "systematic
national intrusion" into computer systems, with effects comparable to the
strategic bombing of World War II. "What we're concerned about is in the
future, nations will have that same capability to destroy each other's
infrastructure, not by bombs, but by cyber attack," he told reporters.
Clarke admitted that there had been few terrorist attacks on American soil,
adding, "We do not know of any imminent attack being planned in the United
States using chemical or biological weapons or using cyber attack
techniques." Nonetheless, he justified the massive increase in expenditure
by claiming that the absence of terrorist attacks proved that
anti-terrorist programs were working and should be intensified!
Congressional Republicans voiced their support for Clinton's initiative,
faulting it only for not being even more sweeping. Thomas Bliley, chairman
of the House Commerce Committee, called for new legislation to tighten
control over the use and transfer of biological and chemical agents, as
well as legal and financial sanctions against persons who "falsely report
or conduct hoaxes regarding biological or chemical attacks--a growing
problem that creates unnecessary panic and fear among this nation's
citizens."
This latter proposal, if it were taken literally, would be justly applied
first of all to the Clinton White House, the Pentagon and the media itself,
which have repeatedly raised the specter of terrorism in order to stampede
public opinion in favor of greater measures of police repression. It
remains a fact that the country with by far the largest arsenal of chemical
and biological weapons is the United States, weapons that have been
repeatedly and illegally tested on American citizens.
Moreover, the bloodiest terrorist attack on American soil came, not from a
foreign country or overseas terrorist group, but from the homegrown
neo-fascist milieu--closely linked to the congressional Republicans--which
produced the Oklahoma City bombers.
See Also:
$110 billion more for Pentagon over six years:
Clinton to propose biggest military spending boost since Reagan
[5 January 1999]
Clinton's State of the Union address: a speech in full denial
[21 January 1999]
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